"Do you really want to hurt me?"
Posted on 05/27/2016 9:56:19 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Researchers in Germany are currently creating a "nervous system" that would mimic a pain response in robots, allowing them to quickly react and avoid harmful situations.
"Pain is a system that protects us,” researcher Johannes Kuehn told a conference of engineers last week. “When we evade from the source of pain, it helps us not get hurt.”
The researchers programmed their robot to experience a "hierarchy" of pain through a variety of different stimuli, such as blunt force or heat. Depending on the threat, such as a harsh movement or intense heat, the robot is programmed to retract to the danger. The more dangerous it registers the threat to be, the faster the robot will retract and the longer it will avoid the hazardous force.
"A robot needs to be able to detect and classify unforeseen physical states and disturbances, rate the potential damage they may cause to it, and initiate appropriate countermeasures, i.e., reflexes," the research paper states.
Kuehn said a built-in pain response could protect robots potentially operating heavy machinery or other tools in factories from potential harm, thus saving companies from the fallout of damages. It also means a better safety environment for human workers, who often work side-by-side with robots on the factory floor.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Aw jeez...
Idiocy.
Heading Towards the Synth.
Safety for human co-workers is one goal. Apparently.
Because first the robots learn to feel pain, then if you torture them long enough, they can learn to hate us?
Actually it’s really smart. Pain is the most basic way you learn. You do something, it hurts, you don’t do that again. Think about electrical outlets, almost every kid in America zapped themselves once, and learned not to screw with those little holes in the wall. A pain type learning mechanism is a good way to structure adaptive behavior that will help the robot learn its own limitations without the programmers having to figure out every little possible way a robot can damage itself and program against them.
Headline: Robot Gets Kicked In The Nuts....and bolts.
Excellent!
I maintained robots for years and it did help me to anthropomorphize them when troubleshooting.
I don’t see the utility of the “pain” concept however.
Just tell it not to do that.
Robot: “Technician, it hurts when I do this.”
Technician: “Don’t do that.”
If pain was not useful for survival, we would not have it as humans.
Same with pleasure.
Ah yes, one of the best recent science fiction movies and with a tiny budget compared with all of the current SF releases.
My comment addresses the anthropomorphism.
It is not pain.
It’s pain if they say it’s pain. Pain isn’t a strictly human thing, animals experience it too. And that is the model to use, making the robot’s body able to signal the brain “stop doing that” to avoid damage IS a pain response on the most basic mechanical level.
So robots are going to be allowed to get married? (ba-dum-bash) I'll be here all week, tip your waitress.
Quick retreat. Long term avoidance.
But it’s code, not pain.
“It’s pain if they say it’s pain. “
Silly.
Pain serves as an anology, at most, with which the developers can present their approach to a lay audience.
Patrick Swayze in Roadhouse, a movie chock full of horrible lines...
(in monotone): “Mmm-buzz-click, ow that hurts.”
Extra points for anyone who recognizes the reference.
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