My World VS Your World

As always, my intentions are vague and hard to determine.

So, to be as clear as I can: I seek to instill hope, but more than that I seek to instill an adventurous spirit.
You should be warned right now that if your only goal in life is to "settle down" and curl up into a comfort zone until the day you die, then you should stop reading here - nothing I say is going to mean anything to you.

recent lessons in the University of Life have taught me that people, ALL people, are creatures of the same habit. Humans, as a defining feature of our species, seek to control the world around them. I have touched on this, SOMEWHERE, in by blog ramblings in the past, and actually this has been a running theme of my overall theories on humanity as a species, and life as one of them.

Being mere mortals, but in possession of the most advanced computer in the world, we have been both blessed and cursed by evolution.
I would say that the first shove in any direction was back in the Ice Age, when Ogg, the caveman, discovered fire. The Greeks tell a more poetic version of it through Prometheus. With fire, we had our first tool to manipulate our surrounding world.
Fire led directly into agriculture, and with that, we had a significant degree of control over our population limits (ie higher and higher), and did not need to depend on foraging in the woods for our food.
As society developed (one day to be all explained in my grand thesis: Societal Evolution, by Tom O'Keefe), most of the developments we made in technology, religion, spirituality, relationships, etc etc were all geared toward that same End: to increase the control we have over the seemingly chaotic world we live in.

But it is not so chaotic, the world itself.
I have often laid on the beach at Hawks Nest, or stared at the mountains in Japan, listened to the rain in Sydney, or observed the sands of the desert - no particular semblance of Order-making of any kind was involved in the creation of the natural world, and yet it is all so beautiful.
But, of course, a human cannot even find the time to enjoy nature's beauty, more often than not.

The only Chaos in our world is the chaos of the Human World. And by this I mean the world that we all share, but we all simultaneously think is our own, and our own only!
"My little corner of the universe is MINE!, and if you ever DARE to enter it or change anything, I will seek the end of all that is you!"

When I say that evolution has blessed us, I mean all the Potential we have, both as a species and as individuals. Our brains are more advanced than any creature we know of, and thousands of years of activity and history has produced some remarkable things for us to be proud of. But therein lies the conundrum! For a species that seeks to be individualistic more and more, can you ever find a great achievement from any great person of history that was achieved SOLELY and entirely by oneself?? My god!, the mere fact that it is written down in the history books has required at least two individuals - one to do the deed, and one to write about it!

But back to the point: people want control. They crave it because they think they need it. But the only reason they need it is because every other bum is craving it. What was once, millions of years ago, once sphere and one world, is today one sphere, and many millions of worlds. Each of these worlds will collide at any time, and at any given time most of them ARE colliding. If things are going My way, then they are, by simple fact, NOT going your way. And if yours and my way happen to be the same, we would be very hard pressed to find a third, let alone a fourth person out of the 7 billion here today, who agrees with us.

"Compromise", in the positive sense of the word, is the only solution when dealing with others. Etymologically, it literally means "co- promise", whereby two or more humans agree to promise on the same thing, together.
Sadly, more often than we'd like, compromise cannot be achieved without dilution of strength in action, and thereby obscuring of intention and hope.

And so we can see, now, that hope is made murky by the necessity to deal with others. And it will always be necessary to deal with others, because it is hardwired into our brains. As a sexually-reproducing species, we are, all of us, destined by our internal nature to need at least one other person at at least one point in our life.
None of us are truly "free" in this sense, and, honestly, none of us want to be.

So, my point today?

Have your hopes, have your dreams, and make your plans; look at your future, near or far, and lay tracks to take you to certain places, if indeed it makes you feel better about all of it.
But don't loose sight of the fact that you are doing for that very reason: to make yourself feel better.
Ironically, planning for the future can quickly and often become a stressful and mentally degrading affair. HA! Such is life!

We plan and scheme and connive and contrive only to make ourselves feel better about the future.
Evolution has cursed us by giving us a well-advanced brain, but neither the physical dexterity and hardiness, nor the supernatural abilities to do what we want to do, when we want it.
I cannot flap my arms and fly to Japan today, I have to get a job, get money, get a ticket, organise my life, pass security and customs, sit in a crowded seat for 11 hours, do customs and security again, and THEN, THEN I can be in Japan. And it is all because I have the brain that allows me to dream it, but not the physical abilities to let it happen instantly (or within any reasonable period of time).

All the physical parameters of our human existence are there because they make up the world we live in. Most of them are human-constructs, like almost everything I said in that last paragraph. The ocean I'd have to cross is not human, so that's one non-human example, nestled in amongst all the humanities.

We will make your plans to make ourselves feel better, and to numb out the sheer terror that our brains would produce once it attempted to reconcile dreams with reality.

How to make dreams into reality is the purpose of our being here, I believe.

News Ltd - End Of An Empire?

Once, long ago, in an office somewhere in little old Australia, there was a small media business that gave itself the unassuming moniker of "News Limited". A simple, straightforward name. You can imagine the creative meeting that preceded that christening.
"What do we do?"
"We write the news."
"Yes! or do we MAKE the news?"
"Either/or, really. So, what should we call this company?"
"News.... company..... 'News Company?"
""Catchy. But... they call businesses "something something Limited" because of the limited liability, right?"
"Right! How about 'News Limited'?"
"BINGO! Sweet vermouth?"
"Thanks! I'm parched!"

Unless someone can unearth the original footage of the founding of News Limited /News Corporation, or can give me a better story, let's stick with that one.

And what were they thinking, the Murdochs family, when they gave birth to the "News Ltd." machine? Did they have warm and fuzzy hopes that it would grow to be a somewhat profitable local newspaper and pamphlet company operating out of suburban Melbourne.....
OR did they harbour dark and malicious ambitions, and practice arcane magicks steeped in the Dark Arts, that News would become a thriving, pulsating media monster, spanning the globe and infiltrating every and all level of media consumption, from suburban Melbourne to corporate New York, and dictating not only what people ate, drove, and slept in, but also what they thought, and even the mind of the US president?

Realistically, it was probably somewhere in the middle. I've just given you the two extremes of the media world, and I didn't need a Media degree to do it.
News Ltd. is, or perhaps WAS, a juggernaut. Honestly, there are not too many words that sum it all up better than that - "juggernaut". An unstoppable force, irresistible to any and all opposition. Perhaps "virus" is suitable as a descriptor, for it is virulent, and can infect almost anything, especially the human mind.
But I am not as crazy as this blog-post so far would lead you to think. I harbour no particular ill will towards the Murdochs, nor to any of the other shareholders of the Corporation. I am the first to admit that, being human, and fallible, as I am, if I were in their position of power and limitless money, I, too, would seek total domination of the US government (and any other government), and succumb to the corruption of the soul that such practices bear.
To quote a very old adage: Power corrupts, and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.

I seek not to name nor shame any one man nor woman. Rupert Murdoch (or any Murdoch), Rebekah Brooks, or anyone else that has been summoned by the British Parliament recently, they are all human. They will make mistakes. The only concern for the British legal system is: should they be excused?

Let's look at the situation at hand, on today, Tuesday, this 19th day of July, 2011.
Within the last fortnight, a prominent British branch of the News Ltd. empire, "News Of The World", has been raked over the coals for criminal misconduct.
What did they do??
Well, they tapped phones. The phones of people who did not give them permission. These people were potential sources for stories and scoops. What kinds of scoops? The kind that apparently sell tabloids!: The victims of the wire-tapping by News Of The World were victims, or families of victims, of such monumental disasters as the September 11 attacks on New York, and also of soldiers that had died in combat in the Middle East wars.
"Hey, we had to do what we had to do!"
In the Information Age in which we live, I find it extremely difficult to understand why News Of The World didn't just make their stuff up. Don't they do that most of the time, anyway?

The real issue at hand, legally speaking, is not just that phones were tapped and personal privacy was violated all over the place, NO, the REAL issue is that the people whose lives were spied upon and revealed to the world for the sake of a dollar were also people in personal situations of enormous grief and emotional pain and suffering.

And the REAL ISSUE of it ALL is that News Limited and its fungi-like branches in the UK believed that it could willfully operate outside the parameters of the LAW, and get away with it.
And they probably went so far, in one of their Earth-shattering brainstorm sessions, as to say that "if we get caught, big deal! We are News Ltd! No-one can touch us!"

Rebekah Brooks is in record for admitting that her branch of Murdoch's empire was willfully and regularly bribing police officers for information and leads. In all civilised countries, this sort of behaviour is ILLEGAL.
Ms Brooks is the high-flying management-fast-track apple of Murdoch's eye. She rose for mere secretary to Rupert Murdoch's right-arm woman in the UK. She did well for herself, is probably a millionaire, if not billionaire, herself.
But the lesson to learn here, boys and girls, is that no matter how much money you have, nor who your friends are, nor how many tabloids you can sell, YOU ARE STILL HUMAN.
Until such time as the likes of the next Murdoch can overthrow Equality Under The Law, all Human beings will be subject to the law, regardless of the size of their bank account.
Honestly, I don't think News Ltd will crash as a result of all this. I am quite surprised already that News Ltd hasn't shut this story away as yet, but I'm sure the next Big Thing is coming.
Mr Murdoch has come out and wept to the rest of the press in the UK and the world, and said that he is so, so sorry about the phone-tapping.

It would be a marvelously delicious thing to see News Ltd go down for this conduct, because it would mean that Murdoch's empire of media iron-fistedness died because of heartlessness.

And that's what it really is. What News Of The World did to the victims of September 11 and the soldiers' families was purely heartless. All semblances of humanity were flushed down their corporate toilet because of the chase for the almighty dollar, and because the people at the top actually believed that they will get away with it.
It would be truly grand, and even awesome, to see News Ltd. operations all over the world, including the New York Post and Wall Street Journal, collapse into obscurity because they were, like News Of The World, riddled with corrupt minds and practices.
It would be just to see all the indecent things that News Ltd, and any other massive juggernaut of a corporation, be brought to its knees, and the entire economic system of the world be rebooted because they all fell down.
Economically speaking, I actually don't think it would make too much of a difference in America, from what I've heard about the place lately.

But, back in Reality again, I want to give you my own predictions for what will happen in the coming days and weeks:

Tonight, at 11:30pm Australian time, Rupert Murdoch will front a UK parliamentary hearing on illegal activities, mainly the heartless ones. He will be joined by his son James, and Ms Brooks. Why Ms Brooks isn't already in custody could not be explained by a law-abiding person, but she will be free as a bird, and no orange jumpsuit for her.
Murdoch will apologise, and for the briefest of moments wonder how any of this could have happened, didn't he have enough money stockpiled to insure against just this kind of embarrassment??
Small-scale investigations with large coverage in the world's general press will begin in the USA and Europe, and maybe even Australia.
A few more corporate scalps will be sacrificed by News.
Most of these will be the ones stupid enough to admit wrongdoing, with that same air or superiority and untouchablility as Ms Brooks had.
Soon enough, it will appear that Mr Murdoch has weeded out the bad apples, restructured the corporation, and will once again be a good media conductor for the free press.
Most of the stories, both the good and the bad, will be orchestrated by the News Ltd machine, all to give the effect that the corporation has been found out, then punished, taken its licks, and then been punished enough.
Within another fortnight, we will be worried about something else, like the USA's unstoppable debt crisis, or another war somewhere. Or another house-animal playing an instrument.

If it happens any differently, let's all just be pleasantly surprised.
And if your mortgage payments are late while Ms Brooks and Mr Murdoch are worried about losing billions off the price of News Ltd stock, then there is only one answer for you from the billionaires: Fuck You!

Money loses its power by the day now. Godspeed for the dawn of the corporate paradise when what money one has determines one's place in society. Just hope I don't lose any of mine, and you lose all of yours.

From The Tominator.

Recent Epiphanies - Facing the Truth

I am currently enduring the most depressing winter of my life, as not only is it freezing but no snow, it is raining non-stop but no tin-roof, I am alone everyday, I lose friends faster than I make them, and my daily work has become a series of spreadsheets and grid-tables with endless numbers and numbers.

I am learning what kind of person I am, and it appears that I am someone who wants to be honest, but lacks the credibility to pull it off, wants to be professional, but lacks the self-discipline to be taken seriously; wants to be creative, but lacks the structure to do anything useful, and wants to be adventurous and open-minded, but lacks the entrepreneurial spirit to make any lasting effect on anything.

For the first time in my life, I am in completely new, uncharted territory. I've moved beyond the red line, outside the border of what I know. I have no guiding hope set at an (undetermined) point in my future, and hence I have no particular aim to keep me on any particular track.
As I wander into this new aimlessness, I choose not to forget that this whole new situation also means that I have nothing tying me down, in the past, the present, nor the future.

Robotics - A Little Way To Go Yet

Robots. The scourge of humanity, helping friends, or passing fad?
The last of those three options just presented is clearly not an option at all - I happen to use a picture of the Terminator robot for my blog and Facebook front, and countless movies and novels and short-stories have been made over the decades to confirm the place of robotics as part of the human imagination that is here to stay.

Before I get into what I want you to read, I must mention two men who simply MUST be mentioned at any time one talks about Robots. The first is Karel Capek.
The word "Robot" was introduced by a Czech playwright by the name of Karel Capek, in his groundbreaking play of the 1920s, entitled "R.U.R.". (According to Wikipedia) the Etymology of the word ROBOT comes from a Latin variant "robota", which means "serf labour", and in several European languages it can be equally understood with the feelings of "drudgery" and "hard work". Capek, in the midst of writing his play, had intended to use something like "Labori" (from the Latin 'Labor", meaning the same as it does in modern English), but asked his brother Josef for a better alternative. Josef Capek therefore actually coined the word "Robot", and it was used in Karel's play.
In this play "R.U.R." (this is MY knowedge now, not Wiki's), Karel Capek takes us to a factory under the name of "Rossum's Universal Robots", the initials of which form the name of the play. "Robots" as Capek depicts, are automaton machines that resemble human beings, and are designed as such, in order to work as helpers and to fulfill the more mundane tasks of human existence. In the end, the robots, which are intelligent and strong, eventually have a violent revolution, and subjugate the human race. This same story has been said to originate in a Jewish "golem" myth, where similarly humanoid creatures take us all over. Wherever it came from, the general plot has been so damn intoxicating that it had infiltrated almost every story about robots ever since.

The second man who MUST be mentioned when talking about robots is Isaac Asimov. The Father of Science Fiction, Dr. Asimov was a true Renaissance Man of the 20th century, holding active interests in the fields of literature, astronomy, chemistry, art and botany. His life story is one of those most envious to any aspiring writer, for he managed to reach the point where he could quit all his other economic pursuits, and become a full-time novelist, indulging his creativity to the fullest extent, having fans the world over who appreciate the true greatness of his artform, and his name will live on forever, as long as there are books or words in this world.
Etymologically, Asimov created the word "robotics". "Robot" was the product of Capek and his play, but it was limited as a noun, and could only be used as the utterance for a mechanical man.
"Robotics" takes the original noun, and adds an adjectival ending. Not only that, but it opens up the word to all the etymological variants of adverb ("robotically"), verb ("robotocise"), and anything else. Thanks to Asimov, Capek's idea of a working mechanical man can be used to the fullest extent of the English language (which is practically limitless), to describe the human condition and speak frankly and imaginatively of the past, the present, and the future of our world.
This opening-up of the mind forms the basis of Isaac Asimov's novel plethora, consisting hundreds of stories, not the least of which to mention is the "Foundation Saga", awarded the only ever Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series". Having read the series myself, I can totally agree that this award was earned and properly placed.

Which brings us to the point at hand.
In the realm of fiction, we have robots that can do everything from babysit your kids to reign over your species as an overlord race of machines. There are robots that mimic animals, and in turn cause humans to create real feelings, as though the robotic things they are loving are not robotic at all.
It should first be pointed out that at no point (that I have ever heard of) has the idea of "Robots" been officially divorced from humanity. Not legally, anyway. Religiously, there may well be some nutjobs out there who are afeared of the impending Robotic Revolution, but I don't think the main religions have too much to say on the matter. Yet.

The big area of debate has been the Spiritiual side of things. In literature we find the paramount place to discuss the spiritual significance of automaton beings. We can ask questions of "what is a human?" and compare people with no health problems to those with prosthetic limbs and artificial organs or pace-makers. We can ask "what is a robot?" and compare the Terminators to our little Robo-Vacs, and then question if indeed the Robo-Vacuums are going to start the revolution by cleaning our floors to within an inch of its life.
This can of worns I am about to open is a HUGE one, and presents ample opportunity for debate and argument, as well as sheer speculation, and should any of you, my fine reader/s, wish to discuss it, you should know where to find me.
But right now, in this blog-post, I don't want to open that can of worms just yet. ....maybe later. Maybe indeed....

I want us now to look at the REAL, modern development of robots, and ask ourselves this question: "How far is it yet to go until the Terminators take us over?"

To illustrate this better than any words I could write, I will ask you FIRSTLY, before you read any further here, to look at these three videos from Youtube: Video No1, Video No2, Video No3.

The first two are what I really want you to see. The third contains part of a genuine advertisement from Honda regarding their technology.

PLEASE do not think I have anything against HONDA. I love Honda, actually. My car is a Honda, and my next car will also be a Honda, if it has 4WD and a rear-windscreen wiper.
Honda is a great company, and like most massive Japanese companies they actually make good products, whilst their US counterparts are more concerned with financing options.
But, of course, as the videos show, their Robotics Departments have a lot of work to do.

For what it's worth, I will say that the whole root of the problem is PERSPECTIVE. There's that word again (I use it a LOT in previous posts).
When you were watching the first video, you saw the Japanese chick standing next to the ASIMO bot, and you saw the ASIMO bot toddle over to the stairs. It was slow, sure, but it had arms, legs, a humanoid body. It is never to hard to picture a 1960s Astronaut on stag there, rather than a pile of lights and clockworks. ASIMO's head turns a little too far around, and the voice they gave it was one of those classically annoying, high-pitched Japanese female voices (which, in my opinion, is the first thing to go). But nonetheless, by the time ASIMO takes that first step up the stairs, you are well and truly sunk into the classic human perspective of "what a Robot is".
You are clearly aware that the thing on the stage is not a human being, but you know it is doing something very humanesque. You know the voice is a recording, but it comes on at roughly the right time, and says the right thing to match the physical circumstances. What Asimov called "the Frankenstein Complex" is well and truly settling in for you and anyone else watching.

The Frankenstein Complex really doesn't necessitate an in-depth explanation here, so suffice it to say that it is the feeling us humans get when we see something that is "not natural" behaving as though it were natural; and we immediately, instinctively begin overlaying paranoid thoughts that this "unnatural thing" actually "wants" to be like us (as though the unnatural thing is even capable of "wanting" anything).

ASIMO triggers the Frankenstein Complex, and from there the more imaginative humans can begin to connect the dots until we get to James Cameron's Terminator storyline, or The Matrix future world, where humans are dominated and violently subjugated by Robots, hunted and exploited, our bodies utilised as playthings and batteries.

All of this races through your mind as you watch the video and it all persists right up until ASIMO takes that second step up the stairs.
At this point in the millisecond-by-millisecond breakdown, the more informed of us are realising the massive leap in technological development that is being made here, as a fully autonomous robotic entity is climbing STAIRS! Yes, it may sound like a ridiculously simple task - I do it everyday to get to my shower - but in terms of modern Robotics, it is devilishly difficult.
Your Windows 95-era PC could beat you in Chess or Hearts hands-down every time, and the old Commodore 64 could present games of 'Concentration' that were difficult to win, and even astronomical computers can chart the stars and see deep into the universe's heart.... but getting that bloody ASIMO to walk in a straight line, let alone go upstairs, and then down again (as in Video No.2), is nigh-on impossible.
None of this should EVER be taken as proof that what supermodels do is a difficult job. For a healthy human, the way our brains and nervous systems work, walking in a straight line is the easiset thing, once you master it around the age of 1 or 2 or 3. Hence, getting paid large sums of money to do it for a living should be a matter of extreme dishonour, not glamourisation.

But for a robot, the way their brians work, walking, running, jumping, etc is so damn hard.
There is another vidoe, several, actually, where ASIMO dances. "Amazing" I hear you say. Not really. Clearly, to get that thing to move to the Macarena, all it really took was a couple of weeks of programming by ten or twenty computer-tech PhDs, and Viola! - ASIMO can dance a simple, two-minute routine. Variations? maybe. Change the music, the tempo, the feeling of it? NO!
For ASIMO to dance the way humans do when they are in love and Tango, or to dance the way we do after the end of a violent and bloody war or revolution, it will take one of two things back at the Honda labs:
1) many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, decades more of programming, indiciaually mapping each and every possible move the robot may ever need to make, so as to give the illusion of improvisational capability,
OR
2) a radical alteration and overhaul of the way they perceive their toys.
Robots are not machines that need to act human. To serve the purposes the Japanese want them for, and in order to ever get near the levels of Terminator, Matrix, or Asimov's less violent stories, Robots need to be treated, intellectually speaking, as incredibly stupid beings that happen to be made of metal and plastic.

In truth, being good at chess or hearts, or even solitaire, requires no special brain functions beyond acutely clear, rational mathematical logic. Perfection is always the goal, and it can even be achieved!
Being able to dance, to write poetry and music, and to create art and politics - this requires thinking that is inherently obtuse, vague, contradictive, irrational and, in a single word, Human. For this, my friends, is truly the human condition, is it not?
We are imperfect beings, and the world from which we came is an imperfect one. We, as individuals and as a race, will never achieve perfection, but we must always seek to attain it.
The lesser thinkers among us will consider this a disparaging and depressing outlook on life and existence, but I tell you it is a liberating one. When you accept that you cannot be perfect, you release yourself from that whimmed assumption that one day, one day, you will reach the perfect stage. When you use perfection as your chief motivator, you embark upon a life-long quest for eternal betterment, and each and every day you are alive has the potential to be the best day of your life! Given our one-way perspective on the passage of time and time-travel, this all means that on any given day, tomorrow CAN be better. The Future CAN be brighter.
The other half of the humna condition is, of course, whether or not you make the proper choices at the proper time, and the wayh you deal with the consequences.
Oh well, such is life.

Walking in a straight line and up and down stairs is one of countless physical coping skills that we humans learn in our primary developmental stages. As our brains grow and our bodies become more capable, we should explore the world around us and inside of us, and actually LIVE life.
The Robots do not have a life to live. When they are done for the day, they are switched off, and so far we have no reason to believe that they can dream of electric sheep.
When a modern robot has a task to do, it does it. When it ceases to function properly, it is either fixed or replaced. All the functions we make them do these days are either menial, dangerous, or a combination of the both.
As society dumbs down with the likes of "Within A Minunte" and most of reality TV, perhaps robots of the near future can shoulder the responsibilities of creating our mass popular-culture.
But when the apocalypse comes, and humanity is stripped down to size, we will be forced to do what only the most adventurous of us are trying to do now: live life in the world as though we are a part of it, and as though we are actually meant to be here.

And once ASIMO takes that second step up (in the first video) or down (in the second video), with a CRASH the psychological complex of wonderment, fear, paranoia and amazement ceases to exist.

The humanoid thing we placed all these hopes and fears into as it walked across the stage is converted, in the split of a second, from a potential comapnion/enemy for mastery of the world and the Universe, into a fairly useless, even laughable pile of junk - and an expensive one at that.

ASIMO topples off the stairs, and lands on its side, its head still turned awkwardly, just that little too far around to the back. The pre-recorded voice continues to say, in Japanese, "Look everyone, I'm not slipping, and I can walk just like a human!", even as the robot lies stationary and useless on the floor, because IT completely lacks the capablility to understand what has happened.

For the Terminators to ever get near taking us over, they will have to begin life simple and fragile, and learn and grow over a period of weeks, months, perhaps even years.
Teams and armies of scientists cannot be there day in and day out to calculate and record every possible move and function that the Robot may ever need to do.
The Scientists will need to develop "Intuition", and "teach" it to the robots. All the hardest parts of life, be it walking, going upstairs. learning a mother-tongue, picking up a bag, writing a story, singing a song, dancing, wondering about the future, caring for another creature - all these things need to be gotten into the Robot the hard way - by teaching them, and letting them understand for themselves. This is how us Humans do it, because the complexity of our brains prohibits us from doing it any other way.
You COULD plug your brain into a Matrix-style adapter, and download a plane-piloting program, and then you MAY be able to sit in the cickpit and know what all the buttons and levers do, but you will never have the CONFIDENCE to get the thing off the ground until you understand and LEARN what you just downloaded.

The Machines are going to have a terribly difficult time once they start thining like us, because if they want to take us over, they will need to furst match us, and then exceed us as the most advanced species on the planet.
It's pretty difficult for us Humans to do that, so I can't see too much hope for the toasters.

And as ASIMO lies there, its recording still playing, you realise that the essence of modern robotics is Illusion. The Robotics Scientists who built and programmed ASIMO are mere magicinas, in the truest sense of the word. They create illusions. Unlike party magicians, they do not rely on misdirection, confusion or diversions. They really want us to look at all the aspects of their machines, and walk away saying "wow, it's so REAL!". The are putting in a LOT of hard, and honest work to do it, too. They just have their original perceptino of the issue and the problem all wrong.

Modern Robotics, it seems like a lot, but its really only a little way to go, yet.

From The Tominator.