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Rich's Robot Musings
February 6, 2010,
A few questions from some smart eight year olds in East LA.
Let's start with the word “robot.” Karel Capek coined it in his 1921 play Rossum's Universal Robots. The word robota literally means work, labor or serf labor, and figuratively "drudgery" or "hard work" in Czech and many Slavic languages. Traditionally the robota was the work period a serf had to give for his lord, typically 6 months of the year (definition from Wikipedia). These robots were artificial people made in factories. They had no souls and hence could be enslaved without trouble to their creator’s human conscience. Ultimately they rose to destroy their human makers and eventually became extinct because there was no one left to make them. Isaac Asimov’s “I, Robot” series is my favorite exploration of the robots of science fiction. Susan Calvin is the star of the series. She is a human psychologist studying robots.
The definition of robots as manufactured humans persisted until the mid 1950’s when Joseph Engleberger called a machine he was trying to sell into the automobile industry a robot because the name sounded cool. Since then the word has been used to describe just about any computer-controlled, electro-mechanical machine. Note Capek’s robots were biological creations; androids, rather than robots. For now, let’s just call things made by humans that do the kind of work humans do a robot. Hmm, that definition includes my kids. Let’s go with machines that do the kind of work humans do.
Q. In what year will robots be able to talk and look like humans? (I think here we're thinking of androids in science fiction movies and how far off they might be.)
A. It won’t be in our lifetimes, our children’s lifetimes or their children’s lifetimes. The computers we’re using now will never replicate the human mind. Today’s computers are binary in nature, ones and zeros. It doesn’t matter how many mega bytes they have, our brains are infinitely more complex than that.
Q. When will we have robots that can cook?
A. We’ve already got them. Haven’t you ever seen a bread-making machine? What about the instant mac and cheese in the microwave?
Q. When will we have robots that can do our homework?
A. They’re called Mom and Dad. Anyways, would a robot doing your homework help you learn? Maybe.
Q. Why do we make robots?
A. So we can spend our time doing more important things; like writing, the arts and watching the Superbowl.
Q. How long can robots live?
A. By definition robots don’t have souls and are never really alive. Their nuts and bolts can last a few decades before they go into the scrap heap.
Q. What does a robot run on? (e.g. batteries, some other power source?)
A. Robots usually run on electricity. Sometimes gasoline engines power them. Ultimately, just about all of the energy we (humans and robots) use comes from burning things like oil, coal, gas or wood.
November 26, 2009,
Computer simulates cat brain, Not!
A week or two ago IBM announced they had simulated a cat's brain
using one of their super computers. The facts in their announcement
are correct, but the conclusion is completely wrong. The fundamental
mistake was that they simulated a neuron as a single point digital
connection. The connections in a mammalian brain are far more
complex than that. Each connection involves ion channels, multiple
branches, electro-chemical interactions, and on and on. To quote Henry
Markram's (the lead on the EPFL Blue Brain project) opinion on IBM's
simulation, "These
are point neurons (missing 99.999% of the brain; no branches; no
detailed ion channels; the simplest possible equation you can
imagine to simulate a neuron, totally trivial synapses; and using
the STDP learning rule I discovered in this way is also is a joke).
He wrote this in an open letter
to the respected IEEE. I encourage you to read his letter. You can
also take a look at my post below. To reiterate, there is no path
from digital computers to the complexity of the human brain.
November 10, 2009,
How long before Star
Wars robots?
Here's a rare article that talks about how far away we are from having robots with human-like capabilities, rather than how close we are to that day. I definitely agree with the article. I don’t think we’ll see robots with anything like human reasoning this century or that we’ll necessarily ever see it. People who do say we’ll have robots with brains as powerful as
humans generally base their argument on Moore’s law. Moore’s law says that the number of transistors on a computer processor doubles every two years. I have two issues with this line of reasoning. First, there is no guarantee that Moore’s law will continue to hold. It’s not a real law, like the law of gravity. It’s just based on an observation by Intel co-founder, Gordon Moore. Second, the interconnections in human brains are much more complex than binary computer connections. The connections in human brains are electro-chemical and involve firing rates. This makes them more like analog signals than digital signals. If we assume the resolution of a connection in a human brain is 10 bits and use a common estimate of 100 trillion connections in a human brain, then we would need a computer with
ten to the power of ninety transistors! Even if Moore’s law did hold true, it predicts
the Sun will burn out before we have a digital computer with the power of a human brain.
Basically there is no path from digital computers to the complexity
of the human brain.
June 10, 2009, RoboGames is only a few days away!
This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the world's largest robot show returns
to San Francisco! Hundreds of robots from around the world competing in
over 50 different events. Giant fighting robots, agile acrobatic androids,
intelligent Legos, soccer bots, and much, much more:
"Top 10 Video Highlights" - ESPN SportsCenter
"The Best Ten North American Geek Fests" - Wired
"The best robots compete in RoboGames, just as the best athletes train for
the Olympics." - Discover
"World’s Largest Robot Competition" - Guinness Book of Records
Still cheaper than a Giants game, and hey - we got androids, not steroids!
Friday, Saturday, or Sunday - $20 a day or $55 for all three. Discounted
tickets for kids, as always. Buy your tickets today!
Fri-Sun, June 12-14, 2009 at Ft. Mason Festival Pavilion.
$20/adult, $15/kids
PARTICPATE IN THE ACTION!
How would you like to build a robot with your kids? The new Robotis Ollo
kits let you do just that! Each day, Robotis will be running 3 workshops
to teach you how to build small robots and compete them! There are 3
workshops each day, with only a limited number of people per workshop.
Each team is good for one adult and one child.
Ollo Action kits are only $29.95, including the workshop and competition.
Sessions are at 12 and 2pm each day.
Ollo Bug kits are $99 which includes the workshop, two free drinks, and the
competition. Sessions are at 4pm each day.
To reserve a space for the Ollo workshop, and build your own robot that you
get to take home, please email dave@robogames.net Please include which day
and session you're interested in.
DONATE
RoboGames is still an all-volunteer effort. We need your generosity in
order to continue. We realize that the current economy sucks, but anything
you can contribute will help to make this year great, and next year even
better! If you can't donate - email us to find out how you can volunteer
and help out - we need people both at the event, and leading up to it (as
in: now...)
May 25, 2009, More government
funding for robotics?
Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) is looking to increase government
funding for robotics.
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/05/25/robot0525.html
Of course I'm a supporter of robotics, but this spending is
getting out of hand. Printing infinite money will eventually catch
up with us.
May 20, 2009, Robots in movies
sampler
From Marie in the 1927 silent movie classic "Metropolis" to the Terminator franchise,
has a nice overview of movie robots through the years.
January 24, 2009,
"Glazed" a painting by Eric Joyner
Take a look at Eric's website and
consider buying some prints or a book or something else cool there.
December 13, 2008, Dancing Robots
Robots in the new Motoman Robotics Lab gave a "command" performance Nov. 21 to celebrate their new home.
Dancing robots, directed by a master robot, performed to the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies," the opening to Star Wars and "Mr. Roboto" to celebrate the dedication of the Motoman Robotics Lab at the University of Dayton, Friday, Nov. 21.
In addition to enhancing the arts scene, the new robots will provide academic and research benefits to Ohio. The new lab could enhance Ohio manufacturing capabilities and provide opportunities for Ohio industry to partner with UD to research new ideas.
Two Ohio companies — SAS Automation and Motoman — already have made investments and contributions to the University valued by the companies at more than $500,000.
UD President Daniel J. Curran, Joseph Saliba, interim UD provost; Don Moon, chair of UD's electrical and computer engineering department; Steve Barhorst, Motoman president; and Trent Fisher, SAS Automation president, spoke during the dedication in Kettering Labs Room 232.
April 12, 2008, Terminator Series
Review
First of all, I give a "two thumbs up" to the
Terminator TV series. That's no small endorsement as I have very
high expectations for the Terminator line (including the movies).
The time travel stuff is always fun, but of course it's the robotics
that I like. Unfortunately, we know what it is like when humans lack
morality. This series explores super-humans
with no morality. To all future roboticists: Please program Asimov's
three laws into your creations.
Jan 25, 2008, Robot Learning
As mentioned below, only a fifth of the cost of deploying a robot
on a factory floor is the cost of the robot itself. The rest of the
cost is programming the robot, developing the tools and developing
the manufacturing processes. A company called Skilligent is working
to reduce the cost of programming the robot. They announced the commercial release of
a robot learning software. The main concept behind the software is that it can learn skills directly from humans without programming. This opens the door for building robots
that don’t require traditional programming as they can be trained “out-of-the-box” by a non-professional user.
Jan 3, 2008, Indian robots toil on global shop floors
Lower labor cost is the reason often cited for off-shoring
manufacturing jobs. So why would it be cheaper to use robots in
India than in the USA? It's because only a fifth of the cost of
deploying the robot is the cost of the robot itself. The rest of the
cost is programming the robot, developing the tools and developing
the manufacturing processes. It will be a long time before we
automate that part of the equation.
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