Question #5
What is a robot, to you?
posted by Journey | 12:42 PM
My Surreality Check Bounced
"Why settle for a twig when you can climb the whole tree?"
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- Name: Journey
- Location: Binghamton, NY, United States
Journey is a rogue English major gone guerilla tech. She is currently owned by two cats, several creditors, and a coyote that doesn't exist. See "web page" link for more details about the coyote.
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4 Comments:
I'll take a stab at this. A robot is any machine that can perform a human function. For example: a dishwasher is NOT a robot; it's a machine performing a machine function. But, a machine that can clear the table and load the dishwasher, that's a robot.
The distinction is somewhat artificial, as it depends on our shifting understanding of the boundaries between machine and human capabilities.
--durangodave
Hmmm....I'll say that a machine is anything that responds to a specific external stimulis without conscious thought or choice based on what some other outside force deems to be the correct response (ie - see "Clerks" line "Try thinking for yourselves you easily led automatons!")
Just for the sake of discussion, the Oxford English Dictionary's first definition reads, "One of the mechanical men and women in Capek's play; hence, a machine (sometimes resembling a human being in appearance) designed to function in place of a living agent, esp. one which carries out a variety of tasks automatically or with a minimum of external impulse." - I did only look that up after writing the first part!
RH
A good question, and not one we can easily answer. A robot, we think, is a semi-autonomous or fully-autonomous device, but beyond that.. no idea how we could better define it.
So, Journey, what do you think about the essence of AI and robots?
-durangodave
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