"Billy Brown" <bbrown@conemsco.com> writes:
> What do you think about the organic body approach to humanoid robotics? I'm
> thinking it solves a lot of problems with appearance, power supply and
> mechanical reliability, but I'm not sure how bad the interface problem would
> be. I'd certainly expect neural interface technology to be advanced enough
> by 2020 to allow computerized muscle control, but what about the more subtle
> issues?
Tricky. Growing entire clones is likely rather expensive and slow, since you want to get them to an adult size and it is not clear this can be easily achieved even with hormone therapy. And development without brains (yucky but IMHO ethical) is likely stunted, so they have to grow with neurointerfaces in place to provide stimulation. In the end I think this will be done if we get an overall transhuman trend where people tend to regard individuality as more based on mental pattern than physical composition (which makes the clones more acceptable) and more and more advanced interfacing technologies culminating in uploading (which would create a big market for these bodies when visiting physical reality). But this trend might take a long time to occur, making humanoid biological robots rather remote. Still, animal robots might be much closer - remember the experiments on controlling roach movements or using moth antennas as sensors. Maybe the zoophiles will get sexbots first :-)
The more modular solution, where muscles and other tissues are put together in a more artificial way than growing them all together, is likely simpler to get a bit along the way with (muscles in nutrient baths, stimulated by electrical impulses etc). Unfortunately I think making a believable whole humanoid out of them is extremely hard, and it might be simpler to go for the clone or a well-crafted synthetic body.
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