Should Robots Be Humanlike?

While there may be many good learnings in doing this, i wonder why? Humans are not perfect in everything they do. Some can run very fast, some can become very strong, some have awesome reflexes, some are great thinkers... but these are usually poor in everything else. Why not make something that is specific for a task?

When we want a washing machine, we want it to wash well... we would leave the running fast to our car and not to our washing machine or our computer would we ?

Maybe robotics is far more advanced than i care to know...maybe my post is totally OT i don't know.

i don't think i will live to see a robot do all the things i do. And be as good looking

"i don't think i will live to see a robot do all the things i do. And be as good looking"

Or, be as humble!

I don't think you are OT at all. A good point about specific functions.

As a lover of old Isaac Asimov novels, I have to love the idea of multi purpose robots that look like people. I have no reason to believe this...just a sort of nostalgia.

I suspect a robot that has multiple legs...like a spider...would be more useful. But creepier.

Why not? There are plenty of humans that are robotlike....

Nonsense, but generates headlines. A crawler inspector in a gas pipeline, a robotic aircraft, the two explorers on mars, the craft approaching a comet on its own, or a welding robot on an assembly line is anything but looking like us.

What for? Form follows purpose. Next time somebody claims bicycles should look like humans.

This may be way out there but here is my take on what will drive the human looking robot biz.

Make a robot that will clean and vacuum a house, you might sell a couple. Make a robot that can cook and serve food well and you will probably sell a couple of hundred. Make a robot that people will enjoy having sex with and you will be a billionaire overnight ...... that one is going to have to more than just look human.

what is Humanlike?

average?

sexy robot

sexy robots

sexy robot

sexy robot

and the ultimate in sexy robots...galaxina

Well, here's another take on this question...

It is not necessarily a good thing to make robots "more human like".

The more we think of them as "human" the more we expect them to behave like a human, and the more likely for us to have a problem if/when they don't.

I had an older, good friend who had been an inspector with Dept Labour & Industry (responsible for investigating workplace accidents).

This relates typically to industrial robots... (but "humanoid" robots would also fit this scenario).

He always explained that in his work investigations, the more workers treated a robot as human, (like giving it a name) the more likely they were to suffer an accident as a result of expecting the robot to respond as a human would. e.g. they would call the auto pallet loader robot "George", and start to think of it as having "intelligence". Gradually "familiarity would breed contempt", where someone would expect the robot to "know" not to swing its arm across when they were within the workspace, with the obvious consequences.

So, the more we think of a robot as "human", the more potential there is for "accidents" when "George", doesn't think and/or act like me.

This is only one very small part of the equation, but it is a real life example of problems that arose when humans expextations exceeded the capability of the robot.

Discuss...

Well, I dunno...sounds like Darwin in Action to me!!!!

I call my car Christine! I "feel" for it when i scrape a fender. But when it comes time to send it off to the wreckers, I don't shed a tear. I am absolutely certain that many people I know would!