Breathing life into robots.

How about a nice digestive system that is a little out of whack-nothing like a robot on the can or gas in public!!!! Then you could have oops pardon me bots-or ones that disdainfully search the room for the guilty culprit!!!!

davids said:

How about a nice digestive system that is a little out of whack-nothing like a robot on the can or gas in public!!!! Then you could have oops pardon me bots-or ones that disdainfully search the room for the guilty culprit!!!!

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Then you'd have Bender from Futurama.

Shadow_Ferret said:

Ballbot is interesting but it brings up a couple questions. How much computing power is spent on just keeping it vertical? Why is the center of gravity high instead of low?

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The computing power isn't much to do that, I'm sure it's nothing compared to the electrical power the motors need to keep it balanced. The higher center of gravity makes it easier to keep upright - it doesn't need as fast a response time to move it when it starts to fall over. Have you ever balanced a broomstick on its end? You may not succeed at first but you can learn to do it. A shorter stick is harder, and at some point a stick is too short to balance because its center of gravity is too low and you can't respond to its tilting over fast enough to correct for it.

Shadow_Ferret said:

Can it do stairs?

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Apparently not. But this sort of balancing also has important application in a biped robot, which CAN do stairs (see the "New Asimo: CES 2007" video below). You can either make a biped with huge feet and thin 'toes' that point in and overlap so the center of gravity is always directly above the area of each foot, or you can use some balancing algorithms so the thing knows how to move to keep standing up without having huge feet.
Here's a few neat videos:
http://asimo.honda.com/asimotv/
Check out the calisthenics and notice that just before it moves a leg it shifts its weight onto the other leg.

Shadow_Ferret said:

Can it bring me a beer from the fridge.

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It doesn't appear to have any arms, though presumably they can be added. I suppose you could even put the ears on the ... oh never mind.

Could one begin by asking "What is this robot's purpose for being built?"

It seems to me that a "robot" would be limited in that it was designed for a specific purpose (unlike a non-specific AI ... I don't know which sort yours are) and therefore it might have areas of specific ability and only a childlike (or restricted) development in other areas: that would seem characteristic of robots.

Robots might therefore have blindspots in interacting with humans. Robots might be built to never ask a philosophical "why?" but only "how" ...

Robots would need to be programmed. That suggests a sort of human consensus of what "correct" behaviour is and isn't ... (And that doesn't really exist NOW, does it?)

Would a Muslim demand that a robot (if a true AI) be programmed to pray five times a day and practice Islam? That's a serious query .... it might be someone's sin to create a sentient being that doesn't "submit to Allah"

Would a Shiva-worshiping Hindu demand that his robot serve the god of Destruction?

Given those examples ... would someone have to step in and say "Robots cannot reflect these following human characteristics or beliefs" ???

Dare we let our Robot love us as much as our pets do? Do we FEAR it if our robots DON'T love us (because intellectually, they may otherwise decide to replace us, being their inferiors)

And there you have humans mandating what sorts of consciousness are allowed or not ... even among other humans? Is the creation of Robots the end of Free Thought for humans?

I dunno. Robots who only manifest the Intended might be dull.
Robots who reveal mankind UNintended natures would interest me more.

Turkey Lurkey said:

Thanks for all this great information.
FYI
This is a middle grade book. Probably 40k words and about a girl who survives a plane crash in the ocean and is rescued by robots who live under the ocean in a pirate ship. They are escapees from another planet, where they were created, given emotional abilities, and experimented on. (Ie, provided with a family, then tearing the family apart to study emotional output.) I do need the robots to have the ability to interact with humans, but still maintain a "robot" personality. They don't all look like humans. One looks like a water heater, another like a wrecking ball... etc.
The environment is present day steampunkish.

I have been doing a pretty good job of making these mechanical characters likable for the reader. But I wanted to tap into your minds for any extra ideas.

Thanks again for this valuable info. This is my first foray into writing sci-fi, and, of course, I want to make it a good one.

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I keep thinking back to "The Mind's I" which is a collection many short stories (and important/interesting commentaries on them, though it's great just for the story collection), I recall maybe half or more are SF. One story (I very vaglely recall) is about a living being that the story gives the impresion that it's "only mechanical." Then there are several (non-humanoid) robot stories, giving the distinct impression that the robot is "alive" despite its simple mechanical saucer shape. These robots don't really have emotions (that I can recall), but their descriptions and the events they go through lead the reader to have emotional reactions to them such as pain and sympathy, and second-guess whether they really do have emotions.
It's been forever since I've read this book, but it left a big impression on me (several impressions, it seems). I should really go back and reread it myself.

I think the book may help only vaguely with the "nuts-and-bolts" of your story, but the larger ideas should get your mind percolating, perhaps help inform what perhaps a robot "should be."

Interesting points, small axe. Just because Asimov came up with the "rules of robotics" (which I think most robot writers adhere to), doesn't mean there won't be lots of robot builders operating under another set of rules.

A rather poor but obvious example: the movie Short Circuit.

dpaterso said:

Banks' drones are a hoot, sometimes they're more human than the humans. And more cunning. And more sadistic. Heroic, too.

-Derek

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can't think of anyone who has created a sense of personality in robots as well as Banks - and that includes Star Wars adn Lost in Space for comparison. My favourite is the little drone in 'Player of Games'. Which has been optioned by a Hollywood studio I believe, although Banks himself is doubtful it will ever actually be made into a film. Shame, a Culture movie could be pretty cool.

oscuridad said:

My favourite is the little drone in 'Player of Games'. Which has been optioned by a Hollywood studio I believe, although Banks himself is doubtful it will ever actually be made into a film. Shame, a Culture movie could be pretty cool.

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Oh yeah, now you're talkin' -- I'd pay to see Gurgeh playing Azad, and Mawhrin Skell turning the tables. And/or the Culture-Idiran War from Consider Phlebas. Tho' most of Banks' novels are kinda complex... I'm a-thinkin' they might fare better as mini-series on Sci-Fi Channel or similar medium. Fingers crossed for something, some day.

-Derek

Nakhlasmoke said:

People are going to start thinking I'm being paid to do this...I'm going to say it again:

Iain M Banks. Culture novels. He has droids and ships (various AI constructs) and if you don't fall in love with his ships, especially GSV Sleeper Service in Excession, then your soul is a dark and pitiful thing.

Since you can't show human physical characteristics in a bot, you'll have to show it through their character. What spurs the decisions that a bot makes? We can assume that it's not the same things that make human act the way they do -ie greed, lust, anger.

So dialogue as you say is a start, and might be what you should concentrate on since physical tics might be somewhat limited.

Good luck!

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It's okay, I'll second you in this thread too
Then everyone can think we're both being paid

dpaterso said:

Oh yeah, now you're talkin' -- I'd pay to see Gurgeh playing Azad, and Mawhrin Skell turning the tables. And/or the Culture-Idiran War from Consider Phlebas. Tho' most of Banks' novels are kinda complex... I'm a-thinkin' they might fare better as mini-series on Sci-Fi Channel or similar medium. Fingers crossed for something, some day.

-Derek

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we can but dream...

DaveKuzminski said:

Then you'd have Bender from Futurama.

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YUP-it is so difficult to come up with anything original these days!!!!

Here's probably the single-most strangest thing I've read all year.

Sex and marriage with robots? It could happen