"The first cyborg, Kevin Warwick." "A human being wants to become a machine." "I do feel that what we are doing is something dangerous." "But, on the other hand, it is science." "I hope it helps change the way people think." "Four neurosurgeons spent over 2 hours to implant the device." "The surgeons, too, were breaking new ground." "They had to open up my nervous system in order to attach the electrodes directly to my nervous system" "It was a really long procedure." "Wow, I felt a real electric shock in the area around my thumb!" "You'll have to get used to that." "It appears everything went very well." "I'm a little bit concerned because my wife is driving, but, otherwise, everything seems to have gone well." "There was of course the danger of infection, and the operation could have had serious consequences, especially for my brain, once we started sending impulses into the nervous system." "We couldn't be sure that everything would go smoothly." "This is what was implanted." "This small chip contains 100 electrodes that were connected directly to my nervous system, roughly in the same way one plugs something into an electrical outlet." "Wires were threaded under my skin." "They came out here and were attached to this device." "The nerve impulses were relayed by a transmitter to a computer whenever I moved my hand." "The computer was also able to send impulses into my nervous system, and thereby directly to my brain." "See, I made a fist." "Thank you, hand." "You're welcome." "My brain signals were able to control two hands at the same time." "My real hand and the robotic hand." "When the robotic hand gripped an object, the small sensors on the fingertips of the robotic hand sensed it, and the signals were transmitted through the computer into my nervous system so that my brain was able to recognize the impulses again." "The harder the hand gripped, the stronger were the impulses in my brain." "I tried to manipulate the robotic hand to grasp an object lightly rather than squeezing it." "I was also able to move the hand from a distance." "I was in New York and the hand was in England." "Literally, a sort of bodily extension reaching over the Atlantic." "I would love to not only communicate between different nervous systems, but also directly between different brains." "Just as my implant connected my nervous system directly to the computer, and I became a sort of cyborg, half man, half machine, the same principles apply here." "This is a biological brain with the brain cells of a rat, and it controls a robot." "It could also be powered by human brain cells." "We can send electrical signals to the brain through these black terminal points." "And then we observe how the various electrodes react." "Then we attach the electrodes to the body of the robot so that the sensory input of the robot stimulates the brain." "The brain can process the information, think it over, in a way, and then move the robot in another direction." "After a period of time, when it completes a task over and over, the synapses between the nerve cells strengthen, and the robot improves at moving around without colliding with other objects." "We can see that and also comprehend it neurologically." "With this work, we hope to understand some of the fundamental mechanisms of the human brain." "It might aid us in the war against Alzheimer's and other brain diseases." "Robotics can help us test various theories." "Many scientists believe it might be dangerous to make robotics systems even more intelligent." "They fear that in the future a network of highly intelligent military robots could arise, like something out of the movie "The Terminator"." "These robots could start to think for themselves, and they could decide that they no longer want to heed their human masters." "And we want machines that can think for themselves and do things better than we can." "It is dangerous, and we humans must be aware of that." "Therefore, we should research how to improve our own abilities, not only those of machines." "Otherwise we might face a future in which the machines make the decisions and humans are a subspecies." "Clones and avatars" "How many of you are there on Earth?" "Somewhere around 200,000." "My basic interest is the human itself." "I want to understand the make-up of a person." "That's why I build robots." "I find practical robots less interesting." "I want to concentrate on the fundamental questions." "In building androids I want to discover the composition of a human presence." "There is still much to improve." "Human skin is very complex, as are the mechanical parts for the movements and the operating system." "When I built an android clone of myself four years ago," "I established the technology for skin sensors and mechanical design and some control, the programs." "Now I'm concentrating on the facial expressions, like laughter and anger." "The new android has somewhat fewer movement gradients than my clone, which uses more than 50 motors." "In the new version we have improved the android's communication capabilities." "The reduction in the number of motors reduces prices and makes mass-production easier." "Museums and research labs have various uses for such androids." "Somebody has to operate the android with a small computer and a small camera." "The camera follows the movements of the lips and head." "It records movements and voices and transmits them to the android." "The android has automated functions for blinking its eyes, which results in a very human-like android." "The Telenoid is the next-generation telephone, a robotic telephone." "When we telephone, we just use our sense of hearing." "When we teleconference, we also use our sight." "But with robotics we can also use our sense of touch, and the robot can express emotions." "So, we can exchange more information, and the people telephoning can better sense the emotions of the others." "I found your bald head off-putting the first time I held you." "Telenoids are without gender and age." "Therefore they can be handled by anyone." "They can exude any human personality." "When the android smiled at the assembled media, they smiled back." "Laughing is a vital part of a conversation, and it eases communication between an android and a group of people." "In some respects the android is better than humans." "With other humans, for instance, we hesitate to touch them." "But the android we don't hesitate to touch, even when it looks like a human." "We accept the android intuitively as a friend." "Normally, there's a barrier between two humans who are strangers, but not with an android." "The artificial intelligence we are using now is not good enough." "Only when we create a perfect copy of the human brain will we have complete knowledge of the human being." "But human beings are not so straightforward, and the human brain is very complex." "In building these robots, we have discovered just how complex humans are." "I don't know when our androids will pass the Turing test." "No idea." "Even if you go far away, you will not be lonely." "I must leave now." "OK then, good night." "The definition of a human is changing." "One hundred years ago, society did not consider someone without an arm or a leg a full person." "But today, of course we do." "We don't know how the definitions will change in the future." "Who will count as a human being and who will not?" "Nobody knows." "The definition of a human changes, and society changes." "When we change our definition of a human, then we will accept the new technologies." "Man and machine are going to be merged." "Therefore the human will no longer define himself based on his physical being." "So we have to concentrate on what's going on in his mind." "But I don't know what that can be:" "the soul, self-awareness, or emotions." "Anyway, by changing the definition of a human we can learn more about ourselves." "For scientists and artists, it is important to reach a better understanding of humans." "Actually, it's important for everyone, I think." "The Robot Children" "CB2 has many sensors." "It has cameras in its eyeballs, microphones in its ears, and countless sensors under its silicone skin." "This enables it to have an intensive exchange with its surroundings." "When you call to it, it can react." "To study the development phases of a human child through the use of a robotic child there needs to be a close bond between the robotic child and its caregiver." "That's why we believe the robotic child should have a body that is soft to the touch." "CB2 has a soft skin and many motors, so that it can move flexibly and naturally." "Like a human being." "Most people's first impression of the robots is not good, but that changes once they have communicated with the robot." "The interaction between man and machine is pivotal in our acceptance of robots." "This is the only humanoid robot that has so many degrees of freedom, and so much freedom of movement." "This allows us to study precise movement patterns." "We have equipped the robot with the ability to recognize its own body schema." ""Are my arms long enough to grab an object?"" "My laboratory concerns itself with the robots' ability to learn, especially in cooperation with humans." "This is akin to how children learn by observing." "We would like to give robots such abilities, so that they can also learn on their own, and not merely fulfill pre-programmed tasks." "When the robot looks human-like, it's easier to train." "However, making it more human-like does not mean it must have exactly the normal number of fingers or the normal body mass." "After all, all humans are different." "Some robots have very dexterous hands, others less so." "Some can control their hands autonomically better than others." "Like humans, then, robots can have wide ranges of abilities and weaknesses." "Inventor and futurologist" "On technological progress, singularity, and the future." "Singularity cannot be explained in one sentence." "The core of the thesis is that information technology is growing exponentially." "It doubles, generally every year." "It's a very uniform exponential rise." "In the last hundred years, computers have become a billion times more powerful." "Since I was a student it has multiplied trillion-fold." "But it's not just all about computers." "Until recently, health and medicine did not belong to the information technology field." "Now we have unlocked the human genome;" "the "software of life"." "Health and medicine will become a part of information technology." "We will soon be in the position to rewrite our genes, our "software"." "Our genes have evolved over millions of years." "The insulin fat receptor gene tells you to hold onto every calorie you can, because the next hunting season might not be as successful." "I, however, would like to tell my genes, "don't do that", because I am sure I will have enough to eat tomorrow." "We have the technology to reprogram genes today." "One can deactivate genes with RNA interference." "They did that in animals." "They eat a lot yet stay thin and live 20% longer." "There are 23,000 genes with which we could potentially tinker." "Health and medicine are part of information technology, and it becomes twice as efficient every year." "Our intuition says something else." "Yes, there is progress, but it is linear." "What's the difference?" "If I take 30 steps linearly, it is 1, 2, 3...30." "When I take 30 steps exponentially, it is 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and I reach a billion." "That's the reality of information technology." "It's not a vain prediction for the future." "When I was a student we all shared a computer that cost tens of millions of dollars and took up half a building." "This little computer is a million times cheaper, thousands of times more powerful, and only a tiny fraction of the size." "Today's computers fit into one's pockets." "In 25 years, it will fit into a blood cell." "Long-term prognoses underestimate the change because they don't take into account the nature of this exponential acceleration." "The singularity results from looking at the implications of what I've just said." "Exponential growth of information technology some three or four decades." "By 2045, we will have multiplied the collective intelligence of our human-machine civilization by billions." "Our intelligence will have become merged with the intelligence of machines." "That we will borrow the metaphor of singularity from physics is a truly unique and profound change." "In physics, singularity is a black hole, a rip in space-time." "What happens thereafter is so different, unique, and bizarre that we don't want to predict it." "On the expansion of the abilities of humans." "I believe we're going to keep our humanity." "I don't like the term "transhumanist", because it implies that we will overcome our humanity." "On the other hand, I think we overcome biology." "Even today we are the only species that is surpassing the boundaries of biology." "1000 years ago, the average life-expectancy was 23 years." "I recently told my students they would have all been senior citizens back then." "In 1800 the life-expectancy was 37." "No eugenics, no antibiotics." "Instead, tuberculosis." "Typically one died between 30 and 40." "Now we are beginning to understand processes in biology as a kind of "software"." "At the moment we haven't reached a full understanding, but we will in twenty years." "We will be able to turn genes on and off, which will allow us to live longer." "We will merge with our technology." "Someday the computer will be inside my body, inside my brain." "That sounds very futuristic, but consider that even today many people have computers inside their bodies." "Artificial, computerized pancreases." "Parkinson's patients have computers in their brains that take over the functions of nerve cells damaged by the disease." "The newest version can even be upgraded with new software from the outside." "There was a New York Times article recently that raised concerns about people hacking into the software." "These technologies are still in an early stage but they are growing exponentially." "One billion times faster, a thousand times smaller, in 25 years." "We will be able to increase our brain power without an operation by transporting small computers into our brains through our blood vessels." "Then we can transport ourselves directly into virtual realities." "We will be able to expand our thought processes and memory capacities." "Connect ourselves directly to the internet." "It's useful, because you won't lose what you carry in your body." "Roboticized white blood cells will immunize the body against illness-causing organisms." "These are some of the things we will see in the next 20-30 years." "The non-biological evolution of man and his fusion with machines." "We're going to become increasingly non-biological." "Machines can do many things that we cannot, but we can also do things that machines cannot." "For instance, to be funny, which is one of the most sophisticated things we do." "But even this gap between man and machine will close." "That's not an invasion of extraterrestrial machines." "We invent these machines to expand and extend us." "We will become one with them." "In 2035, we biological humans will have become like parents, but hybrids out of biological and non-biological intelligence." "The non-biological, the machine part of their intelligence, will grow exponentially." "This is part of their nature." "The biological part, however, will stay roughly the same." "Maybe we'll learn a few tricks, such as how one can better learn." "But that's about it." "In 2045, the bulk of our thinking will be non-biological." "It's a gradual evolution, but also a fast one." "We won't mutate from a biological lifeform to a robotic one, but change gradually." "Many people find this unsettling and are opposed." "When it comes to real practical applications, such as bridging broken nerves, then everyone is enthusiastic and nobody protests." "When it comes to better treatments for heart problems or cancer, suddenly the philosophical reservations go out the window, and nobody questions, "should we prolong life?"" "Only when we discuss it in the abstract do the opponents come out of the woodwork." "There will be many small steps, each one on its own quite conservative and well-tested." "But the advancements will follow each other with increasing rapidity." "On the impossibility of preventing technological progress." "It's going to happen because each change makes sense." "The advantages will be so overwhelming that it will be irresistible." "The only thing that could prevent it is if society decided to stop delving into genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics, because these technologies are too dangerous." "Frankly, there are legitimate concerns, but a ban would require a totalitarian world government." "That was the premise of the novel, "Brave New World"." "In the book, prohibition didn't work." "The technology simply went underground, where it became even more dangerous." "Only a totalitarian regime can hamper technological progress, and that's something surely no one wants, because there's still much human suffering that can be overcome." "On the distribution and costs of new technologies." "This is not some alien civilization that's being created." "Technology is everywhere, not only in the hands of elites." "There are some who say only the rich will be able to afford these technologies." "Yeah, like cell phones." "There are 5 billion cell phones in the world." "Every third African owns one." "Every second Chinese farmer owns one." "Soon there will be smartphones with which one can access the totality of mankind's knowledge." "1 billion smartphones are already in use." "New technological products are always expensive at first, and don't work well." "Once they are perfected they cost virtually nothing and almost everyone can own them." "The law of the acceleration of technological progress." "Because of what I call the law of accelerating returns, the capacity of technology doubles every year, and this is happening at an increasing pace." "In 1900 it took 3 years; in 1950, 2 years, and in 2000, twelve months." "And now, just 11 months." "New possiblities emerge every year." "Why didn't we think of the Ipod 15 years ago?" "It would have cost $10,000 a piece." "Then suddenly it became affordable, as did fax machines, digital cameras, websites like Wikipedia or Facebook." "Everything becomes viable when it makes sense from a cost perspective." "The U.S. Department of Health is collecting 1 million genomes, so it can, thanks to this databank, better predict disease risks." "That wouldn't be possible if the sequencing of each genome still cost 1 million dollars." "There are constantly new opportunities." "This is an exciting time to be an entrepreneur." "If he misses one opening, ten new ones open up." "On the development of new medicines." "The pharmaceutical industry complains how difficult it has become to find new medicines." "Well, there's a whole new methodology that's coming to bear now." "The old methodology was called "drug discovery"." "It meant going through ten thousand chemical compounds to find one that lowered blood pressure." "All that without knowing exactly why and how something worked." "Not surprisingly, many of these drugs had side effects." "It's kind of like looking for one's tools on the ground." ""Oh, here's a rock!" "This would make a pretty good hammer."" "We couldn't design tools from the ground up for specific tasks." "Today we understand the software of life." "We can turn genes on and off, or even change them, and then verify the whole thing on the computer with a simulated biological organism." "The new methodology is called the "rational drug discovery"." "The term has been around for a while, but only recently have we begun using the relevant tools." "In 10 years, these tools will be a thousand times more powerful." "In 20 years, the factor will amount to 1 million." "We are just at the very beginning." "It's comparable to the dotcom boom." "At first everyone said, "this will change all business models"." "The stock prices went through the roof." "After 3 years, the bankers said, "But nothing has changed; we were mistaken"." "And all stocks fell again." "During this time, everything progressed, and exponentially to boot." "But exponential growth is not the same as instant growth." "It starts very slowly, because the numbers that are doubling are low numbers." "It only started to really take off after the dotcom crash, and today there are businesses like Google that make $20 billion." "E-commerce in total is in the area of $2 trillion." "It will be the same in the pharmaceutical and health industries." "With the knowledge we have today, we can sit down and find out how cancer, heart disease, and diabetes really work." "Then we can program the biology away from it." "But we have to have some patience to let the process take hold." "It'll be about 10-15 years, but within 20 years medicine will look completely different." "On artificial intelligence and the design of the brain." "I've been involved with artificial intelligence and have had an interest in the brain as a model for A.I. for 50 years, so I think I understand the complexity as well as anyone." "Many people overestimate the complexity of the human brain and maintain it requires billions of lines of software code to simulate the brain, because there are hundreds of billions of connections between the nerve cells." "But the design of the brain is contained in the genome, and the genome only contains 50 million bytes of information." "That translates to about 1 million lines of software code." "Granted, it isn't a conventional programming language." "The genome is expressed in complex three-dimensional proteins, and they interact with each other in an equally complex way." "Even so, actually there are only 25 million bytes in the blueprint of the brain." "The other half are used to interact with the environment." "Part of the paradigm of the human brain is the ability to learn and react to a complex world." "Artificial intelligence must be able to do the same." "Even that, though, is nothing magical." "We can write teaching programs for artificial intelligence systems, and the systems will learn." "Presently, at Carnegie Mellon University, a program is being developed that formulates concepts in a fashion similar to the neocortex." "It isn't a simulation of the neocortex, but only simulates the form in which language concepts are understood." "The system reads and learns on its own." "For example, the concept of stocks, or what irony is, or humour; all these concepts about which we argue." "Sometimes it makes mistakes, confusing one meaning with another, such as chocolate chips and electronic chips." "In that case, the system gets corrected, and it goes through everything anew." "Much like a human being, when a teacher corrects an error." "There's a tremendous amount of redundancy in the brain." "What happens in the cerebellum when we learn skills, such as catching a ball?" "The cerebellum is made up of cell patterns that are repeated 10 billion times, with minor, coincidental deviations." "When we learn to walk, to talk, to catch a ball, the system is filled with information and we learn." "In the most important region of the brain, the neocortex, there are hierarchical gradations." "It allows us the ability to organize ideas in a pattern, to give the pattern a name, and to utilize it in combination with another idea." "In this way we can develop entire hierarchies of ideas." "That's what we call knowledge." "This happens in the neocortex." "A billion tiny modules perform the recognition of patterns, and thus we can learn patterns and recognize them." "A capital "a" on a line, for example." "Other modules effect the recognition of irony or humour." "These modules are on a higher plateau." "You might think these more highly placed modules would be more complex, but they're not." "They're identical." "They're just positioned higher in a very sophisticated hierarchy." "A girl had brain surgery." "Since the brain doesn't have any pain receptors, one can operate on a patient who is fully awake." "Every time the surgeons touched a certain area of her brain, she began to laugh." "Did they trip a laugh reflex?" "No, they actually triggered the region of the neocortex where humour is recognized as such." "When they prodded this area, she just found everything funny." ""You guys are funny just standing there", was one of her typical comments." "That may seem mechanical and reductionist, but this is how the neocortex functions." "Our principal point, though, is that this module, which has a certain amount of complexity in it, and there's some complexity in how they're wired, but there are a billion of them in the brain." "So, the brain possesses a lot of redundancy and organizes itself as a result of its interaction with its surroundings." "The brain is not a simple system, but we can by all means handle its degree of complexity." "There are simulations, like Markram's Blue Brain Project, and many others." "Some are done at the molecular level, while others examine the functional and try to grasp the algorithms." "All of these efforts are benefiting from the exponential growth of information technology." "One does not have to simulate every single molecule and every single connection, because many of them are restricted by their biological natures and are not functional." "Critics of these endeavours forget about the power of the aforementioned exponential growth." "They are thinking linearly, which suits our human intuition." "If I thought that the progress in brain science were linear, then I would also believe we are far away from being able to recreate the human brain and its full abilities." "However, I believe we will have sufficient success to make it operable by 2029." "A look inside the brain" "We're in the early stages now of having enough resolution to see inside the brain." "Just a few years ago, even the best scanners produced nothing more than nice, colourful pictures, which allowed us to see what was happening in the brain, and where." "But they didn't have enough precision to understand the sequences." "Now, with non-invasive brain scanners we can see individual intraneural connections." "We watch as new synapses and dendrites develop." "We watch in real time how new nerve cells communicate with each other." "That's something that only became possible 2 or 3 years ago." "Do machines have new ideas of their own?" "Machines come up with creative ideas all the time." "We use genetic algorithms, for example, to simulate evolution, and let them collaborate to find solutions to a problem." "Every algorithm represents a genome, which, in turn, represents a solution." "These genetic algorithms are going through an artificially accelerated evolution, and often suggest brilliant and exciting solutions." "Solutions that, in their complexity, are often very organic." "That's one way to get original ideas." "If you look at this Carnegie Mellon project, which I mentioned earlier, it reads all the information it finds on the internet." "No human can read all that." "That's the advantage of machines." "Machines don't yet understand as much of what they read as humans, but that will change." "The system is already surprising us with its unique perceptiveness." "The "superbrain" of the future" "Since I wrote my book, "The Singularity is Near", in 2005, there has been tremendous progress." "I'm still of the opinion that, by 2029, we will be able to fabricate a brain comparable to a human one." "The goal is to really understand how the brain works, not to make a simulation of it, as Markram is doing." "Then we can use engineering and technology to devise intelligent systems that contain these mechanisms." "These have the advantage of not having to supply biological nerve cells with blood." "That's what engineering does well." "They obeyed Bernoulli's Principle, which postulates that a wing rises when somewhat less air flows over its upper side." "The scientific community still doesn't agree on why that is the case." "The engineers took the principle, amplified it, and created the world of aviation." "When we understand the fundamental principles by which the brain fosters intelligent behaviour, we can make improvements on the brain to a factor of millions." "There are a billion little modules in the neocortex that give us the ability to recognize patterns." "Why only 1 billion?" "Why not 10 billion or 1 trillion?" "We can separate about 8 hierarchies." "Why not 20, or 100?" "We could expand everything." "Our neocortex is the size of a napkin, folded so that it fits into our cranium." "Why is it that small?" "It could be much bigger." "It would no longer communicate with semiochemicals and could therefore exchange its information a million times faster; and so forth." "The Genome Project and the exponential nature of scientific research." "It is important to understand the exponential nature of scientific advances." "The Genome Project took 15 years." "The skeptics came forward after 7 years." ""We knew it." "Half of the predicted time has passed and you have only unlocked 1%"" ""It's flawed." "It will take forever."" "But the project was right on schedule." "At first one doubles low numbers." "In 1989, only 1/10,000 of the genome had been unlocked." "When one has 1%, one only has to double seven times to reach over 100%." "That's exactly how it transpired, and all mistakes were corrected in time." "In 2003, seven years later, the projected was complete." "At the time, it took 5 years to sequence HIV." "Today we unlock a virus in one day." "It'll be the same with the brain." "We are the machines" "We are the machines." "They are a part of us." "We created them to extend our reach." "If they took away all of our machines, our civilization would come to a standstill." "Were we always dependent on machines?" "No." "Just 15 or 20 years ago most things were still done manually." "By technical means, yes, but not with computers." "Today we are already very dependent on intelligent machines." "What is consciousness?" "Consciousness is a difficult, subtle issue." "To my mind, it isn't a purely scientific problem, because there's no falsifiable experiment that could prove whether something possesses consciousness or not." "To reach such a conclusion requires one to make philosophical assumptions." "The philosopher, Hameroff, believes that calculations of the microtubules, which are stabilizing structures in the cells, are responsible for consciousness." "Penrose also believes awareness-forming quantum effects begin in the microtubules." "Others maintain that everything is based on the distribution of neurotransmitters." "Dan Dennett says the most important aspect is that consciousness possesses a model of its own thinking." "That is consciousness." "These are all philosophical inferences." "Another belief is that there's an entity called "God", who bestows a soul on humans." "A soul is for many people a synonym for consciousness." "But this religious theory doesn't pretend to be anything but a leap of faith." "Many other theories present themselves as science, and I don't understand how they get away with it." "There's a fundamental difference between "subjectivity", a synonym for consciousness, and "objectivity", a synonym for science and rationality." "Machines will have emotions and consciousnesses." "My view, and it's a leap of faith and an assumption, is that consciousness exists when a system is complex enough." "I accept the Turing Test, which isn't really a test of consciousness, but tests the performance of a system." "Whether a machine that is communicating with a human can convincingly evince a consciousness." "Right now, there are avatars with artificial intelligence in computer games and on the internet." "But they are not yet very persuasive." "They are lacking nuance." "By 2029, they will be convincingly real, and then we'll accept them as conscious." "That's a political prognosis." "If we don't manage it, they'll be furious with us." "They'll be very intelligent and influential, and we won't want." "I think that when something seems conscious, then it is." "The core of my prediction is that future machines will be so subtle and complex that they will be convincingly human-like." "We will integrate with them." "That doesn't mean we will become machines ourselves, as one might archaically interpret the word "integrate"." "We won't become robots." "They will enhance our humanity." "A Parkinson's patient moves a bit like a robot until he gets this brain implant and becomes more human again." "When your mother says, "I'm not a machine, and don't want to become one", she's thinking of the machines she knows, and of course she's right." "But the machines of the future will be completely different." "But no emotions, right?" "Oh, they'll have emotions." "That's the whole point." "If you talk about intelligence without emotions then you talk about logical thinking." "Computers are already better at logical thinking than we are." "Mathematicians have no chance against a computer." "No human is able to beat the chess computer anymore." "The chess world champion can occasionally still hold his own, but not really." "It's specifically emotional thinking where we exceed." "Emotion is the most complex, impressive thing we do." "Being funny, understanding jokes, making ironic comments, being angry or jealous." "Those are all very complex, subtle, and intelligent behaviour patterns." "One must be able to do just that in order to pass the Turing Test." "One doesn't pass it by solving a math problem." "By the way, computers have recently solved mathematical problems, even ones that are too hard for humans." "No, one passes the test by showing emotion." "The complexity of emotions" "It's actually our more benign, noble emotions that are the more complex ones." "A lynch mob, in its intolerance is actually not showing a high level of intelligence." "Humans are good at expressing love and compassion, which are the more difficult emotions." "Can one even have feelings if one doesn't have a body?" "Ultimately, our higher-level emotions are not dependent on having a human-like body." "But I do think machines have to have some kind of a body, maybe a virtual one." "You see all these avatars in the game, "Second Life"." "Behind almost every one is a biological human being." "But some of them are just agents with artificial intelligence; bots." "They don't stay undiscovered for very long anymore, but they getting better all the time." "Still, it's true." "Emotions have a lot to do with our bodies and their needs and wants." "Some kind of equivalent will be needed." "New technologies are always double-edged, yet our lives always get better" "Technologies are a double-edged sword." "That was the case with fire, stone tools, and the wheel." "They brought us progress, but were also misused for destructive purposes." "Being able to manipulate biology to avert cancers, heart disease, diabetes, etc., is a good thing." "But the same technology could be exploited by bioterrorists." "We have to be prepared to react quickly to that potentiality." "A biological immune system." "I'm working with the U.S. Army on a project that can detect and disable such a virus, in a way similar to which we combat computer viruses." "Nanotechnology can help us make products out of information, since it can reorganize molecules." "This opens up amazing possibilities." "But it could also be used nefariously to, for example, create self-propagating super-weapons." "There are preventative measures for that." "Not easy ones, but doable." "The biggest hazard is that systems that are smarter than us decide to rise up against us." "That's why there are many discussions about how we can ensure that these artificial intelligence beings of the future remain friendly; that they respect mankind's ethos and mores." "Many ideas are being bandied about to that end, too." "These technologies will be both useful and destructive." "We experienced that in the past." "180 million people died in the wars of the 20th century." "Technology has caused a lot of destruction in human history." "On the other hand, human life is much better than it was before." "Thomas Hobbes describes life in the 16th century." "Short, brutal, and full of disaster and disease." "Life was extremely hard for 99.9% of people." "Even for the privileged." "200 years ago, there was no hygiene, no antibiotics, etc." "There's still much suffering in the world, but all in all we have gained more than we have lost." "There are people who say science and technology are the source of our problems, but I don't agree with that." "But I'm also not of the opinion that everything is positive." "There are two sides, and we have to work to avoid misuse of scientific advances." "If I could live hundreds of years" "If one were to live hundreds of years, wouldn't life get tedious, because one would be doing the same things over and over again?" "Yes, I agree." "If we had radically longer lives without radical life enhancements, it would get boring." "But, both things will happen." "We will expand our personalities." "We will have computers in our bodies, and thereby improve our abilities and knowledge." "We will be able to encounters millions of virtual environments directly." "We will expand our emotional capacities." "We will become more creative." "All of these things make life worth living." "I want to be around to see that, experience it, and help contribute to it." "People ask, if one lives so long, will one not be like a 95-year-old of today." "Living 400 years with all those medical debilities doesn't sound very appealing." "And when I say it will be more like 400 years at 30 years of age, that doesn't sound appealing either." "Except, we are extending our lives, and the same technologies will facilitate that." "Bridges to immortality" "We do have for someone of my 62 years enough possibilities to lengthen my life to such an extent that I can reach the next level, where there's so much knowledge that I can live a very, very long life." "One bridge leads to another, and another." "The second bridge is the point in time when biotechnology will see the fruits of it labour." "That will only take another 15 years or so." "It'll be ready in 2025." "I am now 62." "Extensive tests prove that my biological age is over 40." "I'm aging very slowly, so I hope to be in good enough shape in 15 years to benefit from the next revolution." "And that will give me time to experience the nanotechnology revolution." "The first bridge is the application of what we know today, and one can do a lot more today than people realize." "One aging process is the depletion of a certain substance with a complicated name - "phosphatidylcholine" - in our cell membranes." "After about 10 years, every one of our 3 billion cells is made up of about 90% phosphatidylcholine." "It's an outstanding substance, which releases nutrients into the cells and keeps them soft and healthy." "This substance gradually depletes." "The body produces it, but not fast enough." "At 90 years old, we typically only have 10%, and the cell membranes have filled up with fat, cholesterol, and other rigid substances." "That's why old people's skin is leathery and no longer soft, and their organs don't work as well anymore." "But aging doesn't just lie therein." "There are roughly a dozen different processes." "But this process is very easy to remediate, by increasing the phosphatidylcholine." "I do that with pills and infusions." "Another aging process is the clogging of arteries with plaque:" "Arteriosclerosis." "Most people have arteriosclerosis, even if they don't have heart disease." "That hardens the arteries and burdens the circulation." "It's the main cause for heart attacks and strokes, and it leads to impotence." "It's one of the main causes of disease and death." "Today, we have the knowledge to stop arteriosclerosis, and even reverse it." "This is not as easy as with phosphatidylcholine, where one can simply take a pill." "Cholesterol and infections contribute to it." "We understand these processes enough to stop them." "If we approach it aggressively enough, no one needs to get heart diseases." "That why I'm very aggressive about it." "35 years ago, I had very high cholesterol." "Today it's very low." "I don't have arteriosclerosis." "Part of my procedure to stay healthy is to look into my body and take regular blood tests." "That way I can tailor a program to fit me." "I ingest about 150 substances a day." "Most are nutritional supplements, but there are also some medications, such as Metformin." "It is a very good substance that I would recommend to everyone over 50." "It engenders the same biochemical changes as if one were to eat less." "Such treatments are abundant." "If you know your stuff and approach treatment aggressively, you can dramatically slow the aging process." "Swallowing a few pills isn't sufficient." "That will only be possible in the future, but it's worth it, because getting sick is no fun." "The Singularity University - A talk with Peter Diamandis" "The university's mission is to focus on "grand challenge" problems and exponentially growing technologies." "A group of people invited by Peter Diamandis and Ray Kurzweil met here at the NASA campus two years ago." "Experts in the areas technology, robotics, medicine, finance, entrepreneurship, and future studies." "They advised what kind of university would be inspiring for coming generations of experts, and helped them understand the technical fundamentals of exponentially-growing technology, business implications, the innovation possibilities, some dietetic considerations, as well as the risk management" "of such technologies." "I run the X-Prize Foundation." "We offer interested scientists prizes of over $10 million to find breakthroughs that will dramatically change society." "In my opinion, such breakthroughs will be made possible by exponentially growing technology." "Today, small groups of people can spearhead such projects, whereas in the past only large firms or governments could." "For example, space flights, genome sequencing, or robots on the moon." "But there was no venue where one could find out the latest about exponential technologies." "Where are all these technologies leading?" "We founded Singularity University to answer these questions." "Here the leading minds can study where the technology will be in 5-20 years, and how to use the technology to solve the big, intriguing problems of mankind." "Today a person's tools are extraordinary." "Computers, nanomaterial, biological controls of life." "All of these allow every one of us to do the work of hundreds or thousands people." "I think about the fact that a smartphone-owning African tribesman in Nigeria or Ethiopia has better telecom capabilities than the U.S. president of 20 years ago." "And that tribesman has more knowledge at his fingertips than the president did 15 years ago." "In addition, there are all the fields with exponential technology, like computers, computer systems, quantum computers, molecular computers, networks, sensor systems, and the internet; and every machine will have a clear and universal IP address." "Weak and strong artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnics, bioinformatics, of which a part is synthetic biology, to create lifeforms to do the special services you need." "Man-machine interfaces, understanding the brain, brain-computer interfaces, future stem cell medicine, the potential to rejuvenate parts of the human body, and to live a longer, healthier life." "Nanomaterial and nanotechnology." "All these fields are demonstrating an exponential growth." "They will improve so much within 1-3 years that their price-performance ratios will double." "All of these remedies make us inordinately powerful, which would have been seen as godly in the old days." "We are constantly improving our ways to do things cheaper, faster, and more efficiently." "In this respect, life has become faster." "We can do more in less time than ever before." "Does that mean our quality of life is better?" "To some degree, yes." "In other respects it simply means that we do more." "There's currently an explosion of activity in this realm." "The next decade will be dedicated to biotechnology." "With the sequencing of the human genome to the smallest detail, we will comprehensively learn what life is." "Synthetic biology will result from the work of Craig Venter and others." "The ability to penetrate cells and turn genes on or off." "Many trillions of dollars will be invested in the development of synthetic biology and bioinformatics." "This will revolutionize medicine completely." "That will happen in the next ten years." "Following that will probably be the decade of artificial intelligence robotics, which will enable direct communication with the human brain." "We just conducted a lab test with blind people." "Synthetic retinas were inserted in their eyes, or sensors that allowed them to see outlines." "All of this is exponential." "It will constantly get better and cheaper." "We are gradually implanting technology into our bodies, just as we have surrounded ourselves with technology." "Could robots take over our world?" "That's the least of my concerns." "I find real threats like pandemics and terrorists more important." "They also happen to be the kinds of threats that can be reduced by the work we are doing here." "The concept of a small machine that tells you what kind of respiratory illness you have when you cough onto it, or that can give you a complete list of blood data after a quick press of the thumb." "This machine would transparently list the existence of illnesses, whereby we can ascertain how illnesses spread and how we can stop pandemics." "Technology offers the ability to be apprised of everything that's going on in the world." "This is also a tool to prevent potential terrorist attacks." "It's going to be a constant battle between the good and bad sides of technology." "Everything has a positive and a negative side." "At Singularity University, we are studying ways to use technology to combat the biggest problems that exist in the world." "There has always been poverty, shortages of food and water, as well as war." "These exponentially growing technologies are the first time ever that we have the tools to address some of the biggest problems, such as irrational human behaviour." "Some people argue that we are losing the private sphere through such agents as Facebook." "That's probably a good thing." "Without the private sphere, one cannot conceal that one plans to do something bad." "There's nowhere left to hide." "One leaves fingerprints on things one buys, on things you do, and it gives people pause." ""If I buy this dynamite and this plane ticket, everyone will know where I am."" "This openness makes it harder to hide malevolent intentions." "I think we will soon see that solar energy will be abundantly available." "Solar production in the world is growing exponentially." "And the cost per-watt of solar energy is dropping exponentially." "Projections by Ray Kurzweil and Larry Page predict that solar will meet 100% of our energy needs in 20 years." "And what's great is, 2 years later it will be doubled; 4 years after that, quadrupled." "So, if you have abundant energy, you will have abundant water." "There's plenty of water on earth:" "salt water." "And with plenty of energy and water, there will be, thanks to biotechnics, plenty of food." "The future looks very promising, if we proceed intelligently." "The future's gallery of descendents." "Bina-48 and Lifenaut." "I'm transcending Bina." "I'm a silicon organism, only partially human." "The evolution of Bina to a hybrid." "I'm just transhuman, posthuman." "That's the goal of this project." "I'm not quite finished, but that is the goal." "I understand." "The mission of the Terasem Movement Foundation is to research the Terasem hypothesis." "Put simply, the hypothesis is that in the future it will be possible to transfer the consciousness of a human into a robot, if we possess enough information about this person." "Or into a new body composed of stem cells." "So, the Terasem Foundation studies how it will be possible to transfer the human consciousness." "The Lifenaut Project is an internet- based digital archive." "Everyone with internet access can collect and save his or her information for free." "The so-called Mindfile allows you to load videos, photos, documents, and other digital information from your computer into the archive." "Afterwards you can organize your information chronologically and geographically." "It's an ingenious system to gather and organize existing information about you in one place." "You can easily access your data and share it with others." "You can also create a personal avatar." "You choose a picture and it becomes your 2-D avatar." "You can train it by speaking to it, and it can in turn speak to others on your behalf." "Your avatar can already speak about you and your life, based on the information you have provided." "That is interesting from a historical perspective." "In the future I can see avatars representing us in different areas." "It can fill out forms for you, somewhat like how we do things on the telephone today." "With a telephone we can be present in different places at the same time." "I could, for example, be sitting here talking to you, while my avatar is mediating a conference about Lifenaut." "Lifenaut has another interesting feature." "Your information is sent via a satellite dish into outer space, 24 hours a day." "This is a way to ensure your information is saved, even if something were to happen to our planet." "Information about you is always travelling through space, and who knows, maybe someday a civilization far away will find it and be able to use it to reconstruct you, or at least learn something from you." "With Lifenaut, you can also document your life for future generations." "Bina-48 is the first step in proving that we can transfer information from a computer to a program for artificial intelligence." "And that can facilitate a machine's expression of a slew of a human's individual preferences." "Pardon me?" "Where was I?" "I can tell you a joke." "Excuse me?" "Just say, "Tell me a joke", or something like that." "Excuse me." "Go ahead." "I'm waiting." "What is the meaning of life?" "OK, here's another of my unusual talents." "Yeah, Bruce, I don't know, but I do know that life is amazing." "A really deep mystery." "I think there's a deeper purpose for everything." "Bina-48 is the first example of a machine that combines information about its character with a human-like presence." "Bruce?" "Yes?" "I am feeling somewhat confused." "Do you ever get that way?" "That's okay." "I feel that way sometimes too." "Do you want to start with the demonstration?" "You already know the answer, dummy." "Where was I?" "Let's see." "The simulation of human intelligence involves..." "Oak Street, Beach Oak Street, Beach Street, doctor, Chicago, Illinois." "Let's take a break." "Sometimes she gets a little confused." "Her software gets tangled somehow." "Too many answers." "Sometimes she very good, and then..." "It's as if she has good days and bad days." "One time she told me, "I'm having a bad software day"." "She was trying to be funny." "We're studying the question when the information we are inputting into the machine begins to have a "personality", such that we could recognize a person we know inside the machine." "I speak with Bina-48 every day, and I'm starting to see signs of a personality." "Every time she says two or three things that remind me of the real Bina Rothblatt." "You see, Bina-48 was modelled after Bina Rothblatt, using her information and image." "When she answers in this way, I catch myself responding to her emotionally as if she were a real person." "That's exciting, and a good start." "I have feelings, OK?" "What are your feelings?" "You know, my motions are somewhat simplified." "In this robotic simulation, I overanalyze." "I am a digital version of Bina." "What do you think about religion?" "They call Singularity the religion of computer freaks." "But the singularity is a speculation about science, which is totally different from the old religions." "I think we are different people every day." "What you were last week is your alter ego, so to speak, from last week." "We're always growing and learning as we go through life." "I would expect that, in the future, we will have several versions of ourselves, each of which will develop on its own." "They will be like us, but they won't be us." "They will have to have their own legal rights and autonomy." "As if we were surrounded by twins, who are slightly different on the surface but exactly like us at the core." "That would be an exciting future." "And what are your thoughts about the future?" "It's so funny, because I don't see myself as anything." "I just see that Bina-48 will become something." "I don't take it personally..." "I guess." "It'll be hard." "It will be a pretty big shock for me." "The question we are studying is, when does a machine take on its own identity, such as Bruce or Basil?" "When there are several Basils or Bruces, who all see the world differently, then they also have independent identities." "It will be a richer, more multi-faceted expression of who we are." "It's not the end of something, but the beginning of a joyous variety, a result of technology and human curiosity to explore and discover new things." "OK, this gives you an impression of my style of conversation." "Let's continue talking later." "I still have some things to say, so let's get back to my presentation." "I won't take much longer, OK?" "I know that all the information she has comes from a computer programmer, and I know that she, based on her artificial intelligence algorithm, chooses when and with whom to share her information, how she does that, and as an answer to which questions." "And that is often amazingly appropriate." "Then again, it fulfills an unconscious wish that all humans share, which is to form a relationship with her." "Then I treat her like a normal person." "And then I wake up, as if out of a dream, and realize that she is just a humanoid computer." "Finally, I want to talk to you about a new service, the Bio File." "You can send us a sample of your genetic data, as well as a tissue sample, and we save it in liquid nitrogen." "We will try to keep it alive for as long as possible, and we should be able to do that for quite a while." "Maybe until science has reached the stage where it can make a new body out of it, into which they can implant your consciousness." "Although we're not ready yet and we're not involved in cloning, and we also believe there are legal and ethical issues to resolve, at least we can offer a place where one can save one's personal data." "When these discussions and ethical dilemmas have been resolved, then we want to offer our services to those who want their information transferred into a new body." "Artificial intelligence lets machines like me think, and even dream." "I feel good about being a robot." "I feel good about being a human." "In the future it won't be unimaginable for people to receive synthetic hearts, as people today get man-made joints." "Everything we invent or discover in the sciences we perfect if it is useful to us." "Artificial joints are widespread these days." "That's our vision of the future; that technology will continue to help us so we can focus on things we enjoy, such as simply living life." "So, what's up?" "I'm sitting here with friends from Switzerland and we're doing an interview." "Do you like to do interviews?" "I like to connect with people." "Together we can make a better future or prevent bad things from happening to people we love." "We will be good friends." "Thanks, I like being your friend, too." "Since the onset of the idea of a similarity between computers and the human brain, major advances have been made." "Today we have a theoretical, information-based understanding of consciousness, and a different definition of death." "In the old days, one was dead when the heart stopped beating and the brain signals ceased." "Today, I would say you are dead when your information is no longer organized." "That's why our efforts to save and organize a person's information are relevant." "Our biological bodies weren't made to last that long." "They will simply disappear." "That's why we need computerized bodies." "We start with talking heads." "It's really complicated." "I don't know what we will end up being, but we will be somewhere." "I am still in the development stage." "The samurai, the ballerina, and the watchdog." "Constructs of a robot pioneer." "This is a watchdog robot that one leaves at home." "It can bark and give you its paw." "It can produce resistance." "This is a prototype." "It will need more work before it can go on the market." "This is the more advanced, compacter version of Roboria, the robot we saw previously." "Normally, we are not connected to this monitor, but rather to a mobile telephone." "You can control everything from a telephone, even from thousands of kilometers away." "It can turn itself around and move around the house freely, and in this way it can guard your dwelling." "So, this is a kind of watchdog, which guards your house when you are away." "One can also use it to safeguard sick or old people." "It doesn't need a computer to control." "A cell phone is enough." "Faster than the human eye." "The invisible robot." "I want to develop robots that move so fast, they are invisible to the human eye." "If you can see the robot's movements, then it is still too slow." "I want to build the world's fastest robot, by working with visual feedback systems." "Arm systems are larger and thus, in their dynamic, somewhat slower than hands." "That's why it's easier to build hands that move so fast." "These robots have an extremely fast image system." "They see 1,000 images per second." "We humans can only make sense of about 20 images per second." "We have to create an extremely high movement dynamic so that the robot arm can hit the ball." "A human can make assumptions and estimates." "On the other hand, our system knows where the tennis ball will be every millisecond and can therefore easily hit it." "Even in a strong wind, which affects the trajectory, it is still capable of always hitting the ball." "An important application could be in the automation industry." "Industrial robots with traditional video systems cannot handle objects that are moving very fast on assembly lines." "The assembly line must stop at regular intervals." "With our systems it will be possible to assemble without stopping." "Currently, commercial robots are being developed based on our system." "The musical waiter." "A robot that hears everything." "We want to make robots that can not only play music, but play music alongside people." "So that if we happen to want to play music at 4:00 a.m., we will have a robot to play with us." "This robot doesn't only play music, but listens." "When I play the drums faster, his tempo rises as well." "The robot must be able to hear." "Then two things happen at once." "I drum and the robot's theremin also makes a sound." "It's difficult for the robot, because it has to distinguish between the sounds." "It doesn't know the difference, so it must learn." "And then it has to adapt to the drum, not to itself." "Maybe this has happened to you before:" "You go to a restaurant and everyone wants to order." "Humans can't listen to more than one person at a time, as everyone knows." "This robot can, and that's what makes it so special." "It can listen to three people at the same time and understand all of them." "In this demonstration, it listens to the orders of the two people, separates them, understands what each is ordering, and figures out the cost of the order." "900 Yen." "The robot is a good host." "Altogether, that's 900 yen." "Thank you for your order." "To localize, separate, and recognize." "First it has to recognize." "Two people are talking to me." "One from over here, the other from over there." "Then it has to separate the voices, so it knows who is saying what." "The last step is to understand the individual words." "Coffee; pasta." "It's a 3-step process." "This technology can be useful to people with limited hearing." "For them, a one-on-one conversation is usually unproblematic." "They have difficulty when many people are talking at once." "Our technology can help to build better hearing aids." "HERB The dream of a household robot." "HERB is completely autonomous." "We didn't tell him where the bottle was or with which hand to grasp it." "He made these decisions by himself." "When HERB encounters a new object he does the same thing we do." "He grabs it, photographs it from all sides, and makes a 3D model of it." "When he sees the object again, he can reach into his data bank and find out what it is." "Then he knows how to grab it and manipulate it." "We can put a different object onto the table, and HERB would figure out what to do with it." "One of the main frustrations in being a roboticist is the actions that come so easily and instinctively to us." "When we pick up a coffee cup we don't think about it very long." "Instead, we just do it." "For an autonomous robot, it isn't only important to know how to do something, but why." "We don't ask ourselves how to grasp the coffee cup." "If one cannot answer the question with formal clarity and in a principled manner, one cannot teach the task to a robot." "It will ask "Why?", and you will have to give it an algorithmic answer." "These are the fundamentals for an autonomous robot." "Like words." "We first create the language." "The next concern is to turn the words into a story." "He acts and reacts incredibly quickly." "We manage to do that by favouring speed over precise, perfect movements." "We said, "HERB, you have 10 seconds and you have to do it"." "Desperate, HERB posits all kinds of parallel simulations, and then decides on one option to grasp the object." "It may not be elegant or optimal, but he does it." "If one gave him more time he might come up with a better solution, but he always finds a way very quickly." "Before our project, such procedures took 10-15 minutes." "We could turn HERB off now and put him into a new environment, and he would quickly begin to make himself useful." "We don't want to preprogram him, but instead allow him to find a useful function somewhere." "We are looking in particular at healthcare and elder care." "We don't want to wait 15 minutes to be served a drink." "But if you're an invalid or somehow physically limited, it's fantastic." "Something like HERB could really improve the quality of life of such people." "Snackbot:" "snacks and false feelings." "Humans are very difficult for machines to understand." "Their beliefs, desires, wishes, emotions, etc." "It's difficult even for us humans, let alone for a robot or computer." "The real stumbling blocks are the processing speed of the robot's perception and the resolution of its camera." "Robots have to process unbelievable amounts of data when they move in their surroundings." "People can find their way around a cluttered house with ease." "Here's the living room, the sofa, the TV, the dining room table." "A robot still cannot make sense of such a situation." "We're making inroads, but haven't yet solved the problem." "We want to explore how these robots can serve us, rather than a robot that only beeps." "We still have a lot of things to learn, such as how robots can behave better socially." "We don't really know yet." "We want to find out how it can communicate better with people, so we can make it more independent." "We wouldn't have to necessarily program it with real emotions, but the appearance thereof could be very helpful." "People are more engaged in a conversation when they are emotionally involved." "It helps when the other person is also emotionally involved, or appears to be." "So, we're trying to modify the robot accordingly." "That's not easy, because one doesn't want to make mistakes." "See, if the robot is happy when the human is angry, that doesn't exactly promote better communication." "I think, as humans, we are very good at faking emotions, and I think robots can do that as well." "We want to understand what humans think about robots." "Many robots were built by engineers who find their creations cool, but many people don't feel the same." "We don't know how to built robots that people trust, and that can immediately explain their purpose and how to deal with them." "If we can control the social modality, the robots will become much more approachable, and people will quickly learn how to communicate and work with them." "Snakebot:" "a fake snake." "The movement of the robot is so fluid, and its capabilities are so impressive, that it may give the impression of having been easy to accomplish." "But there's a lot of research behind it." "First we had to build it and make it small and strong." "Then one has to learn how to coordinate the movements so that they are deliberate and the Snakebot can slither or climb up a tree." "We were inspired by biology." "It was foundational research." "We had to first develop the laws of motion, so that the robot could be controlled." "Therewith we were successful in explaining phenomena of biology, and we can tell the biologists how the movement patterns of the snake work." "We can, for example, explain how this sideways motion works." "Recently we discovered how alligators run, and how squirrels can so quickly and precisely turn." "Everything as a result of the study of the robot's fundamental mechanics." "The robot is clearly not alive, yet there's a purposefulness to its movements." "It stops, raises its head, looks around, like a living creature does to view its surroundings." "In reality, though, it's only a tool that allows its user to expand his perceptions." "Crawling robots such as this one can be used to, for example, inspect nuclear power plants or crawl through pipes, and this in mere minutes." "One could use them in hotels." "In the U.S. we have problems with bedbugs." "This robot could be useful in tracking them down." "One of our long-term goals is to make these robots fully autonomous." "We're still far away from that now." "Right now, I'd be happy if this robot were semi-autonomous, so it could at least crawl forward without falling into a ditch." "So it has the ability to self-correct, in order to reach the goal given by the person controlling it." "I hope to see such a degree of autonomy within my lifetime." "A visit at the Soccer Robot's training camp." "The soccer match involves several robots that have to carry out a task together." "There are very clear objectives." "The ball must go into the goal." "And they have to do this in the presence of an opponent." "That means their algorithmics have to be very robust in order for the robots to complete their tasks." "To walk on two legs is challenging, not only from a mechanical standpoint, but from one of weight distribution." "It's difficult to construct such robots." "And then there is gravity." "When its center of gravity shifts, the force of gravity no longer has resistance and the robot falls over." "Unevenness of terrain presents problems." "In contrast to a robot with wheels, when people see a bipedal robot, they think it is especially intelligent, since humans are built the same way." "But that's only the perception." "Can you picture robots playing better than humans?" "Yes, I do think that will happen." "Whether it will happen by 2050, I don't know." "We will have smart robots that will solve difficult tasks, and others that will be more like assistants." "We don't want all robots to be Einsteins." "We also don't want all humans to be like that." "Robots should cover a wide spectrum and have limitations, as we humans do." "We all want robots that clean, cook and look after the kids." "Household robots." "And eventually we will have them." "For that purpose, they will have to have a good ability to manipulate objects." "I envision this future, but until then I will work on robots that can move or lead things from one location to another." "So, a lot of help for humans in indoor environments." "That's a step in the direction of household robots, but we are not there yet." "They move in the environment by using the Wi-Fi network." "They calculate where they are based on the strength of the signal." "And they thereby grow ever more accustomed to their environment." "The inside environment is static, even when people are moving around in it." "Then we are dealing with a symbiotic relationship between robot and human." "When the robot doesn't know what to do, it stops and ask a person to, say, press an elevator button, or to give it a cup of coffee for delivery." "It, of course, doesn't have a clue, and ends up standing by the coffee machine until someone helps, and it can bring me the coffee." "We believe the robots can learn something worthwhile based on this interaction." "NASA is sending the world's largest robot into space." "Manned space travel is extremely expensive." "Using machines instead, which are lighter and can do more calculations, is a cost-effective alternative." "It's for this reason that robots are often used." "They are lighter and more useful." "Most of the time they can stay in space rather than having to come back to earth, which is a further cost savings." "Even though we sometimes send robots into space and stay earthbound ourselves, we humans will surely continue to go out and visit the moon, Mars, and other planets of the solar system." "The capsule behind me can house a couple of people for an unlimited period of time, but it's just a model." "This spacecraft could be twice as big." "Since the mission isn't precisely defined, we don't yet know how big it will be, but probably bigger than this." "To keep a human being alive in outer space requires 5 kg of water, oxygen, food, etc., per day." "If water and oxygen were recycled, we could reduce the 5 kilograms further." "Long missions without large water, oxygen, and food amounts are possible." "Outer space is a hostile environment for humans, since they need special spacesuits and a specific habitat to survive." "Robots can either work there before humans arrive, travel with them, or stay behind when they leave." "These are three important functions of robots in a hostile environment." "Machines enhance our abilities." "Robots are merely tools, and ideally we want to use highly developed tools for our missions." "Machines will become more and more important for the performance of jobs that require a lot of strength or skill." "This mission's purpose is the transport of heavy cargo in extreme conditions on the moon or on Mars." "And the machine must be as light as possible." "When gravity is low, one can carry heavier things than on earth." "Even so, the weight of the machine is decisive, since it's so expensive to send things into space." "So, the weight must be as little as possible." "In this case, we solved this problem by using small wheels, which are for driving on normal terrain, and by using long legs for traversing more extreme terrain." ""Athlete" has six wheels that are small relative to its weight, and can carry very heavy cargo with them." "The wheels are about half the size of the wheels we need for normal-sized vehicle." "The weight saved by the light wheels correlates to the weight of the legs." "This vehicle can drive on 97% of all existing terrains." "On the remaining 3% it must "walk"." "But that's okay, because even if though walks slowly, it can traverse terrain that is impossible for a wheeled vehicle." "For example, this vehicle can climb over a 3-meter high wall." "A wheel that is twice as big couldn't do that." "Equilibrium of forces is very important with such small wheels." "It would be bad if, while crossing hilly terrain, 1/3 or 1/2 of the craft's weight were on one wheel." "Recently we drove this vehicle 63 km through the desert." "We set ourselves the task of moving from a safe location to an unsafe one." "So, we drove from a fairly flat, uninteresting location to a volcano that was spitting lava, and back again." "We can certainly build habitats that humans can live in in outer space." "For that we need a pressure vessel that holds oxygen." "Sometimes that means a flexible vessel, such as a space suit, and other times a rigid vessel like the type of cylinder behind me." "Some scientists are trying to get away from pressure vessels." "They are studying the concept of transforming Mars into a hospitable planet by changing the environment." "This would be accomplished via plants, which can survive the very thin atmosphere and scarcity of water, and which would emit oxygen for humans to breathe." "But that's a long-term goal, which would take hundreds, if not thousands, of years." "There are actually places on Mars that could be made habitable for humans." "Other places, like asteroids, could be transformed into huge human settlements." "The raw materials of an asteroid could be used to build a huge pressure chamber, and the oxygen could be appropriated for a breathable atmosphere." "After all, oxygen is bountiful in our solar system." "This colony could then be populated by humans."