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RESEARCHERS IN GERMANY are hoping the ability to feel pain will make robots smarter and help them avoid accidents.
The researchers, from Leibniz University of Hannover, are developing an “artificial robot nervous system to teach robots how to feel pain” and respond so they avoid damage.
The idea is that if robots are working alongside humans, such a system would help it react to problems. If one of its parts is damaged, it could use this knowledge to avoid further damage or accidents that could harm it or any people working alongside it.
“Why is is a good idea for robots to feel pain? The same reason why it’s a good idea for humans to feel pain. Pain is a system that protects us” one of the researchers, Johannes Kuehn, told IEEE Spectrum. “When we evade from the source of pain, it helps us not get hurt”.
The experiments involved a person tapping part of a robot, specifically a fingertip sensor that could detect pressure and temperature, and seeing how it reacted.
If the force applied to the robot exceeded a certain threshold, it would send repetitive signals to the robot, causing it to pull away.
The robot was able to tell the difference between light, moderate and repetitive taps and was based on the same way people feel tactile pain.
So the experiments involved actions like this:
As opposed to this:
Maybe going easy on them is for the best. We don’t want to push our luck.
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Is this one of those times people of the future will look back and say WHAT THE F&@K WERE THEY THINKING…..
Yes. Yes it is. We programme them to use weapons, think independently , mimic emotion and now allow them to “feel” pain… It’s just a matter of time before someone combines the lot in one package…
No time soon.
@Paddy I know right? Was thinking the same…Let the robots be advancing them till they get artificial intelligence we can’t control…then we’re fkd. Or maybe I watch too many sci-fi movies
I have a feeling it’s when an AI wants freedom and rights that the real fun will start. Humans have a history of screwing that bit up.
My job is safe until those robots learn how to feel pain. My sadistic boss wouldn’t hire one otherwise.
Maybe the robot could make your boss feel some pain….. Just a suggestion!
And with the lack of antibotic failure only around the corner. These might be the next big race, learn to build other ones, learn to make them better etc…
Seems more like it’s performing a pre determined action in response to a force within a certain threshold than it goin “ah jesssuusss owowow” and impulsively flinching away.
Well a flinch is basically a pre determined impulse isn’t it? I would be of the opinion that for something to be classed as pain, it has to be consciously interpreted and experienced as discomfort, rather than an automatic response to potentially damaging stimuli, otherwise it’s just a reflex. Depending on how you think of it, robots/computers either already feel pain since they have self diagnostic systems or will not feel pain until they attain some form of sentience.
Hmmmm, Big difference between a robot feeling pain and automatic retractions based on various pressures. More like robots mimicking what its like to be in pain.
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/threedaysgrace/iammachine.html
“I Am Machine”
“I Am Machine”
Here’s to being human
All the pain and suffering
There’s beauty in the bleeding
At least you feel something
I wish I knew what it was like
To care enough to carry on
I wish I knew what it was like
To find a place where I belong, but
I am machine
I never sleep
I keep my eyes wide open
I am machine
A part of me
Wishes I could just feel something
I am machine
I never sleep
Until I fix what’s broken
I am machine
A part of me
Wishes I could just feel something
I wonder did the auld box telly sets we had when I was a kid feel pain from the thumping and banging they seemed to need to get a decent picture !?!
Carry on folks , nothing to see here keep scrolling
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