Japanese Robot Has a Fatal Attraction

Feb 13, 2008
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Japanese Robot Has a Fatal Attraction


Japanese scientists have made a robot capable of feeling love. And woe betide anyone that gets in his way.

Lovable Kenji is one of seven robots designed to react "emotionally" to external stimuli as part of an experiment into replicating the more complex human emotions. One thing that researchers at Toshiba Akimu Robotic Research Institute didn't quite understand is how some strains of love work.

At the start, it was actually quite sweet. Kenji would hold his stuffed doll close, cuddling it for hours on end. The researchers were thrilled with this until Kenji started showing some of the darker sides of love.

One of the young female interns started spending a lot of time with Kenji, sometimes several hours a day, and Kenji seemed to like her. So much so that he would often stand directly between her and the door out, refusing to to move.

Given he has 100 kilogram arms, the intern was rather worried about trying to move past him. In fact, she had to call technicians to shut him off after he moved to block her every time she tried to leave.

"Despite our initial enthusiasm, it has become clear that Kenji's impulses and behavior are not entirely rational or genuine," conceded Dr. Takahashi, one of the researchers.

Numerous attempts have been made to switch him back on, but every time they do so, he develops an instant crush on the next human he sees, and rushes to embrace them - with potentially fatal consequences.

Dr. Takashi has said that Kenji will have to be decommissioned permanently, perhaps proving that while we may be able to replicate emotions, controlling them is a very different matter.

Source: Slashdot [http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/09/03/09/147255.shtml]

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Galletea

Inexplicably Awesome
Sep 27, 2008
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Every new robot brings us one step closer to the terminator scenario. Although it is fascinating, I do wonder whether they should be doing this research, just because they can.
 

Flap Jack452

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Jan 5, 2009
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The next robot they build will have a BFG built in and a harpoon large enough to spear all the whales in existence today (assuming its thrown at the right angle). That will surely spell disaster for us puny humans.
 

black lincon

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Aug 21, 2008
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galletea said:
Every new robot brings us one step closer to the terminator scenario. Although it is fascinating, I do wonder whether they should be doing this research, just because they can.
Do you really think that trying to give robots emotions like love is going to be the death of us all? yes it's creepy, and yes it's unfinished, but if you program all robots to have some sort of love for humanity as a whole then perhaps terminator scenarios will never occur.
 

dalek sec

Leader of the Cult of Skaro
Jul 20, 2008
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Ok that's creepy... they should just pull the plug on that one before it goes all cylon on the interns.
 

Hunde Des Krieg

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MaxTheReaper said:
galletea said:
Every new robot brings us one step closer to the terminator scenario. Although it is fascinating, I do wonder whether they should be doing this research, just because they can.
It's worth the end of the world for just a little bit more knowledge.

Anyway, he sounds like he has as good a grip on his emotions as most humans do.
And when we eventually learn everything, what's the point of going on?
 

Galletea

Inexplicably Awesome
Sep 27, 2008
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black lincon said:
Do you really think that trying to give robots emotions like love is going to be the death of us all? yes it's creepy, and yes it's unfinished, but if you program all robots to have some sort of love for humanity as a whole then perhaps terminator scenarios will never occur.
Nah, that would be a stretch, but I'm not sure that giving a robot a personality is the best way to go.
 

Blind0bserver

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Mar 31, 2008
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The_root_of_all_evil said:
Numerous attempts have been made to switch him back on, but every time they do so, he develops an instant crush on the next human he sees, and rushes to embrace them - with potentially fatal consequences.
God, I can just picture that now.

*while crushing a young redshirt intern to death*
"I love you, and sometimes love hurts."
 

The Great JT

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Oct 6, 2008
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Hopefully the next one will be six feet tall, have a Fog Hat Grey finish and say "Bite my shiny metal ass!" commonly in a New York accent. On another note...

Begley said:
Those Japanese are so clever.
Just hope it's not the special "fetish" edition. If you don't get the reference, go watch the Foamy the Squirrel cartoon "Conspire to Rewire".

WARNING: PG-13 at least. If you're a child, first off, what the crap are you doing on the internet? Do your homework! Second, if you're not offended by talk straight out of the toilet, it's hilarious.
 
Feb 13, 2008
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galletea said:
black lincon said:
Do you really think that trying to give robots emotions like love is going to be the death of us all? yes it's creepy, and yes it's unfinished, but if you program all robots to have some sort of love for humanity as a whole then perhaps terminator scenarios will never occur.
Nah, that would be a stretch, but I'm not sure that giving a robot a personality is the best way to go.
Your plastic pal that's fun to be with? Ghastly.

Jaedon said:
Um, why not just remove the arms?... You can thank me for saving humanity later.
Well...there's always the force behind it as well...
 

FallenPrism

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black lincon said:
galletea said:
Every new robot brings us one step closer to the terminator scenario. Although it is fascinating, I do wonder whether they should be doing this research, just because they can.
Do you really think that trying to give robots emotions like love is going to be the death of us all? yes it's creepy, and yes it's unfinished, but if you program all robots to have some sort of love for humanity as a whole then perhaps terminator scenarios will never occur.
The movie I, Robot springs to mind...

Edit: Beaten to it. To add a little more to my post though: I am astonished that technology has moved so far as to even mimic human emotional behavior to such a degree, however imperfect the results. Despite the imagery presented by many in this thread, myself among them, of mechanical doom descending upon us, I imagine that programming for limiting behavior to safe levels wouldn't be that far down the line.
 

dalek sec

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Jul 20, 2008
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drop2zero said:
This is quite possibly one of the most interesting things I have ever read.
"The Cylons were created by Man.
They were created to make life easier on the Twelve Colonies.
And then the day came when the Cylons decided to kill their masters.
After a long and bloody struggle, an armistice was declared.
The Cylons left for another world to call their own.
A remote space station was built...
Where Cylon and human could meet and maintain diplomatic relations.
Every year, the Colonials send an officer...
The Cylons send no one.
No-one has seen or heard from the Cylons in over forty years..."

Sorry Drop2zero but when I saw your avatar I couldn't help it.