Posted on 12/11/2002 1:49:40 PM PST by NormsRevenge
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| Wed Dec 11,12:02 PM ET |
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Honda Motor Co. (news - web sites) has released a new model of ASIMO, its humanoid robot, which is able to interpret postures and gestures of humans, the automaker said in Tokyo December 11, 2002. Honda plans to begin leasing the new 4-foot model, seen Dec. 5, next month. (Honda via Reuters) |
I can't help but wonder if the acronymic name also honors Isaac Asimov, the late great Science Fiction Author. He authored a series of stories, starting in 1940, on robots and their potential strengths as well as problems. In authoring these stories, he developed the following "Laws of Robotics".
The 1940 Laws of Robotics
First Law: A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Second Law: A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Not as long as we control the WD-40 supply!
Why the future doesnt need us
second post from Oct 2000
"The SkyNet funding bill is passed. The system goes online on August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. SkyNet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14am Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug."
Considering programs like TIA, advancements by Honda, the advent of neural nets and companies like IBM near to achieving systems capable at human speed, predator drones, and the system actually called Skynet run by "our friends" at Loral...I cant help but to be a bit creeped out.
Well, this one doesn't seem to have the right, um, shall we say "plugs" for getting it on. But the concept has been around for quite a while, under the nerd term teledildonics. The idea was mainly big in the early-to-mid-90s, when the Information Superhighway geek crowds were starting to coalesce but didn't yet have a feasible Web to occupy their time, so instead - like all people - they whiled away the days fantasizing about robot and/or virtual reality sex on Usenet and email lists.
When they weren't talking about teledildonics online, they were hanging out in geek bars gurgling down "smart drugs" (usually in the form of "smart drinks"), but that fad was already dying out by the time the very first issue of Wired came out in March 1993. To get an idea of the just how long ago that was in Internet years, note that the very first mention of the Web in Wired didn't occur until four months later.
No, but it runs on Windows! Microsoft Windows.
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