1. This article is now fifteen years old, and I have to wonder about all of the improvements have been made. Is it possible that androids will soon be – or already are – walking unnoticed amongst us? If so, I certainly hope that either the rules of Asimov or Star Trek’s Data will be in play.

2. Assume that a god exists and it created humankind. Does it loves its creation, or is it repulsed by its near god-like qualities?

3. Considering that the birth rate of many nations is decreasing, having androids to replace humans in many jobs will become a necessity.

ieatlettuce said: “I’ve always thought it funny that we (humans) want to make robots that look like us and do things like us. Surely the “design” of humans is not particularly practical – balancing on two legs is much harder than on four, not to mention all the other things that make us human, but are really unnecessary in a robot – blinking for example.

Also, I’ve never been to a Madame Tussauds but do they have the same problems there – where some people find the models too odd (too human perhaps?) to look at?
Finally, I remember hearing about a movie studio or production company or something that had bought the rights to use Bruce Lee’s image to make a movie featuring a life-like, CGI Bruce. Heresy is my cry and I am so glad it hasn’t come to fruition yet.”

When you think about it though, it makes sense to model robots after ourselves to some extent. The vast majority of things that an android would need to interact with in today’s world would have been originally designed with humans in mind. As such, the human form logically makes the most sense to duplicate in terms of trying to design a robot that can carry out day to day functions in a place such as a home, store, or restaurant.

[quote]Smiles: Also, and i am aware that this argument has been made too many times before, a computer will never truley be able to do everything a human does, becases humans learn and, by defination, a computer can not.[/quote]
Computers can’t learn? Now that’s new. There’s plenty of computers/software that are better at learning than most humans.

The Uncanny Valley will disappear in a single generation after human-like robots become prevalent in society. The children that grow up with them will not find anything uncanny or creepy because they will be well adjusted to the differences between real humans and robots. However, they will be masters at identifying what’s real and what’s not for this reason.

Robots that simulate humans will not be used in everyday life like people seem to be expecting. The “robot maid” will never happen because as someone had pointed out earlier, there are a lot of human details that are completely unnecessary/ill-suited for a robot. Robots that defuse bombs don’t look human, nor should they. The human simulations will thrive in movies, “customer service” where face-to-face interaction is needed/desired (like bartenders), the sex toy industry, and a few others. Basically, watch Star Wars and you’ll see where we’re headed for the most-part. Robots will be built to suit their function and that’s it. Anything beyond that would be poor design.

There will be ethical debates that will undoubtedly slow the progress of robots entering society, but eventually end with a new branch of laws that govern how robots should be created and who is punished if something goes wrong. If a robot bartender serves a drink to a child, should the designer be punished for not adding that restriction to the design, or would the bar owner be punished for allowing it to happen? (If you park a car on a steep hill and leave the parking brake off, and it rolls into a person, the car owner is responsible, not the car maker.) Is a sex robot built to look like a ten year old girl going to be illegal? Why should it be?… no child is being harmed. THIS is what we have to look forward to.”[/quote]

I like you thought process and I agree with you.

As for emotion, we do not really comprehend exactly how we convay our own emotions so there is almost no change that we will be able to program a robot to change it body language, heartbeat, smell, facial expression, speach and countless other things that doutlessly will change with emotion.

Also, and i am aware that this argument has been made too many times before, a computer will never truley be able to do everything a human does, becases humans learn and, by defination, a computer can not.

xxx

I can’t prove them without actually demonstrating them, and I can’t do that since the technology simply hasn’t been invented/perfected yet. However, I can make arguments about why it should be possible eventually, and that’s what I’ve already been doing.

None of the arguments made so far against computer simulation of human reactions are good scientific reasons why it can’t be done, they’re merely people’s superstitious feelings that it shouldn’t be possible, and that simply isn’t a good argument. Yes, it truly may not be possible, but I haven’t heard one rational reason why not yet, and the evidence suggests that it should be possible, so that’s the best argument for why it probably is possible that I can give right now.

If you have some specific point I made that you’d like me to provide further arguments for, name it and I will.