First one (if danged ads don''t re-appear!) is certainly incredible. I found it looking for "robot gymnastics"; the gymnasts are yet to be equaled by machines! Then, the young teen-aged girl with no hands of her own, has robotic hands of astounding dexterity! Today's electronic technology is responsible for such possibility. What a brave and pioneering kid! Ever-wondering, I found this last one, which seems profound: "In Whose Image" might we say? Thousands of robots perform wonderfully today in industry, building cars, controlling stock inventories, even performing various security functions. The engineers have now perfected humanoid robots which "fight back" against adversaries; videos of them are widely available. Some have been built bulletproof! Military (of course) is looking into them as soldier replacements! Having built production machinery for manufacturing plant use all my life, I was usually kept working close to, but not ON, the cutting edge, for our creations had to be SAFE, FAULTLESS, INEXPENSIVE, and LONG-LIVED. No hocus pocus was involved. I can only wonder at the degree of complexity involved in designing and building a gizmo like the humanoid above. The girl's hands, somehow responsive to brain-induced stimuli, are beyond my ability! But the guy with his girl? Is this purposeful? Frank
Did you know Frank that for around $10 thousand you can buy a sex robot? From what I have read this is a going thing . . The thing of the future. Comical and sad at same time.
@Gloria Mitchell It does not surprise me. Unfortunately, initially at least, until "male chauvinism" kicks in again, they will all be female....... frank
Greek myths have some scary ideas about robots and A.I. “Our ability to imagine artificial intelligence goes back to the ancient times…” A Greek vase painting, dating to about 450 BCE, depicts the death of Talos, an early conception of a robot from Greek myth. (Credit: Forzaruvo94/Wikimedia Commons) The story of Talos, which Hesiod first mentioned around 700 BCE, offers one of the earliest conceptions of a robot. "The myth describes Talos as a giant bronze man that Hephaestus, the Greek god of invention and blacksmithing, built. Zeus, the king of Greek gods, commissioned Talos to protect the island of Crete from invaders. He marched around the island three times every day and hurled boulders at approaching enemy ships". "At his core, the giant had a tube running from his head to one of his feet that carried a mysterious life source of the gods the Greeks called ichor. Another ancient text, Argonautica, which dates to the third century BCE, describes how sorceress Medea defeated Talos by removing a bolt at his ankle and letting the ichor fluid flow out, Mayor says".
I agree with Musk that if we keep pushing the boundaries of robotics, keep heading towards AI computer brains that can not only outthink our species, but also control a robotic body beyond our capabilities, then the numerous sci-fi books about the end of H. sapiens will be realized, as the robots come to realize that our species is the greediest, most vile, murderous, wasteful, and self absorbed species on this planet. Asimov's rules will simply be overridden. We shouldn't be going down this road, although all other species on this planet would ultimately benefit from our extinction, except our obligate parasites