Another milestone passed for Artificial Intelligence - Self Awareness

Today, in New York city, a robot was observed to show self awareness for the first time. Scientists at the Rensselaer AI and Reasoning (RAIR) lab performed an experiment called The King's Wise Men, which is supposed to be a test of self awareness.

There will no doubt be a lot of debate about whether or not this result actually proves that the robot is self aware, and it if it does it's only in a very small and specific band, but it does highlight a few important things for me.

The first one is that breakthroughs in the fields of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence are accelerating remarkably. This is off of the back of maturity in the coding environments and the availability of cheap hardware like the French made Nao Robot used in the RAIR experiment.


It also makes me think that we can't be all that far off from an Artificial Intelligence that is truly self aware. That is exciting and frightening as we cannot predict what I world will look like after that happens, it's a Technological Singularity that I've written about before on this blog.

I feel privileged that such a momentous event, written about in hundreds of Science Fiction stories, will (in all probability) happen in my lifetime. 

-Odd
"I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted." - Alan Turing, Computing machinery and intelligence

Geeks, Games and Greatness Podcast: Episode 5 - Anime Part 1

The 5th episode of the Geeks, Games and Greatness Podcast is available for your listening pleasure. We talk about Anime in it's various forms, robots, games and Ian solves Samsung's litigation problems.

WARNING: This Podcast will contain adult language, possible spoilers and massive tangents :WARNING

Download

Please drop us a comment here on the Blog, on our twitters (@OddModlin and @i4n0fd00m) or email us at oddcastblog@gmail.com

In The News

Swiss scientists design a turbine to fit in human arteries - this little gizmo could create enough power to run pace makers and other suck bio-implants... as long as they figure out a way to mitigate the turbulence it causes.

Laser used to transfer data at 26terabytes per second - now that is FAST! and unlike similar projects, this one does it with a single multi-colour laser. So it's cheep(ish).

Is Graphene a miracle material? - a great article on a new wonder material... watch out for this stuff, it's going to be making a big impact.

Grand Co-operative driving challenge - building smarter driverless cars that can communicate with each other to make better use of the road. Cool.

Teaching robots to read - It's not quite at a human level... but this sort of research is what is going to make personal robots possible. Keep up the great work!

In The News:

Force field creates invisible multi-touch interface - awesomeness.... This thing can turn any surface into a multi-touch interface.

Android tablet robot - want a robot? there's an app for that.

Rising orbital debris levels - this is a big problem that could potentially stop all our space flight, and as far as I know there's nothing being done about it.

US Navy creates MMO to combat Somali pirates - The US Navy is getting into the crowd sourcing game... hoping that you can come up with a solution to piracy.

Ground effect robotic train - a flying train! not content with high-speed mag-lev... now they'll just make it fly. Very cool.

In The News:

Quantum teleportation breakthrough could herald instantaneousness computing - the idea of quantum teleportaion has been around for a while... but they're actually developing usable applications for the theory.

Robot throws first pitch at a baseball game - all to encourage science and maths education. Robots are cool.

iPhone tracks your location - This has been huge news over the last few weeks.... Apple has since released a new version of iOS that apparently fixes this. If you're using an iPhone/iPad... update your software!

Cracker sized satellites to launch with Space Shuttle Endeavor - A new era in satellite technology? Or just creating more traffic and space-junk in orbit?

Sony Online Gaming Platform Hacked - reports say somewhere around 25 million users had their information stolen... scary, scary, scary things.

In The News:

Google teaches computers regret - google is again pushing the envelope, this time in the field of AI

Chinese Space Program confounded by X-Prize - the capitalist model of privatising the space program seems to be paying dividends.

Robotic jet fighter passes two test flights - the first truly robotic war machine, no pilot, no remote control... it does it's own thing... does this sound like skynet to anyone else?

Crowd-sourced choir sings over the internet - such a cool thing!! 2000 people from around the world all pulled together into a single choir.

NASA gives out funding to private space firms - more on the private space industry... I want to holiday in earth orbit... how cool would that be?

50 Years of human space flight

This week celebrates the 50th aniversary of human travel in space. 50 Years ago Yuri Gagarin became the first man to leave earth's atmosphere. That was a huge accivement then, and even in today's scope it is truly epic. We are no longer bound exclusively to the planet on which we grew. It's probably the biggest step in the evolution of humanity since we discovered how to use tools.

But in the years since then, we seem to have lost our will to explore space in person. Sure, we're sending out a lot of robots into the universe... but we're retiring the Space Shuttle and NASA is seeing massive budget cuts. It's expensive to send people into space, keep them alive and them bring them back safely... but does it really count as exploration if we're not the ones doing it?

I think we're missing an opportunity here: Space exploration has the potential to act as a unifying force for humanity, to bring us all together for a common goal. The International Space Station is a good example of this, but in an environment of shrinking budgets and little political will, I'm worried that programs like this will become a thing of the past.

Thankfully the Chinese (it's always the Chinese) are still spending a lot of money on space exploration, and they may be the new leaders in humanities efforts to touch the stars.

On another note: There's a poll over on the right hand side of the page... I think it would be interesting to get your feedback on some stuff, so please check it out ^^. Thanks for reading, and please share this with your friends/family/imaginary friends.

-Odd

"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the drug store, but that's just peanuts to space." - Douglas Adams

In The News:

Control a mouse cursor with brain implants - I want to be a cyborg!!

Researchers build wearable generators - It may not be a huge amount of energy generated, but if we all wear these and use them to power our personal gadgets, it could have a big impact on the global energy situation.

Boy scouts can now earn robotics merit badges - so cool! wish this was available when I was a cub...

U.S. Navy getting closer to arming ships with lasers - sweet... Laser guns are one of the foundations of Science Fiction, now I'm waiting for a portable version.

Scientists aim to improve photosynthesis - talk about tinkering with nature! still... it could have a great impact on food and energy problems.

Robot Wars

As some of you might have read in the news last week, China is scheduled to overtake the US in science in two years. This is a major shift and will certainly speed China's assumption of the top spot on the international stage.

Scientific advancement is possibly the single greatest factor for a countries prosperity, with relatively tiny countries like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan punching far above their weight because they have such a strong technical nature. So how could we emulate that drive in this country?

I think the biggest challenge is to get children interested in science, technology and engineering... and this shouldn't be too hard: science is cool!

My suggestion would be to have a South African series of Robot Wars. Probably drawing the competitors mostly from our universities. With RC being such a mainstream hobby, most of the materials and circutry required and readibly (and mostly cost effecitvely) available. Having something like this as a field trip would certainly encourage students to concentrate on their maths and science marks, which can only benefit our economy.

My favorite Robot Wars competior has to be Razor:



This guy is incredible... once, it even took out one of the house robots!!! Sugoi!

So, someone, please ... steal this idea... ^^

Another cool thing about the far east becoming the world's technology leader? Chances are that we'll end up with giant robots... I love giant robots!

-Odd

Living here in Jersey, fighting villains from afar/ You've gotta find first gear in your giant robot car / *You* dig giant robots / *I* dig giant robots / *We* dig giant robots / *Chicks* dig giant robots / Nice.

In the News:

A new nano-material detects explosives - nanotech is finally finding it's way into usable applications.

UK cancer charity tidies up Wikipedia - A great example of how crowdsourcing can work.

Fusion propelled starship - I love it when the stuff of sci-fi becomes reality.

Robots at the Smithsonian - a new robotics exhibition... full of cool stuff.

Machines to pass turning test by 2029 - I want my robot butler!

In The News:

Geminoid-DK: possibly the creepiest android yet built - another master piece by Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro. This thing is so far down the uncanny valley that it's scary.

Printing a human kidney - a TED talk demonstration of this amazing technology... we're fast approaching the immortal tipping point.

Masdar city runs into problems - the ambitious project to build 'the city of the future' in the middle of the desert has run into funding problems during the recession.

50 000 Japanese download the Android flashlight app after disaster - mobile computing is saving lives... go google!

Death and the Powers: A robot Opera - an opera combining human and robotic performers... and it's getting good reviews.

Robotics and AI, an update.

Those of you who read through the News every week probably already know this, but I'm going to recap it here because there have recently been some significant advances in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence.

First off, last week we had the IBM Watson super computer competing against people in the American game show Jeopardy. After the first round it was tied for first, but by the end of the competition it was well out in front. This is a big deal because Watson had to take purely audio cues from the host and had the same amount of time to answer as the human contestants. This is a significant step forward in terms of a linguistic interface for computers and despite it's limitations, testing is underway to bring Watson into the medical field.

The Watson interface could also apply quite smoothly to another of my favorite projects: the South Korean Classroom Robots. These things are great... They're basically automated conversational partners to help Korean kids learn English. Teachers can also remote control them to give lessons. The South Korean government is putting a ton of funding into the project ($36 Million USD in 2012) and are planning to have the little robots in 8000 preschools by 2013.

Those are just two of the advances in AI and Robotics, we're also using the latest AI to test theories of human thought, we've got another that can tell how we're feeling from conversational cues, we've got robots exploring the bottom of the oceans, and another that has sensitive eyes and fingers.

Robotics and Artifical Intelligence are becoming more and more capable (I'm hesitant to use the term "more human") and very soon they are going to be interacting with us on a daily basis.

Think about how computers have become an indespensible part of human existance in the last 15-20 years. In the next 20, I think it's obvious that we'll be looking at the same integration of Robots and AI into our world, society and daily lives.

 

Thanks for reading, I hope you're enjoying the posts. As always, if you think it's cool (or you think it's horrible), please comment. And tell your friends.

-Odd

"Intelligence is the art of good guesswork." - H.B. Barlow, The Oxford Companion to the Mind

In The News:

New Zealand emergency services computers go offline - they were able to make do while their IT guys brought them back online, but this highlights just how dependent we've become on computers.

IBM Watson (Super computers) vs. Humans in Jeopardy game - two of the champions of this american game-show are taking on IBM's new Watson Jeopardy super computer... after the first round, Watson is tied for first.

Removing a 'dumb' gene from mice makes them smarter - interesting article, but like it points out: we have no idea what other effects removing this gene will have... the whole field of study seems terribly hit-and-miss to me.

Steps towards a robotic eye - I've posted a lot of the build up to this specific piece of tech in earlier News, but this article sums up where we are quite nicely.

Obama seeks big boost in cyber-security spending - looks like we might be amping up to a new arms race... the cyber-arms race.... why do I have a picture of a bear with robot arms in my head?

In The News:

"Soft" robot has deft touch - massive metal hands have trouble holding squishy objects? You don't say! .... while this is possibly a big advance in robotic science, I unfortunately foresee the sex industry making the most use of it.

Could the US shut down the internet? - coming off of Egypt's not so succesful shutdown, this article explores how that happened and if it could be duplicated in the US... the short answer is "not really".

Proposal for cyber war rules of engagement - with the possible exception of earth orbit, this is going to be the biggest theater of war in modern conflict, so it's probably a good idea to set some boundaries.

All the internet has (kind of) run out of space - all the IP addresses for the world wide web have now been shipped out for sale... so all 4.3 billion addresses have been marked for sale. That's quite a number... but don't worry, the introduction of IPv6 that will happen shortly should mean that you won't even notice the difference.

RoboEarth teaches robots to learn from peers - I'm just glad they didn't name it SkyNet... this project aims to connect all robots through an internet-like network so that they can share what they learn... either making them better servants of more invincible overlords... not sure which yet.

In The News:

Meditation alters brain structure - New research provides scientific evidence of what many cultures have taken for granted for centuries: Meditation improves your brain.

Artificial retinas see well enough to balance a pencil on it's tip - a bit step to functional robots.

Apple App Store reaches 10 billion downloads - TEN BILLION! thats a lot of apps....

Android Smart-phone to be sent into space - ... this a test to check it's viability to run satellites... can you iPhone do that? didn't think so.

Computer program recognizes human emotion from conversational analysis - this should make it possible to actually have a conversation with a robot without wanting to rip it's head off.

In the News:

MySpace is up for sale - ...but as the article says.... who the hell would want to but it?

New wave of Office robots - ... coming to take your job soon?

Flying robots - more robots coming... and these ones can build more robots... they look kinda cute... not scary at all

worm remote controlled by laser - yep... and organic organism being remote controlled by laser... who thinks this stuff up?

Israel/US confirm testing StuxNet - and here I thought that China was winning the digital arms race.

Living in a digital world

Thursday, November 18, 2010

I watched an episode of 'The Big Bang Theory' a little while ago, in which Sheldon refused to leave his room and instead interacted with the world through a 'digital presence machine'.. basically just a monitor, webcam and speakers hooked up to a wi-fi connection and a tread system for movement. It got me thinking about how easy it would be to make a similar transition. 

I live most of my life in a digital world anyway... very little of what I deal with on a day to day basis has any sort of physical reality attached to it (and if you're reading this blog, then that's probably true for you too): At work I deal with information and how to store and access it... all of it digital; I get payed in money, which hasn't been based on anything physical since the world stopped using a gold standard; I spend a lot of my leasure time in Azeroth... running around in a virtual world; and for a long time most of the interaction with my friends happened in a digital medium.

Now with Japanese coming up with holographic pop-stars (Thanks for the link Jonathan), and robotic actors (see the news section). I'm wondering if maybe we're all loosing track of the physical world...

Probably not.... but still it's something to keep an eye on.

In The News:

Gold nano-particles could transform trees into street lights - this is possibly the best looking piece of tech I've seen all year.

Robot actor makes debut in Japan - ... or should it be actress? what's the correct mode of address for a robot?

Stuxnet bot may have been targeted at nuclear programs - Fascinating! I knew digital warfare was happening, but I didn't know it could have this sort of physical effect... wow... I wonder which country started this off?

Video games can enhance visual attention - told you they were good for you ^^

LHC scientists create and capture anti-matter - they've proved it possible with anti-hydrogen... this could be the first step in a massive jump in energy science.

Word of the Week:

Intangible (adjective)
1. not tangible; incapable of being perceived by the sense of touch; as incorporeal or immaterial things; impalpable
2. not definite or clear to the mind: intangible arguments.
3. (of an asset) existing only in connection with something else, as the goodwill of a business.

Thanks to all who read this blog. If you liked it, then please tell your friends to stop by. Post a comment if you have any opinion, comment or argument ^^
-Odd

"There are intangible realities which float near us, formless and without words; realities which no one has thought out, and which are excluded for lack of interpreters."
-Natalie Clifford Barney

The Lamentable Limits of Language

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

I may have mentioned this before but I think it's an important point, so you'll have to bear with me. 

Regular readers (all five of you), may have noticed a new section to my blog. Namely the 'Word of the Week', I'm doing this largely to highlight cool words that I find and to expand my own vocabulary. Why should I want to do such a thing? Well.... The English language, or any language for that matter, is a seriously flawed tool. We have words that sound the same but mean different things, or different words that mean the same thing... Frankly it's amasing that we can have any sort of meaningful communication.

However, until someone comes up with a technological means to share our thoughts directly; we're stuck using language with all it's little foibles and pit-falls. If you've ever tried to have a philosophical, religious or political argument with someone, then you've probably ended up arguing about the meaning of certain terms (like 'reality', 'god' or 'communism') instead of dealing with the issues themselves. A lot of this cannot be avoided: basic words  get co-opted as jargon by various disciplines, often meaning vastly different things depending on the context or who you're talking to.

Some of these troubles can be avoided if all participants in a discussion have a good grasp of the language they're using. If we have a large vocabulary to chose from, we can select the words that best encapsulate the subtle meanings and emphasis of the idea we're trying to convey.

So if you've found, heard or used a cool word recently, drop me a mail or post a comment and I'll share it here.

In The News:

A Robot In Every Korean Kindergarden By 2013 - I think that with the state of education in South Africa and the quality of teaching in rural schools, a slightly more advanced version of these things would be a massive boon to this country.

Real Time Holograms Beam Closer - So cool.... "Help me Obi-Wan Kinobi, you're my only hope".

50th Anniversary of SETI Commemorated With New Observing Project - the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence has been running for 50 years... wow.

Implanted Retinal Chip Allows Blind People To See - a new wave of cyborgs are about to hit the street... cool.

Precognition study at Cornell University - and it's coming up positive...

Word of the Week:

Specificity (noun):
The quality of being specific rather than general
E.g.:  add a desirable note of specificity to the discussion
E.g.:  the specificity of the symptoms of the disease

I hope you enjoyed this weeks post, as always if you liked it: post a comment and tell your friends. See you next week.
-Odd

"It's a strange world of language in which skating on thin ice can get you into hot water"
-Franklin P. Jones

In the News

Kinect for PC - I can't wait to get my hands on one of these

Emotion recognition in robots - this should make it far easier to interact with robots and machines... imagine if the M$ paper-clip had this?

Amateur discovers 4 planets without a telescope - ordinary people doing extraordinary things... /inspired

5 gadgets to watch from CES - a small report from the Customer Electronics Show... cool stuff

10 websites to watch in 2011 - some say we're heading into another internet bubble... but there are people doing some very cool things.

The Censorship Trend

We all know about how the Chinese government censors the Internet, and the problems it has caused for Google and by extension the US government. Only a terrible dictatorship like the Chinese could possibly want to filter the Internet, right? WRONG! It could be that they're the only ones who can pull it off.

Australia has been trying to push through a similar filtering scheme (although they probably won't stop words like freedom and democracy), but they've been forced todelay the implementation.

This should make us all wonder about our governments and what they have in mind for us. If they didn't tell us that they were filtering our Internet access, would we even notice?

In the News:

Japanese Consortium Projects a Humanoid Robot On the Moon By 2015 - That's just 5 years away.

Robots In Space - NASA has plans for a space robot... And they're calling it R2... I'm seriously geeking out... it's so cool!!!

FDA Approves Vaccine For Prostate Cancer - Not 100% effective... but it's certainly a start

More Energy in Less Space with New Ultracapasitor - power is always the biggest problem for small devices, this should help.

NASA Announces Wednesday Media Teleconference About Search For Extraterrestrial Life - wish I could attend ^^

UK Docs Perform First Remote-Control Heart Surgery - early days still... but it's a fully successful test of a technology that will let the top specialists to save lives all over the world.

Whew... just made it.... almost didn't get a post out this week... it's been hectic at work (despite the public holiday). But I did make it, and you're reading it... so it's all good ^^ Have a great weekend.

-Odd

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