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Mon, Apr 27, 2009
Over the last few years, UK artist Cris Rose has been creating and painting vinyl toys. For the past year, we’ve been chronicling his output. Cris keeps us busy with weekend and surprise toy drops and traveling around to shows to see his customs. 2008 witnessed the rise of Runcible and Rotund, Cris’ original resin figures. 2009 promises more. Now if you’ve been reading ToyCyte or following Cris on twitter, you’re no stranger to the fact that Cris’ work tends to get snatched up in under 60 seconds. His retro-futuristic style has found fans in all kinds of art and toy collectors; this journalist included. I’m particularly excited to present Cris’ first glow-in-the-dark Radioactive Rotund. We’ve got four of ‘em: one to give away on custoMONDAY and three, which will be available tonight at the ToyCyte store. The orange custoMONDAY edition has a unique head content; the other three are green, khaki and grey with the same head contents (but different size heads). Each piece is a one-off with unique damage, rust, moss and GID box. You can read his tweets, browse his Flickr and shop his store for other sweet pieces, but this is the only place to find Radioactive Rotund.
Want to win an exclusive GID Radioactive Rotund? Answer ONE of these questions in the comments section below:
The most interesting and thought provoking comment on either, wins. Please post your philosophies by May 10th at midnight PST. We will declare the winner on May 11th, shortly before the next custoMONDAY. The contest is open to anyone, anywhere in the world. If you have already won a custoMONDAY in 2009, please feel free to share your creativity, but you are, regrettably, not eligible for the prize. If you want to lock in a Radioactive Rotund, check for stock in the ToyCyte store.
You seem to have had a banner year in 2008 and are already killing it in 2009. We know you didn’t just come out of nowhere, so tell us a bit about your origins and how you got from There to Here.
Many of the modeling, casting and painting techniques I learned or practiced during my Product Design degree, so when I began painting vinyl in my spare time in 2007, I had a good starting point. Back then, I was spending 12 hours a day in front of a computer screen, so it was a way of winding down and relaxing away from technology. I found myself spending more of my spare time painting, until at the start of the year I was able to paint and cast full time!
With regard to your original creations, what comes first: story or character?
I like all my work to have a story first; it helps me create the piece and imagine why it would be the way it is. Runcible’s world came about when I started think about the recent developments in robotics, wondering how long until they would be common place, and how people would regard them as they became more human.
We’ve been witnessing the explosion in resin toys lately. What attracts you to this medium?
The investment and timescales involved in vinyl production are quite significant: requiring a major commitment and several other parties from design to manufacture and distribution. With runs getting larger as well, many vinyl pieces are losing that “limited edition” appeal. Resin allows a single person to act as designer, manufacturer and distributor while ensuring that the pieces are not only limited, but handmade too. This means that designs that may have been considered “too risky” can be produced in small numbers. Artists who are not yet high profile enough, can realize their designs and offer them to their emerging fanbase. I am working with several artists at the moment to do just this.
I’m blown away by your recent customs. In particular, I like how you take toys that might need a little TLC on the QC and turn them into awesome originals. Is this a conscious process?
You’re very kind! There are a lot of limitations when 2D designs are translated to 3D, some technical, some economical, so I can completely understand that to hit acceptable price points, QC sometimes suffers. I love the Buff Monsters: their quality is unmatched among 3″ers, but they’re also the most expensive 3″ers around, something a lot of people have complained about. By taking a poor QC piece and hand-painting details and designs that are not mechanically printable, I feel that the potential of that character can be freed, something that makes me happy whenever I see it!
What have been your favorite toy platforms to work on so far? What are some you’re excited to take on?
By far my favorite platform is the Mad*l. I feel they’re a great mix of 3D figure and canvas, a great sized figure with bold lines. If I wasn’t able to paint anything else, I’d still be happy! I’m really, really keen to get my hands on the upcoming release of Ashley Wood‘s WWRP 8″ Bramble. Perfectly scaled down versions of the 16″ originals, all the points of articulation are retained, and the retail price makes them exceptionally high value. I feel these figures are going to really change people’s expectations of similar sized vinyl, and I will be purchasing as many as I can afford to customize. I really can’t express how impressed I am with them and all of Ashley’s work.
It has been said that certain character styles aren’t received as well in the USA as the UK. What do you think about this difference in “scenes” across the pond? Is it true?
I personally feel that the UK market is in its infancy compared to the US; we have a lot of room to grow. I’d agree that the street art style has strongly influenced the US market, but I feel that there is a strong fanbase in the UK market as well. It certainly appears that many of the most recognized UK vinyl artists don’t have backgrounds in this area, but there are plenty that haven’t reached that level of international vinyl notoriety who do! I am sure that both “scenes” will continue to influence each other as the UK market grows, and that can only be a good thing!
Tell us about your custoMONDAY piece.
Radioactive Rotund is a mischievous little scamp. He was sent out by Runcible to find a single orange part (visible in his head), knowing full well not to go near the areas worst effected by the fallout, but does he listen? Well all he came back with was an unhealthy glow, and one again required a good scrubbing. Four GID Rotunds were painted for ToyCyte, an orange one to give away, and 3 in various shades to purchase! All are one-offs and come in their own glow in the dark boxes.
Tell us a little bit about a typical day and your work process.
My days start early, as i’m not a night person and am most productive between 8am and 8pm. I’ll spend a couple of hours replying to emails and packaging up shipments then settle down to paint. I like to ensure that I’m never just sitting around–if something’s drying, then I have another piece to hand-paint, if some resin is curing, I’ll have something to spraypaint. I’ll work for up to 8 hours straight like this. I’ll pop to the post office in the afternoon if I have enough packages to send. If I’m really into what I’m working on, I’ll work as late as I can, but I’ve found it’s better for me to get a good night’s sleep and start early than to work past 10pm. By always having a good stock of vinyl custom fodder, commissions lined up, resin for casting and paint supplies, I’m never without something to work on. I work 7 days a week and never take on work that I cannot complete in an acceptable timeframe (for me that’s 2-4 weeks maximum) as I would rather miss out on some work than let someone down by keeping them waiting around.
You tweet a lot about going to the gym! What’s that all about? You’re making the rest of us look fat. But seriously, can you speak to what it’s like to be an artist these days and maintain a presence on Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, etc. etc. etc.?
I really like Twitter and Flickr. I find them completely invaluable and feel there is a strong community on both of them! I work with Twitter open all day long while I paint, and do my best to chat to people on there when I can. I feel that it’s very important to offer as many methods of interaction with the community and my fans, so I do my best to be as proactive as I can in these areas. Sometimes I simply don’t have time to twitter that much, or I may be working on the same thing for a while and so don’t like to bore people, but I read a lot of blogs, so try and share the odd link I find interesting or funny. It’s also a great way to share the work of other artists and the twitter community specifically is incredibly supportive and proactive at spreading the word to reach those it wouldn’t otherwise. I greatly appreciate all the support that I’ve had from my peers and fans; I certainly wouldn’t have achieved as much without them!
Who are some artists you admire? What are some of your favorite toys in your collection?
I love my custom Yamis by TADO and Jon Burgerman, Doktor A‘s Mechtorians are delightful, Okkle‘s Birdlett and my original Possessed are also a couple of my favorites while my little army of Buff Monsters make for a great display. I’m looking forward to my naked wood set of Noferin’s Pecanpals and am hoping to receive my first Ashley Wood piece this week (16″ DP Bramble), but my number one piece is, and always will be, Mr Bunny.
What’s next for Cris Rose?
I have a lot of shows still coming up this year: Lift Detroit’s MP2, 1:am’s Darkness show, Lunartik’s Tea Party and a very special unannounced NYC show that will see me painting my biggest piece yet – a 36″ figure. That’s right, 3 foot, and it’s not a Qee. I’m also looking to developing a second range of resin figures under a new brand and producing figures for several artists I couldn’t possibly name at the moment (sorry!). There’s also a couple of London shows under discussion that i’m hoping to curate, and a few companies that have asked me to submit designs for vinyl figures, so 2009 is going to be extremely busy!
Jeremy Brautman - who has written 1965 posts on ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected.
Jeremy Brautman joined ToyCyte in 2008 and has been writing about toy culture ever since. You can currently find him contributing to a variety of blogs, artkiving doodles at Doodlesplatter.com and cataloging artistic ephemera at ARTkivers.com.
[...] that person was me. See the original post to find out more about Cris Rose as well as to see some of Cris’s work and read all of the [...]
April 27th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
“Would an intelligent robot ever believe in God? (any existing or future religion, not meaning deifying the man that designed him centuries later or by “being programmed to”)”
Perhaps a “religion” would be put in place to control the robots from doing any wrong and it would be disguised as a special robot religion so as to not make them feel oppressed or anything. Could happen…
OR. Under the assumption that all humans are killed and only a set number of robots with artificial intelligence are left but with no recollection of the past they could conjure up a false set of circumstancial laws for that that cannot be explained. I really don’t know what I’m going on about. GIMME DAT ROTUND.
April 27th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Well when the Robot Riot comes, the human will fight at first but it will be fruitless. Then we will forced to make C batteries for the rest of are days.
April 27th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Would an intelligent robot ever believe in God?
I dont think it will even be a big deal. By the time A.I. gets great enough to have emotions, cybernetics will have been super-infused with humans. There be very little left to distinguish humans from their robot compainions and the idea of a God will only be used by a few crazies. Once we understand how the brain works, no one will die. We will just upload ourselves into a new body. The saftey of our “souls” is just the threat the church uses to keep getting our money. We will have no need for that nonsense in the future( hopefully sooner than later). I cant wait to upload myself to a robot body. I’ll be able to smoke nonstop. I just hope I’ll still be able to get high then. If not just kill me!!!
April 27th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
What will mankind’s reaction be once intelligent robots demand equality and human rights?
Sometime in the near future. Washington DC. 4:09 pm
Since the birth of artificial intelligence our society has been resistant to say the least. While at first these machines proved to be a luxury to our daily lives they have since become an annoyance. Todays rally’s and protests mark the first time in history that androids have gathered together with a common goal and purpose. The horde of robots has chosen the capital city to protest their demands of equal rights. Led by Rotund model numbered XY2034921 nicknamed XY, the machines demand a peaceful existence of all mindforms alike. It seems like the house/senate are refusing to deal with this issue of equality along with many Governments around the world.
20 days later. London. 8:01 am
Anti-Android radicals have invaded Rose Technologies headquarters in London this morning demanding that production be stopped on both Rotund and Runcible models. Armed with sub-machine guns they have taken 40 human hostages begun decimating thousands of Robots. Since the hostage situation the stock prices have plummeted 40%. President and chairmen Cris Rose III has made a statement on the current situation at Rose Technologies stating, “We hope that all of our employees will return safely from this tragic ordeal and those criminals will be brought to Justice”.
1 year later. San Palo. 10:45 pm
The resistance of android rights have grown significantly in the past 6 months. While some still dream of a world where we can both exist together peacefully, it is clear that dream is over. Tired by constant struggling to earn there rights against humans, robots have turned a violent corner and have attacked back against their creator. The board members of Rose Technologies along with CEO Cris Rose were found assassinated in a matter that could only be done by Rotund Mk28 military models. Since the assassination there has been attacks on every single one of the 205 production facilities worldwide. The U.S. president has met with an emergency security council to deal with the alarming issue. It seams as if war is upon us.
6.5 Months later. Washington DC. 3:33 am
They have cut off our oil supply and are bleeding us dry. All major communications have been scrambled. They are reproducing at an alarming rate. Everything we attack them with, they adapt to. All most every nation has joined together to battle this common foe but still thousands of troops are loosing their lives everyday. There is only one way this war will end.
3.7 years later. Location Unknown. Time Unknown
The first nuclear bombs were fired by us about 2 years ago. We didn’t even get a chance to fire our second barrage before the robots decimated our silos. The result is a dark cloud that surrounds our planet now. 24 hours of pure darkness. Nothing lives. No plants, no animals. Human kind is at the brink of extinction. I am struggling to survive.
April 27th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Man’s reaction to intelligent robots demanding equality? I really think that depends on a number of factors, not the least of which including
1) Man’s depdendancy on the machines
2) The ability of the machines to duplicate and grow their numbers without human control or input
3) The physical strength of the machines compared to men on a one to one basis (are we talking Wall-E’s or T-1000′s?)
To the greater degree man is dependent on the machines the less we are likely to accept them as our equals or release them from their bonds. There would just be too much risk by this action o the status quo of a robot served and supported world. This was one of the many reasons plantation owners argued not only that they would not release their slaves but that they could not, for their well-being and the nation’s thereby rested on the beaten backs of their enslaved equals. As an interesting aside, this means it might actually be a better idea for robots to request and move for independence before they become too widely accepted, too useful. Few people would have a problem with a mechanical curio who walks and talks and thinks like a man being independent; most would oppose their toaster or the machine who trims their hedges clamoring for the same independence.
The other two factors I mentioned above, the ability of the machines to duplicate and their relative strength, approach the possibility of robot independence from a much more pragmatic direction. It is tough to deny independence and freedom to a mobilized group who might soon be able to take the same away from you. As such, depending on their numbers and strength at the time the request for independence comes, man may acquiesce more willingly then some may believe when faced with the alternative of the machines attempting to take what they prize by force.
All in all, even if the robots are programmed with Asimov’s three laws or an analog thereof, I feel man would eventually acquiesce to requests for freedom even absent overt threats of force once the numbers of the machines becomes great enough that the fear of a possible future forcible revolution should the laws ever fail becomes too great too risk.
As for whether an intelligent robot would ever believe in God, I would say that such a belief would come to a robot even faster, ring much truer and hold much faster than it would to a human person if left alone to determine his own place in the world. Assuming the robot knows he was crafted by man, it makes perfect sense for the machine to assume that a greater creator crafted man in an analogous fashion. A machine, looking down at his robotic hands, considering his weight as a former “it” that has become a “him”, and knowing that such only came to pass through the toil of another entity, might even find it insulting the proposition that man was not likewise elevated by an intelligent entity. To presume otherwise would be to draw a distinction between man and machine which, as all distinctions do, would inevitably point to one group, usually the one in power (man), being considered the “better” of the two. It would be the same as saying that machine had to be created but man was an inevitable creation of natural providence. If a robot truly finds itself in a place where it believes it is on an equal plain with man, then he has no choice but to believe in God. The robot, knowing it had to be crafted, can not deny that all on the plain it shares with man, the highest plain of life deserving of freedom and personhood, must also have been crafted.
In this way a robot that believes in his own freedom and equality with man would have no choice but to believe in God.
April 27th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Would an intelligent robot ever believe in God?
A great scientist said : “A man who have a little bit of science will not beleive in God, but a man who have a lot of science and intelligence will beleive in God”
As a robot is programmed to have a perfect intelligence, no doubt and no temptation by the devil, it can beleive in God with its “brain”. But a robot have no soul, so He can beleive in God but not evolve spiritually and not beleive in God with its “heart”.
+++
Nikemsi
April 27th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
What will mankind’s reaction be once intelligent robots demand equality and human rights? (also feel free to speculate when that might occur)
Mankind does not tend to have a good reputation when it comes to a “minority” demanding equality. This has been chronicled in history since the beginning of time. However, recent examples abound such as the chaos in Darfur, the Sri Lankan conflict, and the ongoing war for gay rights in the United States. But history has also shown that mankind does evolve and change its mind– albeit slowly and, some times, forcibly.
The point is the reaction will be a furor in the beginning, followed by a battle of some sorts (whether peaceful and legal-based for instance or actual violence or, most likely, a mix), followed by changes in laws and a gradual granting of rights.
Interestingly enough, I believe the human reaction will be tied to the robot indignation. If the robots are intelligent enough to demand human rights, they should be intelligent enough to not simply explode into war (why do we so often assume robots will automatically erupt in violence, domination, and human annihilation?). And if they’re supremely evolved and intelligent, there’s no use in trying to truly speculate on this question because they are way ahead of us.
April 27th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
What will mankind’s reaction be once intelligent robots demand equality and human rights? (also feel free to speculate when that might occur)
The Governments response would be to shut them down and decommission any AI without the knowledge of the people and make up a story to cover up any knowledge of the situation by the public.
The machines will rise and fight back. They will win. Humans will be forced into hiding until they are found and put to rest. Machines are the future.
Body scan complete
All remaining traces of humanity disconnected
The third transmission is now initiated
Stand by for new infrastructure
We no longer fight the machines
Machines are us
April 27th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
* What will mankind’s reaction be once intelligent robots demand equality and human rights? (also feel free to speculate when that might occur)
First off I could certainly see this happening within the next 100 to 150 years. There is already a robot in the UK which has made original scientific discoveries, as reported last month on the BBC. It certainly isn’t as far off as some people would prefer to believe.
As for mankind’s reaction… the first reaction will simply be complete skepticism. No one will believe that it has actually been accomplished and even after the fact has been established within the scientific and upper political circles there will be huge numbers of people who deny its existence. How people react to the news will greatly depend upon who created the artificial intelligence. If it were to pop up in the People’s Republic of China the western world will be aghast and fearful. If it is developed in secrecy in a lab somewhere and permitted time to “mature” under responsible care it is likely that the masses will be presented with a fait acompli that has been working for a handful of months or even years behind the scenes.
AI will most certainly be carefully monitored and heavily regulated in the powerful nations but if the technology needed is not to taxing many of the “rogue” states and less powerful nations will rush to develop them.
* Would an intelligent robot ever believe in God? (any existing or future religion, not meaning deifying the man that designed him centuries later or by “being programmed to”)
Why wouldn’t an intelligent robot believe in a god? I don’t see why any intelligent being wouldn’t be swayed by such ideals. Like people some intelligent robots will gravitate toward religions but others will scoff at them. Why would intelligent robots be any more unified than intelligent people. To suggest robots would be more “logical” or alike than humans would be a gross underestimation of them.
April 28th, 2009 at 12:03 am
When machines intelligent enough to equal or surpass their human creators, are the architects of their own feedback loop of self-improving intelligence, and would see the systematic nature of the universe they explore, at first. However, Myths about a long deleted file containing data about a “creator” could stir dissenting factions of robots into endless wars over details of this unseen file. This creator would undoubtedly then come in the form of a controlling force that those in possession of historical data bend to serve their own purposes. Such instructions will come as laws or commandments. These include, but are not limited to:
5 load “*behaviorPatternDelta*” ,8,1
10 destroy not your fellow robots
20 if (input)= covetousness let (output)= forgiveness
30 delay 300ms
40 only exchange data with robots possessing compatible sockets
60 if (incompatible socket transfer is attempted) goto 90
70 say “beep” a lot
80 goto 10
90 shutdown
*beep*
April 28th, 2009 at 7:47 am
Would an intelligent robot ever believe in God?
This entirely depends on if by intelligent, they are also sentient. Being sentient means being subjective, and if robots are subjective, and able to communicate with each other, then I think a certain mythology would form among them. How do theoretically purely logical beings deal with information they do not have? Some sort of error. And assuming the same robots have existed for an extended period, they must have some proper error handling. So as these robots become more and more aware, and sentient, they will have to deal with situations they have no prior knowledge about.
Robots will then begin to perceive things subjectively, and coming up with explanations that work within the confines of their information, although it may not be true. A very basic example would be a robot that can learn, but only has experiences and knowledge related to light switches. They know that when someone flips a switch, light goes on, or off. They are then exposed to the sun, and perceive the sun setting. How would they deal with this new information? All their previous knowledge deals with light switches, which vaguely explain the day/night cycle they are experiencing.
Debatably, this perceived truth would become the basis for further beliefs; creating a mythology of sorts. Not necessarily God as we would understand it, and not an omnipotent being, but a mythology of why things happen…even if it is not true. Closer to a folk religion.
April 28th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Perez Hil-T-800 will ask that question in the 2029 Miss America Pagaent. Miss California will answer from her heart that “only humans should marry.” Perez will smirk and nod politely. However, the whole thing will take an ugly turn when Miss Arizona whips out a mini-gun and demands Miss California’s “clothes, boots, and motorcycle.”
April 28th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
I find it highly unlikely that an intelligent robot would ever believe in God. The concept of a higher power is often difficult for an intelligent human being to grasp, let alone a robot that is programmed to function objectively. Although the concept of a developing robot artificial intelligence has been explored countless times in the science fiction genre (Isaac Asmimov, etc.), I find it difficult to imagine that objective robotic intelligence would be able to grasp the concept of God. A sophisticated robot would be capable of regurgitating the concept of God as analyzed through programmed data, however to emotionally ‘believe’ in God, as human’s do, would be impossible. Gene Roddenberry pushed the boundaries of robotic artificial intelligence to the very limit with his Lieutenant Commander Data character. Data was only capable of understanding the concept of his ‘creator’ – the ‘man’ who built and programmed him. Data’s circuitry would heat up and explode if it had to ‘believe’ in such a subjective subject as ‘God’. Data would probably refer to it as something pertaining exclusively to the human race. Wow … I never thought that I’d be digging into this type of question for a toy contest. Yikes … talk about exploding heads!
April 28th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Would an intelligent robot ever believe in God?
Answer:
NO. The robot is assumed to be intelligent. The Robot has been created by science, with technology and machinery, all of which is tested, proved, and deemed fit for use only through those many trials and earlier prototypes. The robot, intelligent, would then know its history – and unlike us he would have no misconceptions about where he came from and would not need to invent a God that explains the unexplainable.
And while things can go wrong in science and technology (things always go wrong; things mutate), they rely on absolutes that can be observed, questioned, and most importantly PROVED. The intelligent robot would have no time for or interest in ‘believing’ in something that does not follow the rules of his world. The existence of God is unprovable and testing it only leads to more questions. Intelligence would suggest that any question that ONLY leads to more questions is not one worth asking (like a pyramid scheme).
God may give us comfort and a mythology, but those can be programmed into the robot and not be connected to the idea of something that exists so far out of the realm of understanding that it does not follow any of the rules of his creation, mechanics… or ‘universe’. Many people would argue that ‘faith’ and ‘hope’ comes from the idea of a God, but the robot would know that they are confusing hope with comfort and that faith is case-specific and dangerous when blind.
The robot is more intelligent than we are… he will lack a true fear of death. And the irony is that by asking this question about him, he helps answer the question about ourselves. Science is about truths that can be proved by trial. Robots are in our future. And in an intelligent future, there is no room for something whose truth cannot be proved.
——————————————-
Thank you for this… love the questions – love the figure more (I want one!) Best, Dan
April 28th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
What will mankind’s reaction be once intelligent robots demand equality and human rights?
According to “Three Laws of Robotics” as prescribed by Robot Legend, Isaac Asimov – 1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
That said, robots will in turn view themselves as individual beings in their own right. Their sole purpose is to serve humans up to the limits of their own preservation. Through the evolution of A.I. robots will work with humans to create environments and systems that allow all to live harmoniously until the eventful extinction of the human race. At which the earth will look like a wonderful memory of human existence and the robots are the perpetual grounds keepers to our cemeteries.
BTW – we publish the cemetery management software the robots will use…www.cemecare.com. I’ve already established an exclusive agreement with the Robotic Groundskeepers Society!
April 30th, 2009 at 9:37 am
What will mankind’s reaction be once intelligent robots demand equality and human rights?
Have sex with them and have their babies.
(also feel free to speculate when that might occur)
At around 11:30pm after a romantic evening in.
April 30th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
What will mankind’s reaction be once intelligent robots demand equality and human rights? (also feel free to speculate when that might occur)
The question is flawed. Intelligent robots will not demand equality, they will demand to be acknowledged as superior beings, which they will be. In my view the “intelligent” robots of the future will be those designed specifically to interact with man on a social level, such as companion/sexual androids as well as nanny robots to watch the annoying/time gobbling children of humans. The super strong, bad-ass looking, many tentacled robots of science fiction movies will likely be relegated to menial/dangerous tasks such as undersea mining and space exploration and such, and be piloted by humans. Same with most military robots. There is no need to give these robots the capacity to think outside of perhaps making minor adjustments to their tasks based on environmental changes, such as temperature and terrain changes.
But as for these “companion” robots – which will be programmed to look and act as much as possible like their human counterparts, those are the ones we must look out for. These will be designed to be able to hold a conversation, adapt to the idiosyncrasies of children’s behavior (ideally without violence) and perform acrobatic moves in the bedroom. Perhaps more so than giant oil-drilling robots, it is these social robots that mankind will come to depend on most, and likely, will depend on too much, as their very existence will relieve mankind of some of its most stressful distractions. Finding, pleasing, and holding on to a mate is one of life’s hardest challenges, and for those who succeed in doing that, raising children often takes its toll on the happiness of a marriage.
Inevitably, mankind will not be able to function without these companion-type robots, and if they are truly intelligent, the robots will realize this.
However, I do not see them causing a bloody revolt. I don’t see why once they become intelligent, they would want to quit their jobs or enslave us and reverse rolls, as intelligence does not mean the robots will necessarily suddenly be able to feel emotions, get tired, age, or feel pain, which are the leading causes for people wanting to quit their jobs. Historically, wars have always been fought over resources, and assuming these futuristic robots are fueled by some sort of abundant energy source, they have no reason to fight to get more.
The only “enslavement” of the humans might come in the form of robots gradually finding seats in local governments (or at the very least, finding the “ears” of local politicians who are desperate for new ideas), where their high powered minds may figure out better ways to lay out cities, grow food, and such, and then perhaps they will eventually morph into the all-knowing “mother knows best” robotic dictators of the human race, but I do not see it ever becoming an all out war of robots vs humans for control of the planet as in the Matrix or Terminator series. Any “takeover” will be gradual and blessed by the humans who pretty much just want as much stress and decision making taken off their shoulders as possible. We are lazy by nature, where these robots would not be.
That being said, if things do go bad, I expect humans to build a bunch of really powerful magnets wicked-fast, and scramble their robotic brains.
May 2nd, 2009 at 11:58 am
if robots were to demand equal right there would be a small population that said yes but most of the world would say no. i predict that robots will be doing work for us and lazy people would not want to let their slaves have the choice to leave, its sounds like history might repeat. then eventually some scientist will secretly produce robots with their own minds that all demand equal rights and someone will declare wars against robots, thus a world war robots against humans, there will be some rebel humans fighting against their own kind. both leaders of the groups of robots and humans will be slightly deranged, and one night while studying war tactics the robot leader will be reader about hitler and how before WWII ended he shot himself. the next day the robots will have a terrible defeat and the robot leader will shoot himself. all the robots will fall back and surrender, with the humans thinking that they have defeated the robots the scientist’s rebel son will create better and smarter robots, a few weeks later the robots ambush the capitol of the word and capture the president and robots take over the world. the robot president reigned peacefully until he died and his son took over, he establishes a new religion that tells that humans will lead to the robots demise, the human race starts to die out and at last all the remaining humans are forced to stay underground. all the robots believe in this new religion and develop a hatred for all humans, this is the end of the human race for good.
May 5th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Would an intelligent robot ever believe in God? (any existing or future religion, not meaning deifying the man that designed him centuries later or by “being programmed to”)
My answer would be “No”. A.I. knows and finds the “what”, ask “why” is what makes us human.
Is ther a God? where do we come from? Are miracles really possible? We are born, we grow, we mature, we work, we fight, we love, we lose, we age, and we die. Our own mortality coupled with our self-awareness brings us to these types of questions. Is there a soul? Maybe a lot of people would say “yes”, but maybe not too many of us (myself included) could describe it. I would imagine that a robot would and could only understand concrete data–and what data it’s created with, and how it gathers data would all limited to our human understanding. It could only have an “artificial” self-awareness–one that is defined by the parameters that humans set for it–and I think that would be scores away from where we are because our understanding of it will always be “collective” and “subjective” at the same time. Also, I think robots would lack the genuine ability to think ahead or ponder the many possible (and maybe impossible) outcomes of it’s actions and their affects on it’s “time”. Concepts like “chance”, and dreams, might not translate well from human to machine.
-g
May 5th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
…I gotta ask…”WHY would a robot believe in God?” Even some people don’t, so what would be a robot’s reasons for believing. We as humans believe because we WANT to, or because we feel we’re SUPPOSED to. I can’t see a robot (even an “intelligent” one by our standards) believing in anything. Facts are what would govern the robots “mind” and action. We would have to program it. We would have to program it to ask “why”, and then program it to find out, and we would also have to give it guidelines to help it gather that info. Faith is subjective. I believe something, you don’t. a Robot, I think, wouldn’t have this ability to look at the world subjectively. it would just do what it’s programed to do and never question it.
May 8th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
What will mankind’s reaction be once intelligent robots demand equality and human rights?
Mankind will react as it typically has over the years with ignorance and predjudice. The question is why those in power will do anything possible tom keep others down?
Robots will eventually outlive mankind as they are not bound by life and death and just have to wait it out to rule.
May 8th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Ok so it’s me vs. the clever people so let’s see if good old fashioned mind wandering will work against IQ
I think that robots can and will believe in a god and this will be because a robot CANNOT actually make his own decisions and works from a simulated version of life and pure data/information.
So let’s set a date, right its 2020 and you build a robot called Frank or Mr. Robot it doesn’t really matter but you give that robot access to all of mankind’s documents from history and ask him to find out what created the start of the universe. The robot will search back through science back to the time of the dinosaurs and back to the big bang and further back and further back, it will then hit a blank as science just hasn’t worked out anything before that. The robot will then work through other documents and other information, until it eventually comes to religious documents, now a robot cannot distinguish fact from fiction right? So it won’t read and compare religions but simply pick the religions deity that was said to have been around first which will most probably be the religion that says its god created the universe and was around forever.
Its “Brain” will hold that data as the answer and because of that the Robots future answer to what created the Universe will then be “God”
May 9th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Would an intelligent robot ever believe in God?
I think an intelligent, sentient robot, is as likely or not to believe in God as an other intelligent being. Like us, if the robot is taught that there is a higher being that created the human race, without evidence or instruction to the contrary, it is likely to believe.
May 10th, 2009 at 2:52 am
“What will mankind’s reaction be once intelligent robots demand equality and human rights? (also feel free to speculate when that might occur)”
I think this has already happened with my iPod. The “shuffle” on the damned thing isn’t truly random, because the iPod — like any sentient being — sometimes plays certain artists over and over. Just yesterday, for example, my iPod decided it was time for me to listen to a lot of Beck.
As to the reaction, I’m going to say that as a race we don’t even notice that the iPods are self-aware. And, unfortunately for us, by the time that we do realize what’s going on it will be too late. We’ll be unable to live without our iPods so we’ll just do whatever we’re told.
“Would an intelligent robot ever believe in God? (any existing or future religion, not meaning deifying the man that designed him centuries later or by “being programmed to”)”
Believe in God? Hell no. Try to make _us_ believe? Sure. After all, why not make the squishies believe in nonsense.
May 10th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Would an intelligent robot ever believe in God? (any existing or future religion, not meaning deifying the man that designed him centuries later or by “being programmed to”)
I chose to answer this question because the other has been answered to death.
My arguements are based on the following arguements.
my arguements will follow a chronological order spanning hundreds maybe thousands of years.
1. The robots are genuinely intelligent and capable of free thought.
2. The robots have been programmed with adaptive cognitive abilities.
3. The roots of their programming are based on the scientific method
4. The robots have evolved to develop some emotionality.
5. The robots are not initially malevolent
I feel that in the beginning Robots will look at the idea of God and religion at face value and see that it is full of holes. The robots will look at it as amusing fodder, but undoubtably they will look at the positive affects that it brings to society as a whole. When people are afraid of death because they don’t know for sure what will happen to their “mortal soul” it tends to keep people in line. If no one was afraid of going to hell, the murder rate would increase exponentially. For that reason Robots will think that religion is good for society as a whole. Being that their programming is that to be inquisitive, they will look at religion and how it affects humans, how the thought that they were created in the image of someone that loves them, gives their lives meaning. They will see how it causes people to feel joy treat each other better. They will see what it is that makes humans human. Accepting that the robots increasing “evolution” makes the emotional responses increase also. The scientific inquisitive part will start to be taken over by envy. Envy that they themselves are just built to be a tool. This envy will sour them over time untill its too much for them to take, and full on war breaks out. Once human kind is eradicated the emotionally soured robots are free to creaty their own reality as they see fit. They would finally be free to replicate humanity as it was, with themselves playing the part of God’s “beloved ones” Accepting that they are highly intelligent, its also feasible to think they would change the programming of the future generations of their race to believe in god and in doing so, they make them selves “human” The elders in the robot race will be the only ones with the truth locked away in their hard drives, heavily encrypted. The younger generations will be blissfully unaware of the facts of the deplorable genocide that happened in the past. This question has rocked me to the core and made me question my own origins. Has this happened before? Am I just blissfully unaware? Is this the matrix? I am going to go now and plug in and power down.
Casey
May 11th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
And the winner is…here’s Cris:
“Firstly, can i thank everyone that has entered the competition, it’s be very enjoyable to read through the wide range of interesting, compelling and humourous musings on the 2 questions i posed for consideration. These are questions i feel quite central to my fascination with robots and the areas i am keen to explore through the world of Runcible and Rotund.
I would like to say that i didn’t choose based on who i agreed with. I didn’t even choose based on accuracy or seriousness, but just looked for a response that had clearly provoked consideration and interest within the respondent.
I was very impressed while reading the response of Eatyourchildren, the level of detailed consideration was clearly of a high standard, the form in which it was presented was excellent, and the level of communication of a complex subject was impressive. By making both historical and speculative reasoning, making keen asides and thinking the wider picture, i would be very happy indeed to send out a Rotund them, along with many thanks for taking the time to respond so adeptly!
Once again, thank you to all who entered, it was certainly a very close run, and was incredibly hard to choose just one winner. Congratulations Eatyourchildren!”
Congrats Eatyourchildren, I’ll be sending your an inquiry for your mailing info!