A Collection of Real and Imagined Robots

As the future of robotics develops, Hollywood gets to run a little bit faster. Here is an example of the newest robot creation from director Ridley Scott, contrasted with video compilations of real, high-functioning robots. If you don’t already know what they’re capable of, it will blow your mind!

In a commercial that is startlingly similar to the emotional android Kara, Weylan Industries introduced David 8, a robot who looks, acts, and seems totally human. This commercial for the upcoming film Prometheus, focuses on the emotional aspect of future-imagined androids, and explores the enmeshing of robotic-stoicism and genuine human feeling.

If this seems like a imagining of the future, think again. Right now scientists and engineers are working on building emotional androids based on cognitive modeling of emotions and a “language of mind.” At the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Northwestern Switzerland, scientists seek to imbue these robots with subjectivity and hope that situation recognition will trigger an elicitation of emotions with emotional mimics, using “gesture, posture, action tendencies and speech act latencies.” The technology is almost there: “these dimensions are shown to be integrable into a common structure which can be transformed into various applications like innovative structures of MMI and HRI, ranging from service robots to virtual interactions up to MMI-management of driver assistance systems.”

Here is a video composite of several top-notch robots of today, well, kind of. This video was made last year!

And, check out more from Asimo, arguably the world’s most advanced robot.

 

Futurist Profile: Michio Kaku

Michio Kaku is a futurist. He works as a theoretical physicist and as a pioneer for the popularization of science and futuristic ideas. Dr. Kaku is very prolific, writing for blogs, publishing books, hosting science radio programs and BBC’s Visions of the Future series, as well as appearing on the History channel, Discovery Channel, and the Science Channel. He holds the Henry Semat Chair and Professorship in theoretical physics at CUNY and is a visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. In addition to his work proliferating futuristic beliefs, Dr. Kaku is an outspoken advocate for social policy, publicly expressing his concerns about global warming, nuclear weapons, and space junk and inefficient exploration methods.

Dr. Kaku makes many videos on an array of popular and specialized topics. Here are some examples of the topics he has covered on BigThink’s blog in answering reader’s questions:

The Birth Pangs of a Planetary Civilization

How to Reverse Aging

Mankind Has Stopped Evolving

The Search for Antimatter

Can We Download Our Brains?

The Future of Quantum Computing

and Intergalactic “G” Mail

Perhaps the reason to best love Dr. Kaku, is for his passion and commitment to spreading futuristic ideals, theories, and technologies, which will help us achieve futuristic goals all the more quickly, with a conscientious, educated perspective. Check out some of his videos on big think and jump into the complex theoretical field of quantum physics as easily as slipping into an apartment pool.

The Intelligence Revolution – Visions of the Future – BBC

Michio Kaku runs through the development of computers and their computing power’s exponential growth. What will the future look like? Cars driving themselves (happens in the video) robots with human level intelligence, machines working for the betterment of humankind, medical future technologies and the future of ubiquitous internet. He predicts augmented reality glasses from September 2011. Then, he moves through the globalization and prevalence of the machine revolution. It will not be just for the rich, but for everyone. Dr. Kaku also explores virtual reality and the success and breakthroughs of Second Life, the virtual reality computer space.

And finally, a quote from the man himself:

“Beyond work and love, I would add two other ingredients that give meaning to life. First, to fulfill whatever talents we are born with. However blessed we are by fate with different abilities and strengths, we should try to develop them to the fullest, rather than allow them to atrophy and decay. We all know individuals who did not fulfill the promise they showed in childhood. Many of them became haunted by the image of what they might have become. Instead of blaming fate, I think we should accept ourselves as we are and try to fulfill whatever dreams are within our capability.

Second, we should try to leave the world a better place than when we entered it. As individuals, we can make a difference, whether it is to probe the secrets of Nature, to clean up the environment and work for peace and social justice, or to nurture the inquisitive, vibrant spirit of the young by being a mentor and a guide.”
― Michio Kaku