Social Robotics

I don't know about you guys, but I did my part to get the Star Wars reboot over the record setting 1 billion dollars launch during the holidays.

What blew me away was the incredible impact that the movie is about to have on our concept of social robotics. BB-8 now owns the entire franchise the way a new puppy owns your family; social robotics is the perceptual antidote to Skynet.

How did they manage to pack so much emotive behavior into a ball?

 

http://robohub.org/2016-will-be-a-pivotal-year-for-social-robots/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/12/28/social-robots-the-solution-to-our-screen-addiction-or-more-digital-weirdness/

I predict that this will have a profound effect on our evolving relationship with technology. But, the core questions around these artificially intelligent automation technologies are: Along which branch will that relationship evolve? Will humans be in or out of the loop?

http://video.ft.com/4678814156001/Robots-in-the-workplace/Editors-Choice (6 minute video)

And, speaking of our relationship with technology, the debate around how we can embed morality into our creations continues unabated:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/dec/23/the-problem-with-self-driving-cars-who-controls-the-code

I predict that 2015 is the year these debates got serious (algorithmic decisions, killer robots, autonomous cars, super-intelligent AI) AND will become increasingly relevant to our role as provider informaticists as well. (Never mind the 3 Laws of Robotics, do we need to somehow embed the Hippocratic Oath into our technology?) 

For the philosophers out there, I would argue that the Hippocratic Oath is very much a deontological construct whereas "population health" is very utilitarian construct. Striking a balance will be a challenge.

With all the pondering on my plate, I might just plan to take a break from all this serious business and go to Hawaii with my newly registered drone air force:

http://droneworlds.com/

Happy New Year!