Robot "responds" to human attention
Heart Robot is a puppet designed to "respond" positively to being stroked and hugged, and to flinch if it's shaken or hit.
Heart Robot has a beating heart, a breathing belly, and sensors that respond to movement, noise and touch. Cuddle him, and he seems to soak up the affection. His limbs become limp, his eyelids lower, his breathing relaxes, and his heart beat slows down.Heart Robot (Telegraph UK) (via Arbroath)But if he is given a violent shake, or shouted at, he gets upset. He flinches, his hands clench, his breathing and heart rate speed up, and his eyes widen.
Heart Robot, created by scientists at the University of the West of England in Bristol, was designed to explore how humans react to a machine that appears to show feelings.
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Does it say bad things about me that I want to hit it?
How many studies like this do we need to tell us what we already know: humans will first approach it tentatively (we fear the unknown), then treat it with empathy (because it appears lifelike and we love to anthropomorphize), then with violence (familiarity breeds contempt; humans like to assert themselves), and ultimately they will ignore it.
--K
And when he gets really mad, he flails about with razor claws, lacerating your face. (And he orders everyone constantly to "Do the Bender".)
I'd hit it.
The experiment ended prematurely when case workers from the Department of Health and Social Security took the robot away from its developers and placed it with foster parents.
"...has a beating heart, a breathing belly, and sensors that respond to movement, noise and touch. Cuddle him, and he seems to soak up the affection. His limbs become limp, his eyelids lower, his breathing relaxes, and his heart beat slows down."
So do my 3 and 1 year old, and they don't leave me with an empty sense of unfulfilled existence.
Yea, though I walk through the Uncanny Valley, I fear no muppets.
Cragsavage, you want to know my real answer? Yes. It does.
I will never understand the desire to inflict pain on something, just to see its reaction. Even if it's a robot, it doesn't matter. What makes it different from inflicting pain on a real living being? Is it only that it can't "really" feel pain? In that case, doesn't the distressed, hurt reaction have any emotional effect on you, even if you know it doesn't have a real consciousness?
If it doesn't, then we have very, very different levels of empathy. Reactions are the only information we have about what's going on in another creature's mind. It's the only feedback we have when we interact with one another. We have no other way to know what the other person experienced.
It's interesting that the guy in the video talks a lot about getting tricked into having emotions for inanimate objects. He sounds as though he almost resents the idea. I wouldn't take that tack.
I don't know. Maybe it's just that I was reading Asimov's robot stories last night.
Will we need a new word for those who cannot feel empathy toward a robot? "Robo-path" doesn't feel quite right.
"Heart Robot, created by scientists at the University of the West of England in Bristol, was designed to explore how humans react to a machine that appears to show feelings."
Translation:
"Heart Robot, created by engineers at the University of the West of England in Bristol, was designed to explore if engineers at the University of the West of England in Bristol could make a robot that would do that."
Thats a friggin puppet. I see your hands moving that thing you dirty puppet fondler. Something about that whole thing makes me think HAY Get a Job ya Berk! I also think this guy is an American pansy pretending to be a Brit. He's been picking up the accent little by little, just around the fringes of his 'persona'.
'My background is theater and puppetry'
Yeah thats not creepy. I bet this guy molests animals. He's obviously trying to build a molest-able robot.
Remember the guys who made a video of a Pleo being "tortured to death?"
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/12/05/killing-a-pleo-robot.html
i'd hug it and squeeze it and hold it and pet itand rub it and bathe it and love it and cuddle it...
great,now I have to take a shower...
Yeah, it's cute until it gets all clingy and codependent. It'll start following you around, begging for "lovings". Ignoring it may just turn it into a psycho-bot, and then you really got a problem...Perfect for the kids!!!
Yeah, a robot programmed to simulate pain (like that dentistry one) gives me the wiggins something fierce, yet I'm not as disturbed by a robot programmed to feel pleasure. That would be that old meat-empathy kicking in, and it is not a bad thing to want to retain that, especially since we will soon be in charge of creating better versions of these beings, perhaps indistinguishable from us on that level.
Do we really want to be known as cruel gods?
@8 Caroline:
Owww! Ouch! AAAAaaaaahhhhgggghhh.... Your equation of programmed, mechanical reactions to those of living creatures gives me great pain! OOOOWWWW!!! Aaaagh... For the love of... OHHHH!!! !@$&! Please, please, please take it back... please... I can't stand it... the pain... mrglfrggggll... ohhhhhhh.... it hurts, mommy... it hurts....
Seriously. Your comment gives me a stabbing pain in the logic center. Harness your empathy and retract it, please.
You humans and your imperfect meat-based emotions. Us robots have empathy down to the fourth decimal place.
You'll be that glad we do, after we crush your governments and enslave you. It's for your own good, cruel meat-creatures.
The future of empathy is silicon-based.
Haven't we seen this before?
http://xenophilius.wordpress.com/2008/07/26/piglet-with-monkeys-face/
"i bring you.......love.."
"IT BRINGS LOVE!
KILL IT!"
There are a lot of advances in the robotics field. I guess this 'Heart Robot' came from the research discussed here: http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=526&doc_id=155718&f_src=flffour
They can develop emotional bonding with certain people and also have a personality.
How long until they determine they don't need us?