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February 21, 2006
Science & Art, or, I For One Welcome Our New Robot-Driving Cockroach Overlords
Skynews throws a few interesting questions about Alife, biomemetics, and AI to roachmobile man Garnet Hertz.
"What attracts you to artificial intelligence?""It’s more of a repulsion than an attraction. The proponents of 'strong' AI like Kurzweil that believe that machines will (or already are) literally intelligent makes me laugh. Strong AI is a joke..."
It remains to be seen if Hertz is going to ever take his work as science, and not art.
On the other tip, the same type of work, when presented as science, can sound like art. A a group at the University of Southampton powers a dark-seeking robot platform by using slime mould [Abstract]. No doubt, this is the same behavior that my little brother implemented in his MindStorms Lego project using the included light sensor. But the innovation is not the behavior, but in the implementation. I would be fascinated to see if there are indeed minute differences in recorded behavior.
And there's always the ambitious mix of the two, like the Autonomous Flocking Blimps. They act like friendly whales, and have a haunting call as well. From the unique sounds, the ungainly proportions and size, and the flocking behavior, it's clear that the designers, Jed Berk and Nihil Mitter of the Art Center, are trying to create a airborne Cetacea-like species, not just an arty experience.
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Posted by Noel at 05:32 PM
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Comments
An interesting article at engadget.com
http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/21/self-aware-robot-spells-doom-for-us-all/
self-awareness?
best regards
Posted by: glenH at February 22, 2006 09:19 AM
Nope. Only clever programming. I write code that is self-aware under the engadget definition (able to distinguish between itself and everything else).
The trick is, I'll shoot down definitions of self-awareness all day long, but have no viable definition of my own!
Posted by: Noel at February 22, 2006 04:24 PM