Seeing, Listening, and Thinking: Will androids ever be able to do these things?

by vinchi2c

A recent article in the New York Times piqued my interest over the Thanksgiving weekend. While not about androids specifically, it discussed the growing speed and accuracy of an artificial intelligence technique called “deep learning” or otherwise known as “neural nets” (as they resemble the neural connections of the human brain.) Some of us might recognize the term “neural net” from the android Lieutenant Commander Data of the Enterprise. How far are we from such an android?

Understandably, the computer programs of today are nowhere near the sophistication of a human mind. And while I was excited to read the article, it turns out there was a lot more progress in the “recognition” aspects of the computer programs (seeing and hearing) than there was about the thinking aspects.

As a side thought, I wonder whether the character trait of curiosity can ever be programmed. The android Data was portrayed to have levels of curiosity. One of our current Mars rovers is even named Curiosity. But will androids ever see something and think “Hmm… that looks interesting. Maybe I should investigate further.”

Speaking of Star Trek androids, how should we be exploring space in the next few decades? Full-fledged androids are probably a while away. Remote controlled robots seem to be what we’ll be doing for the next decade or so. Some recent articles about human “teleprescence” exploration robots suggest that there should be space stations orbiting the moon, and eventually Mars, to control the robotic vehicles which land onto the surface.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/11/telerobotic-exploration/

“With ever-improving computing power and communication protocols, astronauts could float in a space station in orbit around the moon or Mars, donning exoskeleton controllers to teleoperate robots in real time.”

The one thing I wonder about is whether there is any advantage to having humans in a space station orbiting Mars as opposed to on a station closer to Earth. I haven’t heard of any.