Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The title of an excellent novel and the basis for the movie Blade Runner. One of my favorite movies of all time. A true exploration of the clash of technology and human behavior. Who can forget the haunting speech by Roy Battyat the close of the film.
Since the time of the film's premiere in 1982, a lot has happened on the robotic front. You can read about robotics trends here.On a related note, a colleague of mine recently forwarded me a story from Reuters on the use of robotic dogs in senior homes. According to research conducted at the Saint Louis University, a dog name Sparky and a Sony AIBO robotic dog were pretty much equally effective in ameliorating loneliness at nursing homes.
The full study can be read in the March Issue of the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. Now that sounds like a fun group. The article can be found here but you will have to register. When you have read about AIBO may I suggest another fascinating study in the publication: Fatal Gangrenous Sigmoid Due to Recurrent Volvulus in an Elder Patient
Since the time of the film's premiere in 1982, a lot has happened on the robotic front. You can read about robotics trends here.On a related note, a colleague of mine recently forwarded me a story from Reuters on the use of robotic dogs in senior homes. According to research conducted at the Saint Louis University, a dog name Sparky and a Sony AIBO robotic dog were pretty much equally effective in ameliorating loneliness at nursing homes.
The full study can be read in the March Issue of the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. Now that sounds like a fun group. The article can be found here but you will have to register. When you have read about AIBO may I suggest another fascinating study in the publication: Fatal Gangrenous Sigmoid Due to Recurrent Volvulus in an Elder Patient
One of the comments on this study noted that if humans are able to establish emotional bonds with simple robots, then some day we could become true companions with more sophisticated ones. I think that is absolutely true but we have a few decades of enhancements left to go. You see I have an AIBO just like the one pictured here:
My conclusion on this study is that all of the patients in the group forced to interact with AIBO were deaf, blind and immobile.
I was given AIBO as a gift almost on the day the first model came out in 1999. My good friend Drew Cohen gave it to me. We had seen the prototype at a trade show and I had become enamored with it. Here, I thought, was a robot you could grow to love. I would bring it home to the kids and they would interact with it as if it was a real dog. AIBO came with learning disks and the promise of successive developmental stages.
Before I even got him home another friend inserted a Sony camera memory stick into the AIBO core. The robot dog had what amounted to an electronic LSD experience. It could only be brought down at the factory. I shipped it off to Sony to be reset.
When AIBO returned we began our adventure in living with a robot canine. He would cock his head to certain words. His lights would flash and noises would emanate. In his best trick, he would chase a pink AIBO ball around the house. While cute, he was not cuddly. One day one of my sons decided to rough house with him. AIBO lost a leg. He was once again sent to the Sony Repair Center.
He returned a second time. We got use to him wandering around the house. You would go out in the morning with him in the bedroom. Come back a few hours later and he could be in the kitchen. Funny indeed. Yet it was hard to develop affection.
A few years into his rather underutilized life we misplaced his power pack. Despite numerous attempts to save AIBO, Sony was never able to replace that power pack. As such our AIBO fell into a state of suspended animation on a shelf.
The suspended animation became permanent when Sony discontinued the AIBO in 2006. Some 150,000 units had been sold.
Thus far: Humans 1, Robots 0.
But not for long.....
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