March 8, 2004

Asimo's Creator Speaks

The creator of Honda's Asimo robot, Edgar Korner, speaks about the future of humanoid robots in this interview in e4engineering.com. This is an interesting peek into the mind of a futurist, and I think that he comes off well.

But even if the robot is safe, fun and useful, is there anything to suggest that people will want it? Korner thinks so, and claimed that the market for domestic androids will be 'really huge.' He pointed to the trend in Japan for robot pets, which are no longer marketed simply as expensive toys but are also sold to pensioners as both companions and protectors. Able to respond to basic stimuli, these machines will even alert the emergency services if their ageing owners go quiet on them.

And then there is the inevitable question for every engineer working in the robotics field: what about the 'Terminator scenario' - the Hollywood-fuelled fear that robots will eventually become so intelligent that they enslave the human race?

Korner's response is as unequivocal as you would expect from someone devoted to this area of technology. 'Any tool made by humans to make life easier can potentially be turned into a weapon. Should we stop making knives? There are easier ways to kill people than to develop autonomous robots, and I don't think it's a reasonable fear that humanoid robots will dominate and control the world.

'I expect robot development to set humans free to indulge our creative arts and our capabilities to deal with creative processes. By overcoming the limitations set by the limited capacity of our brain for storing information, we will be able to develop new areas of our creative designs and develop systems that were previously impossible.'

Posted by elkaim at March 8, 2004 12:12 PM