Source: Your brain does not process information and it is not a computer | Aeon Essays Here is a great article by Robert Epstein, senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology in California, about how your brain is not a computer.... No matter how hard they try, brain scientists and cognitive psychologists will never find a copy of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony in the brain – or copies of words, pictures, grammatical rules or any other kinds of environmental stimuli. The human brain isn’t really empty, of course. But it does not contain most of the things people think it does – not even simple things such as ‘memories’. Our shoddy thinking about the brain has deep historical roots, but the invention of computers in the 1940s got us especially confused. For more than half a century now, psychologists, linguists, neuroscientists and other experts on human behaviour have been asserting that the human brain works like a computer. To see how vacuous this idea is, consider the brains of babies. Thanks to evolution, human neonates, … [Read more...] about Your brain does not process information and it is not a computer | Aeon Essays
Next Generation Atlas Robot Sparks Sympathy and Dread
Boston Dynamics Next Generation Atlas Robot is startling in its ability to handle objects and walk over rough terrain. But even more interesting is the reaction of observers to the robot's plight as his handler Steve pushes him around with a hockey stick. The video has turned out to be an unintended social experiment, eliciting over 24,000 comments, many of which anthropomorphize the robot, while others veer toward paranoid, dystopian scenarios where Atlas is the advanced guard of a robot army. The robot balances by using sensors in its body and legs and LIDAR, a surveying technology that measures distance by illuminating a target with a laser light, as well as stereo sensors in its head to avoid obstacles and help navigate rough terrain and manipulate objects. Designed to operate outdoors and inside buildings, the new Atlas is 5' 9" tall, 180 pounds, electrically powered and hydraulically actuated. The real question is what will happen when Atlas shows up on the line at an Amazon Warehouse. Will co-workers see the robot as a friend or an enemy? … [Read more...] about Next Generation Atlas Robot Sparks Sympathy and Dread
▶ Living Machines – The Rising of the Robot
"Robots are the lovechild of computers and power tools..." narrates Linda Hamilton, veteran of the Terminator movies 1 & 2. The actress who has spent a considerable amount of time being terrorized by robots, gives voice to an interesting documentary on human/robot interaction; Living Machines-Rising of the Robots. As you'll see in the documentary, robots are saving people from the three D's; jobs that are dirty, dangerous or dull. Robots are flying to other planets, communicating vital information and deactivating bombs. They are sentinels who never tire and may be the only way to colonize other planets. But even the eminent physicist Stephen Hawking is not convinced Asimov's Law of Robotics will be sufficient to protect us from the dangers of robotic intelligence. When interviewed by the BBC, Hawking said, "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race." So, will robots save us or destroy us? … [Read more...] about ▶ Living Machines – The Rising of the Robot
