Robots

Passion may dehumanise us, but it doesn't make us robots.

Now we'll wait for the robot that can experience the sensation of being dehumanized due to his passion.

Your ideas seem to breathe the same atmosphere as the music/lyrics of Interpol (especially the album Antics).

"Čapek seems to suggest that this is what makes us human: history, passion, a soul and the free will."

Where do you see that suggestion? I think he stresses the difference between robots and all (real) life forms.

Z!

Is there unreal life?
If you will read the play you will see that the difference between robots and humans is of the essence, not the idfference between robots and plants or robots and bees. What do we know about the passion of a bacteria? Do you believe that a mouse is conscious about the history of mice?

Arnon

Do you believe an uneducated human would be conscious of the history of humans?

By your logic one could argue that education makes us human.

I do believe a mouse would have an awareness (at some basic level) of its own history.

Carlos

Even an uneducated human will be conscious about his own history. Our idea of identity is based on this assumption.

Sasja

Don't you think a strong passion for something could make us act like robots fulfilling a task? Not looking left or right and trampling down everything in our way to reach what we desire or aim for?

Juliane B.

Interesting analogy. Though a robot is lacking the underlying processes, e.g. having a desire (and striving to fulfill this) while she ignores her environment (or family) to which she might have a benign relation. And will she feel guilty or have remorse when the passion is over and she looks back on what she did? But perhaps the argument of the underlying processes are too much of a platitude here.

Arnon

I agree. But, you wrote "the history of mice".

Of course the difference between robots and humans is purely speculation. We don't actually have a concrete existing "intelligent" robot to compare with. Since the robots are imagined, any supposed differences will simply comply with the author's hypotheses.

The industrial robots that do exist are very boring and perform only repetitive tasks. There is no need for them to be human-like at all.

I suspect that the first intelligent human-like (touchy-feely) robots will be sex toys or "marital aids" (to aid those who don't get enough marital sex). Some sort of (possibly feigned) empathy will be imperative for their success. Passion might be a dangerous thing for a sex robot to possess. Human sexuality is, on the whole, rather mechanical and predictable. I am certain a semi-intelligent Pamela Anderson sex robot will soon be within our technological capabilities.

"Is there unreal life?"
Life as an concept is used for many things, for example life cycles of products like robots. It's just the concept of creation of something towards destruction, or not?

"What do we know about the passion of a bacteria? Do you believe that a mouse is conscious about the history of mice?"

Passion of a bacteria... That's a good one... Maybe if we break down passion and feelings to it's origin: some chemical substances... But that's probably too far-fetched.
I do think a mouse is influenced by it's history, but only in the form of it's biological heritage. Do we need to be conscious about our history?

Carlos Dee

"The industrial robots that do exist are very boring and perform only repetitive tasks. There is no need for them to be human-like at all."

That's not true anymore. Self-learning systems do exist. No, they're not conscious, but software can do more than only repetitive tasks.

Carlos

There is a saying; “If you save one man, it is as if you have saved the entire world.”

I say: If a mouse knows his own history, it is as if the mouse knows the history of mice.

Would you say that your own sex life is predictable?

Can something be predictable and yet not boring?

Juliane

Robots are unconcious about the world around them as long as it's not included in the algorythms that define their actions. Humans are aware of their environment even though they sometimes choose to disregard it.

sexual robots

Will robots be able to refuse a partner? Will sleeping with certain robots be better for our social status than sleeping with certain others? These are questions which point in the direction to with what we differentiate “human” from “robot”. The robot can’t play a part in our “struggle for recognition”.

Sasja

That's what is called a „Totschlagargument“ (knockout argument) in German. Of course I didn't want to state that humans and robots are alike. As Jan already said, the underlying processes are different. Nonetheless humans can very much appear as robots, judging from the outside rather than the inside perspective, sometimes even as robots programmed by others.

Robots & passion: a footnote

Aren't we going back full circle here?
To quote from the 'Footnote' blog (2009-08-01):
"(...)
I like the idea of a book being a footnote to its title.
My life is just a collection of footnotes to my books.
Dawkins himself writes in a footnote: “What on earth do you think you are, if not a robot, albeit a very complicated one?” "

'passion of a bacteria'

Could we get the good old 'bacterium' back please?
Or are we going to discuss 'the passion of a media' as opposed to 'the passion of a medium' soon?

Juliane

Are you getting ready for fall sales?

Juliane

I actually think most passionate people are the opposite of robots, judging from outside. :)

Everything works like clockwork thank you.

I would suggest that romance is rather unpredictable but sexual acts themselves are rather predictable. After all sexual acts consist of rather a small number of actions. I am sure this would be easy to programme.

The question would be whether to include a need to orgasm. The world may not be ready for the release of predatory robosluts or robostuds seeking orgasmic release.

In a sense you can only know your own history. The rest is all hearsay.

Of course with robots you could give them false histories. Whether you really want a sex robot that thinks its Marie-Antoinette or Theodore Roosevelt is debatable however.

k day is coming!!

and u might want to wander by EZERD and DEADTHELMA over at ETSY and ck them out.. ezerds got ur robot decorative needs coverred n deadthelma shes just sort of fine i dont even kno whats up with her but u might need a friend in the desert sometime.. dutch kids sometimes get out lost in the desert ive seen it

Hesper

The article "a" was a typo. Thanks for pointing this out to me.

Oscar/Sasja

Did I sound that bitchy? In this case I apologize to you, Sasja. It was not my intention.

I already did my share of autumnal shopping, actually, culminating in a new pair of glasses which I bought today.

Juliane

My question was in reply to your comment at 09:32 today.
I do hope that you will enjoy your new glasses.

Oscar

Ah, I see.
It's not my habit to fight for clothes (I wouldn't stand much of a chance against most of the other girls/women). However that may be, there has been the odd incident in the past. Some girl coming up to me asking "Are you going to buy that?" hands already outstretched. It's like asking "Are you going to eat that" and then snatch the tastiest morsel from the other's plate. I might be living beyond my means by meekly avoiding sale fights, though.

Juliane

You didn't sound bitchy at all! What makes you think you did?

Sasja

Relating Oscar's words to my second comment I thought my use of the term "Todschlagargument" might have come across as a bit snappish.

ON HISTORY 4 ARNON

deadthelma , in response my murrdochslum notice of my feeble s.o. (there im BOSSA SCREWANOVA u can remember the name .. deadthelma moves arround.. )) on yr page
cos as i noted b4 deadthelma shes cute aint she? i want her to be amused.. shes a little goddess n i got an idea wot it is worth yes
deadthelma writes:
"thank you i appreciate it, but i've given up trying to get the dutch to part with any of their money... it's a losing battle...
tthey invite me to paahty with them in vaacooouverr and then guffaw at the suggestion of a tip'"
u little shits are perusing the wrong texts aint u??
yalls cyberspace searrching is weak
deadtthelma's got babies how she gonna trravel??
jesus fuck
i percieve yall been getting yr culture in the wrong spots n yalls dicks have fallen off (like kanye suffeering some strange puffy disesae like chris idk
jesus fuck))
i can only suggest immediate remedial reading
wilbargers indian depradations in the state of texas with the o henry illustrations annd the photo of quanah's momma savagely nursing
yall fuck isrrael
that aint where armageddon lives
armaggedon lives in texas
deadthelma is a witch on the front linee of there
being any future
n shes sorrta fine
yall missing

Dries van Cann

This is an intriguing question. Assuming that at some point in the future truly autonomous inteiligent robots are developed. Would a class hierarchy emerge among robots themselves? Would they be naturally egalitarian? Or would they give up their individual identities to become a single, distributed, networked intelligence?