Cool show, although I do wonder whether the impetus for it was mainly due to
trying to find a good use for too much footage of Robocup.
I hadn't seen a video of the Honda walking robot before; that's a truly
amazing creation; the hairs rose on the back of my neck, watching it.
I was most interested in the blab about "intelligent" agent software on the
net. It made out that these things are far more advanced than I had thought
they were. I thought that agents were fairly pedestrian technology, but
these guys implied it was real cutting edge stuff. Anyone got some
experience in the area that they can share?
I really like seeing robotics people. They speak so seriously about the
subject, but you can see they are a bunch of big kids, playing with (the
world's coolest) toys. For example, they were interviewing a guy who makes
automated systems for driving those enormous mining trucks around mines; a
serious fellow, obviously very knowledgeable in his field, very credible.
He's sitting in his office for the interview, and you can't help noticing
the toy mining trucks on his bookshelf behind him. Erm, of course they are
models, yes, models, um, important for, erm, research purposes. Yeah, right.
I bet he makes Brrrm Brrrm noises as he drives them around his office. Hee
hee.
Nice to see our man on the ground in fine form. Very nice plug there at the
end of the panel discussion for the Singularity, btw. There was lots of
interesting talk about the abilities of computers to attain human/animal
level ability, the nature of consciousness, and all that good stuff
(unfortunately marred by a large deal of input from the physiologist person
who, with any luck, will end up being packed into a car by a car factory
robot). All pretty standard stuff, nothing too outlandish or worrisome.
Suddenly, our hero swoops in with the final comment, which I'll paraphrase:
"Of course, we must take into account the fact that there will be greater
than human intelligence inside of 30 years on this planet, and that
everything is going to hell in a handbasket, nothing will ever be the same
again. Have a nice day." Well done, old bean.
Also, more astute viewers will not have failed to notice the energy with
which our hero's remarks about emotions such as "lust and hunger" were leapt
upon by the (xx chromosome) panel host. Lets have the goss!
Emlyn
----- Original Message -----
From: "Damien Broderick" <d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au>
To: <extropians@extropy.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2000 4:44 PM
Subject: AUSSIES - TV Thurs nite
> For any Aussies who aren't so attached to the Olympics that they can't
bear
> to change away from Channel 7 (or whatever): I'll be taking part in an SBS
> Insight discussion about the prospects of AI with cognitive philosopher Dr
> Peter Slezak (pro), animal-mind expert Dr Lesley Rogers (con, I suspect)*,
> and one other, plus moderator. Somewhere in the usual 8.30-9.30 pm slot.
>
> Damien Broderick
> *I assume this is she: http://www.usyd.edu.au/wisenet/profiles/lrogers.htm
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:38:41 MDT