27 March 2007

Automata and attitudes to terminal failure

Tangled during the night in a spider's line,


these struggles to stay upright lasted for about twenty minutes.

Most likely, two distinct species of humanoids will arise: those that respond to and illicit our emotions and those we wish simply to do work, day in and day out, without stirring our feelings . — David Bruemmer, Humanoid Robotics: Ethical Considerations, Idaho National Laboratory

Will automata be built with the will to live past their warranty period?
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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous1 April 2007 at 07:54

    In those photos, it looks almost like a complex bronze sculpture. Is it a mantis?

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  2. anna tambour4 April 2007 at 19:17

    Yes and no!
    See here:
    http://www.ento.csiro.au/Ecowatch/Primary/insects/pages/Mantispidae.htm

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  3. Anonymous5 April 2007 at 00:38

    Thanks for the link! I'd never heard of them.

    PS: Last night, PBS had a program about cuttlefish -- mind-bogglingly weird and sometimes gorgeous critters that *do* seem like the closest thing we have to alien life forms (as the show said).

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