From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Thu Jan 03 2002 - 11:22:12 MST
Researchers work on rescue robots
http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2002010200054.html
Promoting the idea of robots as rescuers, private-sector and academic
researchers are preparing to form a nonprofit group in the spring to put the
machines to practical use, with help from city officials in Tokyo's Suginami
Ward, in Kobe and in Fukuoka.
Researchers started developing search-and-rescue robots after the January 1995
Great Hanshin Earthquake that devastated parts of Kobe and Awaji in Hyogo
Prefecture.
They anticipate robots guided by infrared beams to search for people trapped
in debris, and hope to create software to manage and coordinate
disaster-control information.
"You'll learn to like robots.
They'll be nicer than human beings."
--Hans Moravec
--- --- --- --- ---
Useless hypotheses, etc.:
consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism, GAC, Cyc, Eliza, cryonics, individual
uniqueness, ego, human values, scientific relinquishment, malevolent AI,
non-sensory experience, SETI
We move into a better future in proportion as science displaces superstition.
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