[Tyler]

Talking Robots: Inman Harvey
     

In the latest interview in the Talking Robots series we take a good, hard look at the
philosophical side of building robots. Inman Harvey from
the Center
for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics as well as the faculty
of the Evolutionary
and Adaptive Systems Group at the University of Sussex describes
robotics as an extension of the dream of artificial intelligence: To try
and recreate in a machine something that replicates some, hopefully many
of the properties of living creatures. As he points out, "it is
sometimes tempting to get immersed in the technical details of how to
build machines that do particular things. But [...] one has to stand
back and think at a far more deeper level than that, because inescapably
when you are trying to recreate something autonomous and in some sense
living [...] then clearly this requires you to take some considered
thought on what it is to be alive. And these are not just technical
questions, these are philosophical questions." Inman Harvey feels
that as a roboticists it's not good enough just to waive your arms and
say 'I think this is a good idea'. You have to actually try it out and
see if you can get it to work. As Harvey is the first to admit,
philosopher's talk is cheap, so listening
to this interview may not provide you with many answers. But it
might make you look a little bit closer next time you see your favorite
robot in action. And it might get you interested in some of the work
done in Sussex.
   

http://robots.net/article/2480.html
     

[GT40]

User: What time is it?

Robot: You talking to me?