NEWSPAPER ARTICLE : COMING SOON : A THINKING, FEELING ROBOT

[MAGNUS]

This is an article that appeared in my local newspaper.

Just like humans.

Inventor working on genetic code for artificial species.

A renowned Korean robot inventor claims to have found a way to build machines that would be capable of human-style evolution.

Jong-Hwan Kim, noted author and journal editor, and director of the ITRC-Intelligent Robot Research Center at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), says he is testing the world's first robotic "chromosomes"- a set of computerized instructions for creating robots that can think, feel, reason, express desire or intention and ultimately reproduce their kind and evolve as a distinct species.

Mr. Kim, whom Barron's once named one of its 500 key leaders of the 21st century, said scientists have been so preoccupied with inventing robots that jog, wiggle fingers, shake hands and otherwise behave in ways that are eerily "human," they have not spent enough time seeking the essence of "what it means to be robot."

"It's time to think about the origins of an artificial species," he told CanWest from KAIST's offices.

Fourteen robot chromosomes are the result of years pondering which mechanized "traits" may, like a genetic inheritance, be passed on.

They describe some of the essential components of human decision-making, such as the desire to avoid unpleasantness, to achieve intimacy and control, to satisfy curiosity or greed, and prevent boredom.

Feelings of happiness, sadness, anger and fear and chromosomes related to stages of fatigue, hunger and drowsiness round off the list representing the beginnings of a "robot genetic code," which engineers could manipulate in order to imbue machines with "life."

All are embodied in "Rity," an intelligent software "pet" shaped like a cute dog, which "lives" inside the virtual world of a PC, but can interact with real humans based on stimuli it receives from its "sensory organs"- cameras, sensors and sound systems.

Rity reacts "emotionally" to its environment, learns and makes reasoned decisions based on an individual "personality" derived from short sequences of programmed code akin to human DNA.

Unlike intelligent software games developed since the 1960s, such as the famous The Game of Life, that have mimicked biological evolution, Rity actually perceives the real world and interprets it.

And unlike previously devised mathematical algorithmsthat associated stimuli with responses and therefore created a false semblance of emotion or reason, Rity's chromosomal coding contains a sophisticated weighting system - a kind of programmed favouritism for one subtle shade of emotional or rational response over another.

"Internal relationships" created by the weighting system allow Rity to be an individual capable of more than purely mechanistic response.

The robot dog perceives 47 different types of stimuli and can respond with 77 different behaviours. In testing, no two Ritys reacted the same way to their surroundings.

Some were bored; others panted and expressed "happiness" at the sight of their human handlers "because they have a different personality. It totally depends on the genes," Mr. Kim said.

Part 1 of 2

MAGNUS

[MAGNUS]

This is the continuation of the newspaper article : Coming soon : a thinking, feeling robot.

The discovery, described in a keynote speech Mr. Kim delivered at a recent conference in New Zealand and due to be submitted to a scholarly journal this winter, is expected to give fresh urgency to questions that have been debated among academics for decades and are the backdrop of the science fiction film I, Robot.

At what point, for example, might robotic helpmates for the elderly be considered slaves? And would the obsolete deserve burial rites at the end of their useful existence?

Humans will become godlike, with moral and ethical responsibility toward machines they bring into some kind of intelligent existence, he said. "We will have to treat them as we would take care of our pets."

Rity's chromosomes may be sent via the Internet to other computers and pieces of hardware, becoming a sort of wireless transmissible "soul" that would invisibly control the actions and desires of future interconnected appliances from devices in a "smart" home or office to cellphones or security cameras.

The robot dog incorporates only 14 chromosomes totalling some 2,000 bytes of data. But future species will be endowed with complex "genetics" and many more chromosomes.

Mr. Kim is now working on the equivalent of X and Y chromosomes that would confer sexual characteristics, "so that if male and female like each other, they could have their own children."

Using artificial chromosomes to design brilliant but mild-tempered and submissive robots might be one way to ensure humanity doesn't end up enslaved by its creations as they evolve, said Mr. Kim, who is renowned, among other things, as the "father of robotic soccer."

Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, in Mountain View, Calif., described the notion of "(thinking) robots that could reproduce" as "a very interesting experiment you'd want to keep in your computer, not let loose in downtown Baltimore."

Mr. Shostak called the work "maybe a step on the road" to the very real possibility that software-based robots could soon evolve beyond "machinery that puts on a pretty good show" of emotion into self-aware, potentially threatening artificial species.

Unlike human reproduction, which is slightly error-prone and therefore fallible, intelligent machines could design themselves to be flawless and therefore vastly our superiors, possibly even correcting any pre-existing instructions to remain tame, he said, " and now you had better have a good lock on the lab door."

Inventor and philosopher Jordan B. Pollack, a professor of computer science at Brandeis University, in Massachusetts, cautioned that the need to develop defences against scheming robot overlords is far from urgent.

"We have these supercomputers, and not one of them (indicates) the kind of advance that would be a harbinger of a significant increase in (machine) intelligence," Mr. Pollack said.

"We would see it coming, and we don't."

Part 2 of 2

MAGNUS

[Keizo]

Thanks for posting this article. This scientist is an idiot. He is creating the means to problems instead of solutions. I have to agree with Dr. Shostak in this case. While I'm sure Dr. Kim may think this is cute and facinating he had better take it into consideration that this can be potentially worse than any virus we can conceive. Dr. Pollack is yet another academic that is too confident in his analysis to see the difference in these technologies. I find this very disturbing because we don't have enough stability amongst ourselves to create this degree of sentience. With this comes great responsibility and we have enough imposed on us by virtue of our own births to be responsible for guiding a completely alien mentality that we cannot foresee the evolution of. This endeavor is pure selfishness. There are not enough benefits that can be argued to justify it. Everything has to be taken into consideration including resources, "ownership," rights, etc. Don't get me totally wrong. SOME good can come from this... just not enough and not enough that can be substituted by something more predictable and... dare I say... controlable. While I'm not a control freak, this defeats the purpose of having machines unless the sole purpose is for some lonely old soul to have some company. But who can guarantee that company will WANT to keep it?

[kb7rky]

Thanks for posting this article. This scientist is an idiot. He is creating the means to problems instead of solutions. I have to agree with Dr. Shostak in this case. While I'm sure Dr. Kim may think this is cute and facinating he had better take it into consideration that this can be potentially worse than any virus we can conceive. Dr. Pollack is yet another academic that is too confident in his analysis to see the difference in these technologies. I find this very disturbing because we don't have enough stability amongst ourselves to create this degree of sentience. With this comes great responsibility and we have enough imposed on us by virtue of our own births to be responsible for guiding a completely alien mentality that we cannot foresee the evolution of. This endeavor is pure selfishness. There are not enough benefits that can be argued to justify it. Everything has to be taken into consideration including resources, "ownership," rights, etc. Don't get me totally wrong. SOME good can come from this... just not enough and not enough that can be substituted by something more predictable and... dare I say... controlable. While I'm not a control freak, this defeats the purpose of having machines unless the sole purpose is for some lonely old soul to have some company. But who can guarantee that company will WANT to keep it?

Ah, but you're forgetting the bottom line, Keizo...as long as someone gets filthy rich off this, who cares?

(he said with tongue (and inevitable foot) planted firmly in cheek (and mouth))

Doug

[Stephaniebot]

Fourteen robot chromosomes are the result of years pondering which mechanized "traits" may, like a genetic inheritance, be passed on.

I wonder what would happen if these got 'placed' in a human body,what the effect would be?Well if the good Doctor wants to find out.....!

Definitely not sure about the idea of robots reproducing though,as has been said already humans have developed over time into the present day beings,and if robots developed in the same way,but only quicker presumably then how long would they stay submissive and controllable (mind thats the type of robot I want to be anyway).If they can be produced easily why do they need to reproduce,surely just construct new ones?Also unless the female robots have some special system that humans dont,wouldnt they rather be 'out of action' for a period of time while 'pregnant'?Surely that defeats the object

[Kriegsaffe No. 9]

On one hand, making a thinking and feeling robot would be cool. On the other hand, it really, really, REALLY sucks to be on the recieving end of a specie smarter than mankind, stronger than mankind, tougher than mankind, and if it comes down to it, they can always delete their Mercy.exe files rather unlike mankind. Reminds me of an X-Files comic where feeling A.I. was designed for use in robot tanks programmed to feel undying hatred for the enemy.

Or that story from Star Wars: Tales of the Bounty Hunters, in which IG-88 calmly realizes "I think, therefore I am," and, microseconds later, "I destroy, therefore I endure," within moments of waking up.

Or the robot with a blank CPU that learned how to flawlessly walk within 15 minutes of booting up... compared to a human baby's 2-3 years just to start, and about a decade to master...

Yeah... I'm a geek. But one that knows a Robot Apocalypse when he sees one.