Robots mimic an emotional side
Rushda:
February 26th, 2007
There is a wonderful scene in the film Short Circuit in which a robot (Number Five) proves that he is actually alive and conscious by laughing at a joke. Well, scientists haven’t quite managed the laughing yet but advances in robot technology are such that robots are starting to behave more ‘emotionally’. Feelix Growing is a research project which aims to develop robots so they can learn from humans and interact in an emotionally appropriate manner. Robots are likened to babies who learn to identify facial expressions and other movement patterns by picking up information from the world around them. Artificial neural networks are being used so that robots actually learn new information about their owner (whether they are happy, sad, angry, and so on).
Predictably as a philosophy student, what I find most interesting about this is how much would be needed to show that the robot was actually emotional. Though this is controversial in the philosophy of mind, I think even though robots have the potential to mimic every kind of ‘emotional’ behaviour, most would still not accept that the robot would be actually feeling the emotions the behaviour is designed to represent. Sorry number five, but perhaps it’ll take a lot more to show you are alive!