Monday, March 28, 2011

Are Robots Taking American Jobs? (Video) *Robots: programmed job killers?*

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Robots have been increasingly replacing humans for decades in manufacturing


Are Robots Taking American Jobs?

USA Economic Recovery Threatened by Robots? Are robots taking enough jobs in the USA to keep the human unemployment rate high? One estimate is robots will replace one million American human jobs in the next two years. Marshall Brain, of How Stuff Works, discusses this issue on the MSNBC Dylan Ratigan Show.

Rise of the Robots Marshall Brain says "Watson put us on notice because that was such a leap forward. No one would have expected that a machine could have played Jeopardy that well." He goes so far as to call robots "the second intelligent species on this planet" and adds, "robots get better every year". An example is   Google's machine-driven cars.

Robot Vision "One of the things the second intelligent species is missing right now is vision", Brain notes. "As soon as vision gets dropped in price and made flexible enough to enter the workplace, that's when the real job replacement starts occurring. That's when we have to start worrying about the robotic effects on the economy."

First Manufacturing Jobs, Next Service Jobs, Then Complex Jobs Some of the jobs that could be taken over by robots are first service jobs:
● Baby-sitters
● Drivers
● Store clerks
Eventually, more complex jobs could be performed by robots:
Pharmacists
Lawyers and paralegals
● Astronauts
● Soldiers
● Rescuers
● Writers
Marshall Brain notes that "pharmacy robots have already been deployed and automated drones are being flown over Afghanistan and Pakistan now. We are automating lawyers to some degree now. When you look at a retail establishment, a large Big Box store, there are people in there stocking shelves, sweeping floors, bringing shopping carts in from the parking lot. In the restaurant space, its flipping burgers, cleaning toilets. In construction, it's stacking brick, putting roofs on houses. All those kinds of jobs, once vision systems that are flexible enough become available, those jobs, along with driving and delivery jobs and the remaining factory jobs - they all become targets for robotic replacement."

What Jobs Will Humans Do? Marshall Brain states, "Farming jobs were replaced by manufacturing jobs, which are declining and being replaced by service sector jobs. (Editor: which robots are on the verge of performing) There's not a next big pool of (human) jobs coming down the pipe. So once we replace the entire service sector and manufacturing base with robots, you have to ask: what is the next thing people are going to do? With robots gaining capabilities so quickly and Watson showing us it can really happen on both the intellectual side and the manipulative side, there are really big questions about what is going to make up the pool of (human) replacement jobs once the service sector gets washed out by robots.

Dylan Ratigan Show: "The Robotic Job Threat" According to one estimate, in the next two years alone there could be more than a million robots working jobs that used to belong to humans. Marshall Brain of How Stuff Works discusses.




Twist of Fate: In 2008 & 2009 during the Great Recession, manufacturing robots were idled, especially in Japan, and the robot unemployment rate soared


About Marshall Brain
Founder, HowStuffWorks


Marshall Brain is the founder of HowStuffWorks. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a master's degree in computer science from North Carolina State University. Before founding HowStuffWorks, Marshall taught in the computer science department at NCSU and ran a software training and consulting company. He has been host of the TV show "Factory Floor" on the National Geographic Channel and essays at Robotic Nation.

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Saturday, March 26, 2011

Human Exoskeleton Demonstration by Berkeley Bionics (Video) *Wearable, networked robots: HULC & eLEGS*

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HULC Exoskeleton: Human Universal Load Carrier


Human Exoskeleton Demonstration by Berkeley Bionics

Wearable Robots Eythor Bender, CEO of Berkeley Bionics, begins his presentation in the video below by asking the audience to imagine a wearable robot that enables super human abilities or another wearable robot that has wheelchair users standing and walking again. These wearable robots are exoskeletons, the "true integration of man and machine". In addition, Bender says these exoskeletons will "integrate and network you to the Universe and other devices out there". Bender concludes, "We have the technology, we have the platforms, to change the lives of future generations - not only for the soldier and eLEGs users, but for everyone."

HULC Berkeley Bionics has created HULC, Human Universal Load Carrier, with the American soldier in mind. Lockheed Martin, which has the license for HULC, describes this system: "Dismounted Soldiers often carry heavy combat loads that increase the stress on the body leading to potential injuries. With a HULC exoskeleton, these loads are transferred to the ground through powered titanium legs without loss of mobility. The HULC is a completely un-tethered, hydraulic-powered anthropomorphic exoskeleton that provides users with the ability to carry loads of up to 200 lbs for extended periods of time and over all terrains. Its flexible design allows for deep squats, crawls and upper-body lifting. There is no joystick or other control mechanism. The exoskeleton senses what users want to do and where they want to go. It augments their ability, strength and endurance. An onboard micro-computer ensures the exoskeleton moves in concert with the individual. Its modularity allows for major components to be swapped out in the field. Additionally, its unique power-saving design allows the user to operate on battery power for extended missions. The HULC’s load-carrying ability works even when power is not available."

eLEGS Berkeley Bionics has created eLEGS and describes the system as "a wearable, artificially intelligent, bionic device that powers paraplegics up to get them standing and walking."

Exoskeleton Demonstration A man wearing the HULC walks onstage to describe and demonstrate the system. Amanda Boxtel, who had been confined to a wheelchair and unable to walk for 19 years, then walked onstage wearing the eLEGS system.

Eythor Bender Demos Human Exoskeletons Eythor Bender of Berkeley Bionics brings onstage two amazing exoskeletons, HULC and eLEGS - robotic add-ons that could one day allow a human to carry 200 pounds without tiring, or allow a wheelchair user to stand and walk. It's a powerful onstage demo, with implications for human potential of all kinds.

eLEGS: wearable, artificially intelligent, bionic device


About Eythor Bender
CEO, Berkeley Bionics


Eythor Bender is the CEO of Berkeley Bionics, which augments humans with wearable, powered and artificially intelligent devices called exoskeletons or "wearable robots." User of the HULC (Human Universal Load Carrier) can carry up to 200 pounds for hours and over all terrains. eLEGS, an exoskeleton for wheelchair users, powers paraplegics up to get them standing and walking.

Bender has fostered innovation with bionic and orthopedic technologies throughout his career, taking them from unconventional approaches to sustainable, FDA-approved products that help individuals participate in their community. Such was the case with the boomerang-shaped prosthesis Cheetah Flex-Foot by Ossur, worn by the history-making bilateral amputee Oscar Pistorius. Bender's team fought for, and won, Pistorius' right to compete in the Olympics.


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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Ray Kurzweil: Humans Will Become Cyborgs (Video) *Humanity's transbiological future*

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Ray Kurzweil: Humans are going to become cyborgs, become transbiological


Ray Kurzweil: Humans Will Become Cyborgs
*The transbiological future*

Transcendent Terminology Ray Kurzweil was at the iLabs Singularity Summit in Milan, Italy and discussed some of the concepts and related terminology he has written about and is noted for. "I'm not crazy about a lot of the terminology: artificial intelligence implies its not real intelligence but it is real intelligence. Virtual reality implies it is not real reality. The telephone is virtual reality. You enter a virtual space as if you are together even if you are hundreds of miles apart. One I really don't use and object to is transhumanism because it implies we are going to transcend our humanity. I think we are actually going to enhance our humanity. We are going to transcend the limitations of biology and be transbiological. We are dealing with concepts that haven't existed before. Cyborg sounds kind of unappealing but that is actually what we are going to become. We are going to be putting technology in ourselves." The technology, such as smartphones and laptops, are becoming part of what we are. "We are going to be extending ourselves, literally by putting them (technology devices) in our bodies and brains ultimately."

Software Evolution Ray Kurzweil notes that, "software is becoming more and more intelligent. If all the artificially intelligent software were to stop tomorrow, our infrastructure would grind to a halt. The software is gradually becoming more and more intelligent, taking on functions that people used to do."

Internet Democratization  "It is actually very hard for a country to stop the Internet", Kurzweil says. "There's other ways of getting information into these countries. They also find that there economy grinds to a halt if they stop the Internet. That's why Egypt turned the Internet back on. These systems have really become deeply integrated into our lives, into our economy, and they are very democratizing. I wrote in the 1980s that the Soviet Union would be swept away by the then emerging decentralized communication and that's exactly what happened. We can see the democratizing effects. It's also democratizing in terms of the tools of creativity. You don't have to be a big corporation, you just have to have the right idea to create disruptive change."

Artificial Intelligence Kurzweil discussed human empathy for evolved systems and said their was human empathy for IBM's Watson on the Jeopardy television show. Personal pronouns were used to refer to Watson, such as "he" and "him" and "a personal pronoun implies it's not a machine. And it did seem to have a personality and it commanded natural human language in quite a convincing way. There was a very strong visceral reaction to watching it." He remarked that Watson was able to understand the subtleties of human language (similes, metaphors, puns, jokes, riddles) and that Watson is "a point on a trajectory" of increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence.

Turing Test Kurzweil said IBM's Watson technology would do a "pretty good job" in the Turing Test application, but "would still not pass a valid Turing Test. It's not at that level yet. But it's a very important milestone towards getting there." Kurzweil has a bet with Mitch Kapor the Turing Test will be passed by a machine in 20 years and "that's a pretty comfortable prediction". [Wikipedia: The Turing test is a test of a machine's ability to demonstrate intelligence. A human judge engages in a natural language conversation with one human and one machine, each of which tries to appear human. All participants are separated from one another. If the judge cannot reliably tell the machine from the human, the machine is said to have passed the test. In order to test the machine's intelligence rather than its ability to render words into audio, the conversation is limited to a text-only channel such as a computer keyboard and screen.]

David Orban "Ray Kurzweil about new words, software, and empathy" I caught up with Ray Kurzweil at the iLabs Singularity Summit in Milan, Italy on March 5. In this video he talks about his dissatisfaction with the terms transhumanism, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, about the importance of understanding how reliable our software systems have become, and the empathy that we are starting to prove towards systems displaying even rudimentary levels of general intelligence, like IBM Watson. He ends with a quip about his long bet with Mitch Kapor about the Turing test.



Ray Kurzweil: We are going to be putting technology into our brains and bodies ultimately


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Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Hummingbird Spybot Unveiled by DARPA (Video) *AeroVironment ornithopter with video camera*

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Nano Hummingbird Spybot by AeroVironment


Hummingbird Spybot Unveiled by DARPA: AeroVironment ornithopter with video camera

AeroVironment has developed a Nano Hummingbird for DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). A video and photographs were recently released. The "nano" identifier is for the small size, compared to other UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) projects by AeroVironment, et. al. These drones are also called UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) and even NAV (nano air vehicles). The idea is to have a surveillance drone that can even enter buildings and at the same time looks like a bird. Presumably the ultimate goal is to have these "ornithopters" or "nano birds" to resemble indigenous bird species for the area of operations.

AeroVironment (YouTube): AeroVironment's Nano Hummingbird - Outdoor Indoor Flight AeroVironment Develops World's First Fully Operational Life-Size Hummingbird-Like Unmanned Aircraft for DARPA. For more information visit: www.avinc.com/nano




Hummingbird spybot put through its paces: 360 degree flip


Nano Hummingbird by AeroVironment


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