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The Data Acquisition Blog is the place for conversation and discussion about signal conditioning components and systems, digital and analog I/O modules, signal and data conversion and data acquisition software. Here, you'll find everything from application ideas, to news and industry trends, to hot topics and cutting edge innovations. This blog is inspired by the Data Acquisition newsletter from GlobalSpec, which you can subscribe to here.

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Are You Smarter Than a Robot?

Posted September 25, 2009 8:41 AM

In today's recessionary economy, many are worried about job security, but are you worried that some computer or intelligent machine might someday take away your job? Or perhaps completely displace humans? A recent article in the New York Times notes that a group of researchers who met at the Asilomar conference center in California discussed just such possibilities. There's wide debate about whether the rapid technological advances represent promise or a threat, with noted inventor Raymond Kurzweil being one prominent personality lining up on the side of the former, while William Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, takes the other side.

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#1

Re: Are You Smarter Than a Robot?

09/25/2009 2:20 PM

I don't think it has anything to do with being smarter. The real question would be are you stronger, faster, more agile, more precise, have higher endurance, need to sleep, need to eat, need to have mandatory breaks, need pay? The robot works for no pay (except the energy it consumes), does not need breaks (other than scheduled maintenance, and the occasional downtime) etc etc.

Can robots design esthetically pleasing device? how about make a sales call? I always prefer to reach a human being on the other end of the telly than navigate through a bunch of automated recordings.

I think robots might as well take over the jobs which are highly dangerous, in harsh environments, require multitudes of brute strength, speed, and agility, and which operate 24 hours a day preforming repetitive simple tasks.

We just have to be smart enough to know how to turn them off when they get a wild idea.

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#2
In reply to #1

Re: Are You Smarter Than a Robot?

09/26/2009 6:50 AM

Fine Tuned...(but)Intelligent Machines will be able to integrate Complex Evolutionary Algorithms to protect Human Life.And ...in the other fontier(s)...We must consider ourselves as Genetic"Object"Transformable,a pre requisit to survive in ab-normal and

hostile environments,such as common Space dificulties or (other)Planet adaptation....

See James Blish advanced concepts....or John Norseen(Lockheed

Martin) possibilities.They are around...

*For personalized communication... gnpmsonito@gmail.com

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#5
In reply to #1

Re: Are You Smarter Than a Robot?

09/26/2009 10:53 PM

Can a robot make an esthetically pleasing device?

Well maybe... Humans seem to have an ability to make god awful ugly junk at times! Seen the interiors of the newer Ford and Chevy pickups in the last few years? No artists were involved there!

They used to have such aesthetically pleasing flowing coutures and shapes, basically they just looked right.

Now they look like a D student in Auto-Cad drew up the designs and had his upholstery class flunky roommate do up the seats with crates and plywood as the suport structures.

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#7
In reply to #5

Re: Are You Smarter Than a Robot?

09/28/2009 11:44 AM

Not make... Design.

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#3

Re: Are You Smarter Than a Robot?

09/26/2009 9:34 AM

It is very unlikely that a robot or other artificial intelligence will be able to develop the ability to respond to a stimulus in a truly creative, illogical way. If the inputs to the sensory suite of the robot are outside the values anticipated by the programmer, it is unlikely that the robot will be able to respond in a creative and adaptive fashion. While a robot could be programmed to "learn" appropriate response from repeated encounters with similar events, how does one program creative response to new emergency situations? I.e., before someone had demonstrated the practicality of destroying high-rise structures with commercial aircraft, how would the programmer know that this event was a possible scenario? If a robot is extracting coal from a deep vein, and suddenly the ground beneath it collapses, will the robot be able to figure out what happened and how to recover from the predicament?

I think it will be a long, long time before machines will be capable of functioning at the level of creativity of the human mind. A CNC lathe may have the capability of reproducing itself, but not without the help of a human programmer...

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#9
In reply to #3

Re: Are You Smarter Than a Robot?

09/29/2009 8:05 AM

"Emergency situations"....How you adapt in an extensive theory CrypticMorphs+BioSemiotics ?Go behind my friend....Intelligent machine is a concept

and a project already done ! !....Compute Linguistics +Nanotechnology and you probably will understand a lot of things.....

(....)and...the philosophical Paradigm of Human Existence,"A(new)Man,behind Himself"...

___(......) and ....is an ERROR considering to develop such IRONRobot“sMade,ive been considering economic efficiency,too,and SECURITY ! !.....

FutureDynamics in "a desperate Time"...

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#10
In reply to #9

Re: Are You Smarter Than a Robot?

09/29/2009 12:14 PM

Wow, my head just exploded trying to understand what you said.

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#4

Re: Are You Smarter Than a Robot?

09/26/2009 6:02 PM

My problem with robots is they ALWAYS do what I tell them, other than that they're great. I get along with CNC and PLC stuff better than with people I just wish they were a little less trusting of my commands. The new model based stuff will tell you that you can't do that but that stuff cost money.

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#6

Re: Are You Smarter Than a Robot?

09/27/2009 1:27 PM

Robots can replace physical human effort, but I doubt they will ever replace the human mind. The saying ""work smarter not harder" is the path we should be striving to achieve. I don't think that is anything a robot can ever replace. A robot is something we as humans control. To think the opposite could be true is science fiction.

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#8

Re: Are You Smarter Than a Robot?

09/29/2009 4:49 AM

Yes, but not as repeatably accurate as they are

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