March of the humanoid robots
by ZDNet Author | March 6, 2012 1:00pm PST | Image 1 of 8
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In the accompanying image, Actroid F from Tokyo entertainment firm Kokoro can move its eyes, mouth, head, and back. Cameras and face-tracking software follow a remote operator so facial expressions and head movements are reproduced in the robot in a master-slave relationship via Internet link.
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B: Call me back when you have one that I can buy and program to get me a beer on command!
http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences-features/52435-neural-cybernetic-implants-could-arrive-within-a-decade
http://io9.com/391064/where-are-my-cybernetic-implants
Growing up in the UK, the likes of Tomorrows World on TV filled my head with images of robots working in fields outside domed cities while electric vehicles whizzed by on stilted roadways. Of course THAT never happened, even though we now have pretty much all of the technology to do it.
Beaurocracy and rampant capitalism have instead given us pretty much the same thing as the 70s, but we now have a layer of almost-invisible technology that allows us all to do pretty much anything... Chainsaws that work like scissors, for idiots to call themselves lumberjacks, tin-openers that open tins by themselves, computers that program themselves to best interact with the user, and Rock Band, for the average talentless fool to convince themselves they are musicians. (And even borrow my guitar to prove themselves wrong. Priceless...)
Robotics has vanished into cybernetics, which is machines merging with humans and ultimately where we are heading. I'm not worried by all the talk of robot overlords, because it isnt going to happen - decades of paranoid media has guaranteed that, and good entertainment it continues to be - while machines quietly adjunct our every waking moment and run half our lives, help us talk to one another, move us around and entertain us.
They're just not human shaped, which remains unfashionable for some reason.
Peace
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