Posted by
Sgt Relic on Wednesday, April 01, 2009 5:48:59 AM
Honda Motor Co., once considered a world leader in robotics seems to have fallen behind the U.S. in robot technology. Honda recently demonstrated that their Asimo prototype is capable of acting on transmitted human thoughts to perform simple tasks such as raising it’s hand. The robotics gap is truly shocking!
The people of the United States, having recently elected a TelePrompter as Commander in Chief, are light years ahead in this technology.
“Honda said the technology wasn't quite ready for a live demonstration because of possible distractions in the person's thinking”
Well that should be easy to overcome! Humans are rarely distracted, right?
Honda said, “Another problem is that brain patterns differ greatly among individuals”
Seriously, anyone who blogs on TH could have told them that!
The idea of a thought controlled robot calls a few scenarios to mind that Honda may want to consider.
For example: I am lounging in the family room with Asimo while watching a rerun of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The wife, who has a different agenda planned for that Saturday afternoon, berates me for being my usual lazy self. I begin to think how nice it would be if I could just place my hands around her throat and squeeze real hard.
Do see where I’m going with this? Who gets the needle? Me? Asimo?
Another possible scenario would involve the Honda Companies hope that a car might one day drive itself.
Scenario: I am driving my brand new Honda Asimo on the interstate when a thoughtless driver (remember the distractions problem) cuts me off and after rendering the traditional one finger salute my thoughts turn to how nice it would be to ram this nimnul in the rear and run him off the road.
How does the judge figure out what I was thinking when I blame it on the car? Will my insurance rates go up and how many points does my Asimo get on it’s license?
I’m sure I’m not the only one who has ridden for miles behind a driver who was driving 20 miles under the speed limit and became convinced that his car was going faster than his brain.
Fortunately, I doubt that I will see this particular future, a fact that I don’t regret.