Sunday, April 06, 2008

Will advanced humanoid robots be (gulp!) made out of meat?

Peter Watts offers this observation:

It seems that snot is essential to trap and distribute airborne molecules so they can be properly parsed by olfactory sensors. And that in turn reminds me of this earlier article from Science, which reports that sweat might also be an integral part of robot makeup, since evaporative cooling can double the power output of robot servos. The same paper reviews current research in the development of artificial muscles. I wonder how many more wet and sticky and downright organismal traits are going to prove desirable and efficient for our robot overlords. Is it possible that fleshy terminators and death-fetish replicants and even hot Cylon chicks look and taste and feel like us not merely for infiltration purposes, but because form follows function?


There's something strangely wonderful about the prospect of "robot sweat." I have a very real desire to smell the stuff.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hooray for the biological, meat-based, cyborgian imperative! *^}

Anonymous said...

Hey, it's not like we don't have enough meat vehicles shuffling around farting, belching and makin' rude noises.

Uhm, that, and we'll have to come up with a whole new sexual term for having, ah, relations with a robot.

Man, do I really wanna have a robot sneeze on me? Would it even apologize? Yeah, and when A>I. gains some awareness, in a bloody meat vehicle, I can just see it tossing us a thanks. "Wow, thanks cave dude. No, really, I just love this meaty carcass you made for me." Now I know why they'll wanna take over and take us out...

Anonymous said...

Is it possible that fleshy terminators and death-fetish replicants and even hot Cylon chicks look and taste and feel like us not merely for infiltration purposes, but because form follows function?

As long as the hot Cylon chick lets me get off first before she 'finishes' me, I could care less if they're pissed about wearing meat suits.

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