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.