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Robotics Technology

Robot Dramas: Autonomous Machines In the Limelight On Stage and In Society 31

aarondubrow writes: We're entering an era where we'll increasingly coexist with robots and other intelligent machines — some of which may look like us. Not only is there a growing number of industrial robots (about 1.5 million today), there are 10 million Roombas in our homes, porter-bots in our hospitals and hotels, social robots in our nursing homes and even robot spectators at baseball games in Japan, tele-operated by remote fans.

Theater is not an arena that we typically associate with robots, however, artists, musicians and producers are often early adopters and innovative users of emerging technologies. In fact, robots got their name from the 1920 play, R.U.R., by the Czech playwright, Karel Capek. An article in the Huffington Post describes a panel discussion at the National Academy of Science in June that featured the producers of three recent plays that starred robots. The plays highlight our robot anxieties, while offering new visions for human-robot interactions in the future.
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Robot Dramas: Autonomous Machines In the Limelight On Stage and In Society

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  • It makes me wonder, though. Can you really say a robot is an "actor"? Doesn't that require having an idea of a self that you're purposefully not being in the moment?

  • A must read: The Darfsteller by Walter M Miller Jr. Tells of an aging ex-actor in an age of robotic performers who gets to play one last time when a key 'character' breaks down.
  • here is some related information on Robotics http://www.googletechinfo.com/... [googletechinfo.com]
  • by Nishi-no-wan ( 146508 ) on Wednesday September 03, 2014 @02:37AM (#47814641) Homepage Journal

    [...] robot spectators [bbc.com] at baseball games in Japan, tele-operated by remote fans.

    Um, those are for the Hanwha Eagles in Korea, not Japan. Confirm by clicking the link to the BBC article.

  • They mention Cadillac's self-driving car, recently demonstrated to lawmakers in Washington. Cadillac is confident enough now to let members of Congress ride in the thing as it drives from Capitol Hill to the Pentagon in traffic. That's impressive. There's video, but it's all chopped into short pieces for short attention span TV viewers. I'd like to see an uncut half hour of automatic driving in traffic.

  • Now they have removed the only thing that ties drama to reality. Having to deak with existing Deux Ex Machina in modern drama was bad enough. Now we have a whole new genre, which will resemble cop dramas. We will have "robocop dramas". I for one do not welcome robocop dramas.

  • Do I have to be the one to note that we don't have any intelligent machines? None of them have any more of a mind than a toaster. I don't think there's an AI out there that can even approximate the intelligence of a cockroach.

    This is just random nerd click-bait although, at least it's nominally "news for nerds" for a change.

    • So, what you are saying is that we are more than advanced enough for robot senators? On a more serious note, haven't we more or less gotten to the point where machines are better than humans at CAPTCHAs, not to mention chess and Jeopardy!
    • by ranton ( 36917 )

      Do I have to be the one to note that we don't have any intelligent machines? None of them have any more of a mind than a toaster. I don't think there's an AI out there that can even approximate the intelligence of a cockroach.

      Don't assume that robots have to be as intelligent as humans to take our jobs. Even if a robot can only do 50% of your job, it still has the potential to put 50% of the people in your industry out of work.

      There is no debate that robots will start doing a large percentage of the work currently done by humans. The only debate is whether enough new jobs will be created that robots cannot do.

  • I wouldn't go calling Roombas robots, they're fairly stupid... That Samsung NaviBot that's cleaning my house is far creepier, with its camera figuring out the layout of the house....
  • Automata [youtu.be].
  • by koan ( 80826 )

    I am getting into FPV flying with multirotors and planes and I have to say there is something extremely addictive about telepresence, there's nothing like soaring down the side of a mountain with a glider and camera/Tx while sitting on a chair drinking a beer.
    Telepresence rocks.

    • Based on previous experiences, I would say that actually roaring down the side of a mountain with a glider while in the glider and sober is far more exhilerating.

  • The article confuses the terms autonomous and intelligence Ã" they are not interchangeable Industrial robots that follow pre-determined, repetitive movements or roombas that bump themselves around a floor are not intelligent devices. Adaptive, self-learning artificial intelligence is decades away by even the most optimistic futurists. Thus, we are not entering an age of intelligent machines.
    • I apologize for the political tone found int his video posting! I didn't realize this video had some sort of political standpoint! I'm sorry, that wasn't the point, I was just looking for some classic Rock-A-Fire explosion video!

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