New Robot Species On the Way: Update

Japanese roboticists are determined to create a new species of sentient beings on Earth, to replace humans -- at least the humans in Japan. The species prototype, the CB-2 (Child Robot w/ Biomimetic Body) has made astounding progress over the past two years. Osaka University researchers wanted a robot that could learn the same way a child learns to imitate people.

The team is trying to teach the pint-sized android to think like a baby who evaluates its mother's countless facial expressions and "clusters" them into basic categories, such as happiness and sadness.

Asada's project brings together robotics engineers, brain specialists, psychologists and other experts, and is supported by the state-funded Japan Science and Technology Agency.

...In the two years since then, he said, CB2 has taught itself how to walk with the aid of a human and can now move its body through a room quite smoothly, using 51 "muscles" driven by air pressure.

In coming decades, Asada expects science will come up with a "robo species" that has learning abilities somewhere between those of a human and other primate species such as the chimpanzee. _PO

The Japanese are losing their population to a sub-conscious anti-natalism. They will need a large number of robots to assist their rapidly aging population in performing everyday activities. If Japan is unwilling to have children, then robo-children will have to do.

More on Japan's anthropomorphic robots here, here, and here.

And don't think that robots will only be suited for menial and helper tasks. But a word of caution to this brave new robot species: don't get caught up in computer models and theoretical hypotheses and make the same mistake that human scientists are making.

...to obtain a more realistic picture of natural selection, biologists [and all scientists - AF] should pair experimental data with their statistical data whenever possible. Scientists usually do not use experimental data because such experiments can be difficult to conduct and because they are very time-consuming. _http://www.physorg.com/news157648673.html

If robot scientists and economists become as incompetent as human climate modelers and economic modelers, there is no hope for the robot politicians of the future. If robot presidents cannot maintain a firm connection with the real world, we may as well start calling those future robot pols "Robamas!"