Cognitive Artifact

A good example of a cognitive artifact that I use regularly and has been increasinly popular are GPS navigation units. You use it by entering your destination, and it will provide you with a map and directions on how to get there. It will read the directions out loud as you drive and reach the appropriate places to change direction. Also, if you want to remember how to get some place that you already are, you just need to only press a button to “save the location.” It stores the location in its memory, so the next time you want to go to that place, all you need to do is find it in your directory of saved locations, and it will tell you how to get to that place.

This is a cognitive artifact, and not just a tool, because it supplements your memory and sense of direction by 1) remembering where all of your “saved locations” are located, 2) figuring out for you how to get there, and the best routes as well as alternative routes, and 3) telling you where you are if you are lost. Many people often internalize these functions. You do not NEED a GPS unit in order to get around or go on trips. Many people themselves after being a place once can remember where it is and how to get there. However, this is useful for people with bad senses of direction, or people about to go on trips to places they’ve never been. The combination of being able to “save locations” to reference in the future, and its direction giving capabilities aids cognition and can give many drivers confidence that they might not had previously had on the road. It could be disadvantageous in the fact that some drivers might get too dependent on a GPS. They might not feel as confident without one, and if theirs breaks or they are forced to drive without one, they may have increased anxieties about driving.

Thoughts on Love Machines

I found Love Machines to be an entertaining, as well as thought provoking piece on the subject of future human sexuality. I thought some of the most interesting comments were based on the perceptions of current human sexuality, such as the “outsourcing of sex” (namely the fact that there are fewer people than ever having sex who are being watched by a much larger number – something you might not normally think of, but is interesting to contemplate). I also thought that Daniel Dennet’s statement that “a robot is in a better position to report its own mental states than researchers with mounds of data” was profound, even if it was not the first time this claim has been made. Nevertheless it was the first time I heard it, and professor Asaro’s response to my challenge about it after the film has got me re-thinking about robots and the problem of other minds – I must say I agree with Dennet now, but do so reluctantly because I think that a robot reporting about its own mental state is not evidence enough of actual thinking (ex. Smarter Child, ALICE).

One other philosophical statement I found interesting was made by Moravec later in the film – essentially that there is no difference between geniuenly loving robots and robots programmed to love because robots will be geniuenly programmed! He goes on by saying that after all, humans are programmed to love! (and that the evolutionary logic might be different but the kind that were used to [love] is manufactured to meet a survivial need, which may be similar for robots). I have no response to this statement because I have not yet finished processing the thought!

Oh yeah, the latino character with the fancy glove added a nice bit of comic relief, as well as the inventor who mounted his own sex machine for demonstration (which was not only hilarious, but gave the audience a hint of how sad it would be for a human to engage with a machine to fufill its sexual needs, as opposed to an organic option such as finding a mate).

Moral Robot soldiers: A daring possibility

Should robot soldiers be given the ability to detect emotion?

Should robot solders have emotions of their own?

What is the major difference between human soldiers and robots?

            Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

            Humans have to live with what they’ve done

            Robots’ memories can be erased, won’t affect their judgment anyway

Can we even program robots to feel other peoples’ emotions?

            We often find it difficult to feel what others are feeling so how do we program robots to sense other peoples’ anger, fear or surrender and tell it apart from a fake if humans are at times wrong at their guesses.

Love Machine

The best part about Love Machine was the mix of characters being interviewed.  The guy speaking with Mr. Asaro at the end (I forget his name) made the distinctions clear: the philosophers, the artists, the moralists, and the sexologists.  The documentary did a great job of pitting opposing views against one another without having the monsignor meet the artist with the claw fetish, or the proper older women meeting the two aging swingers-turned-inventors.

I think Love Machine serves as a frame through which to view the question of whether robots will ever love or be loved.  There is a lot of hypotheticals and speculation, but Love Robot focussed on the parts of robot love that are currently tangible topics: sexual pleasure and aesthetics.  

Through this frame, it seems unlikely that a robot will ever be able to love.  Kismet reacts only the way it has been programmed to.  It is not appropriate to replace the word programmed with trained, even in quotes.  ”Training” implies actual inference and learning, which Kismet (as I understand it) is not capable of.

I do see potential in the possibility of misinformed people loving robots in the near future.  With a realistic cover and full mobility, Kismet could easily evoke affection a person ignorant to its insides.  If you told me the woman interviewed about Kismet was in love with it, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Love Machine was a good film that showcased a lot of opinions on robots and love. I feel personally what we know about emotions and love are not set in stone. They are still up in the air topics which make the topic of robots taboo. Until we can have some universal view on these topics robot love will always be divided. I feel like part of what made love machine so great was that it was part satirical. It focused on so many characters that definitely do not seem inclined to be speaking on behalf of love, but maybe thats the point. The people thinking about these topics of robot love are only those inetrested. And though qualified to talk about robots they are unqualified to talk about love in some cases. This shoudl be a signal that more then the select few interested should be thinking about this. The whole world will use robots soon. The whole world should be thinking about robot love. I think robot love may be a good thing. Humans have so many bad qualities that are built into them from society. Robots may be programmed witha bigger picture and judge better for themselves.

Love machine was a very interesting movie. It didn’t do much to address what I consider to be the root questions. This is acceptable, however, because I have no idea how a documentary could effectively address questions such as ‘What is love?’, etc.

I think that the question of weather or not robots will ever to be genuinely able to experience love depends on several things. First of all, it depends on your definition of love. There are many ways to explain love that would imply that the emotion is limited to humans, and is the direct result of the evolutionary path that humans have followed. A more open definition of love could be: An individual P is experiencing love with Q when P’s has more concern for then the wellbeing of Q than for P’s own wellbeing. This definition could easily include robots.

Love Machine

I the interplay of the various philosophers, sexologists, writers, a religous figure’s points of view to be a very interesting way to explore the idea of “love machines”. While in the beginning of the film the focus was simpler, I believe starting with the sexologist’s views on human sexuality, this ultimately expanded by the end of the movie with the question of a machine that can love. The philosopher from Tufts had an interesting point that he believed a (very foolish) person someday will in fact fall in love with a robot, but this love could not be reciprocated.

After watching this movie I started to talk about it with my girlfriend. I asked how can a person know love? Her response was that she knew that she loved me, but then I asked how she could know that I loved her. Ultimately I think there is no real way to truly know if love outside myself (or herself) is reciprocated, and that ultimately what matter’s is that I truly believe that it is. In reference to a machine, while I do not think they will ever be able to really love naturally and spontaneously, I think a person could in fact believe that they are in love with a machine and that it is reciprocated. If that is all we have to go on to prove love (our own point of view) then who is to say that a machine and person are not in love.

Whether or not this love is real likely would not matter to whomever was in love. For example I had dated a girl that was lying about our relationship from the start a few years ago. I genuinely believed that I was in love, and that she loved me, however she had been cheating on me so my love was not returned (at least not as strongly). Still people had told me that something was weird about our relationship and yet I would not listen until I found out for myself. I think this might be the case for a human-machine relationship. I think people may find themselves in love with a machine (far in the future), and no matter what will not be convinced otherwise. I find this to be disturbing however, because if something man made can simulate love to the point where we feel that it is a balanced relationship what then is the motivation for any human-human interaction. One of the main problems with my generation is that we are so isolated from other people due to technology. Sure we can keep in touch much easier because of the internet, however this also tends to reduce the overall time we spend around other people in person. I think “love machines” would reduce human interaction even more, and this is a negative outcome in my viewpoint. Perhaps the machine will satisfy the human need for interaction, likely it would have to for a person to be convinced that they are in love with it, however the idea of a future where a person’s only interaction is with machines is unsettling to me.

Gotta Love My Bots

“Love Machine,” started off slow, but quickly ran further and further down the moral implications, and technologically possibilities of the future of robotics. I don’t know about a few of the interviews and how they really should weigh into how we should progress technology. Namely, I do not believe religion should have any right to dictate what we should and shouldn’t do with technology. Just as religion is NOT SUPPOSED TO BE involved in government, it should not be involved in science. Morality is not reliant on religion, rather religion is reliant on Morality and is a parallel not a perpendicular to science and technology. As a matter of fact it is in many senses the opposite of technology. Another interview I was a bit baffled by was the artist. I understand he does erotic work and such, but his grasp of the subject at times seemed much to little to answer to the same degree as others. A few things I noticed among many interviews were two polar opposites to the questions, either intrigue and optimism, or fear and pessimism. The people I found most insiteful were the professors from various colleges. They had the most objective answers to the questions and were not as biased as many of the other interviews. As per what I believe will happen with robots and love, I do not think robots will ever be able to truly love. It is something that no amount of alternating ones and zeros can capture the true nature of. I believe love like creativity is more than just a mix of chemicals, and is a higher function of the brain that isn’t possible to break down into parts. Lust I believe robots will be able to feel, and perhaps friendship, but never the higher level mix of them. For this reason robots, where they may deserve rights when it comes to consciousness of their surroundings and themselves, shouldn’t be considered something that can get married or be any more than a tool for happiness. Yeah, people will inevitably fall in love with robots, but this isn’t even real romantic love. It would be as we love our dogs, where we share an emotional link to them and them to us, but it doesn’t have the same depth and complexity. This depth and complexity is what keeps love from being replicated. Society really does not have much to worry about when it comes to robots and love. To site a Futurama episode, I do not think we will ever have the occurrence where the human population is dwindling because people are making the active decision to steer away from people to only be intimate with robots. Similarly they will never return more than a preprogrammed link to us. The only people in the future who are going to be marrying robots are the same people who are trying to marry their dogs and homes today. It takes more than a chemical connection for love to occur. Right?

Love Robots/Robot Love

I thought overall the movie was very entertaining. I didn’t really like the long robot/machine-making interludes, because I had no idea what was going on, I was really confused. As for the other stuff, I really liked Hans Moravec’s opening statement, ” you can build animate things from inanimate parts.” That really encompassed everything we talked about in the Emotions part of our class. The ideal example would be Kismet! I was really excited to see Kismet because it’s like a robot celebrity, but kind of disappointed too because for some reason I thought that it would have language capabilities and be able to interact with humans in a conversation. But in the video, it just seemed like it was making arbitrary faces and noises, interrupting the person it was supposed to be interacting with, having nothing to do with the input it was supposedly being provided. Indeed, one of the things robots need to be able to do to be like humans is to be able to understand and follow social guidelines.

I also was fascinated by all the Japanese robots! The computer to robot connection seemed really cool–something I would definitely use if I were away from my family and loved ones. I wasn’t sure if that was a concept or a real possibility though. Also the robot that could sense light by moving its eyeballs was really neat and freaked me out a little at how accurate it was. The robot that was having the conversation with the interviewer was by far the most advanced I’d ever seen. That was truly amazing! I love how when it was interrupted, it went back to the interviewer and asked where he was in his answer. Ha!

As for robots genuinely being able to be in love, I’m still very skeptical of that. At least, humans will probably be “in love” with robots much earlier than robots will be “in love” with humans. Even if they are in love with humans, it would be really hard to know it. I guess you could design a lot of behavioral tests, but…we know that behavior doesn’t always show what’s really going on. If they were able to love, however, I don’t think it would be bad for society; I just think society would have to eventually adjust to that. If robots become so advanced as to be lovable and be “in love,” then surely our society will be far more advanced in many other ways!  Although it would definitely suck if you had a crush on someone but they were already in love with a robot. Oh man, I could just see the talk shows now…

As long as we can legitimately keep the population going though, everything should be fine. Because if the population doesn’t renew itself, then it’s just stupid from an evolutionary perspective…no need for natural selection! We’d have purposely selected against ourselves!

Love Machines

I’ve never really noticed another person or thing’s love affect how I live my life, but the notion seems to exist that a machine falling in love with anything will somehow undermine how we as human beings experience love. Personally, this seems ridiculous to me and stems from human beings overrating the feelings of love. Don’t get me wrong, love is a very powerful and amazing feeling and governs a lot of decisions that we make, but the idea that love is something to remain unique and special to human beings is just preposterous.

The movie “Love Machine” never fully addresses the idea of whether a robot can experience love in the way humans do. Instead it seems to focus on the idea of using robots more as sexbots, in order to  bring masturbation to a higher level. This doesn’t seem all that destructive to society, for as long as the robot has no way to reciprocate the love you place on it there will always be a desire to seek out other humans. We must therefore ask ourselves whether it is even possible to have a robot that can physically “feel” love the way we do. It doesn’t seem to be that big of a problem to give a robot the capability to simulate love through physical and verbal actions. Right now we could program a robot that will always remain loyal and devoted to an individual, willing to sacrifice anything and everything for someone. If we talked of another human in this way we would no doubt come to the conclusion that they were in love, but with a robot we reach a hang-up. The problem seems to stem from personal choice.

Our fascination with love, the thrill and mystery that makes it so amazing, lies in the knowledge that this person is willingly giving themselves up. That they are making themselves vulnerable to you. If we have a suspicion that an object is reacting out of obligation rather than of choice, than we lose some of that magic. Still the prospect remains sound that maybe one day a robot could truly feel love, when it becomes autonomous and is able to learn and adapt to it’s surroundings and experiences.