Perhaps I took in a little too much Terminator stuff this year, like The Sarah Connor Chronicles, or the Enitech viral website that had some pretty freaky videos that seemed too real at times.
At least all that stuff is fake and made up, so nothing to worry about.
Right?
Well, there is a kid named Eddie who might disagree. He’s four-years old and plays Second Life all day.
Oh yeah, he’s a frakkin’ computer.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Skynet anyone?) has created an artificially intelligent computer that can play the game of Second Life on its own and reason like a four-year old child. It has its own beliefs and the ability to reason about those beliefs in order to draw conclusions, all at the level of a very young child.
What happens when Eddie turns 8? Or 16? Or 21? Will he decide that he’s sick of Second Life and start hacking Homeland Security?
Alright, I’m going overboard…but I will say, the idea for this blog post came to me over a week ago and then something else made it a bit more freaky. A few days ago, Adam posted a video about a robot called “Big Dog” that is being developed in Boston.
You watch the video, hear the terrifying buzzing sounds it makes as it walks over obstacles and then think about what might happen if they stuck a much older Eddie inside it…
Oh yeah, and the best part of the video is the guy who tries to kick the robot over, but it just wont go down. It’s actually fascinating and awesome, but still…scary.
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I swear, if this robot was coming towards me, buzzing and then started talking to me…”My name is Eddie, will you play Second Life with me?“…I’d freak out and run for my life.
Does the evolving world of artificial intelligence and robotics freak you out just a little bit? I saw I Robot (it sucked) and you never know what could happen.
No you’re hating on I Robot? No, AI doesn’t scare me, I live in a pretty good neighborhood.
Scotty Dub’s last blog post..Nothired.com, an inside look at HR