New Society With Humanoid Robots Says EU Robotics Expert: Replicants Soon A Reality?

Danica Kragic: Credit: KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Is there a replicant in your future? Or at least a very humanoid robot? The 1982 film Blade Runner depicts a dystopian Los Angeles in November 2019 in which genetically engineered organic robots called replicants – visually indistinguishable from adult humans – are manufactured by the powerful Tyrell Corporation as well as by other "mega–manufacturers" around the world. Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty,leader of the renegade Nexus-6 replicants That vision of the future may not be that far off...or at least its beginning. Humanity came one step closer in January to being able to replicate itself, thanks to the EU’s approval of funding for the Human Brain Project. Danica Kragic, a robotics researcher and computer science professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, says that while the prospect of living among humanoid robots calls to mind terrifying scenarios from science fiction, the reality of how humans cope with advances in robotics will be more complex, and subtle. “Robots will challenge the way we feel about machines in general,” Kragic says. “A completely different kind of society is on the way.” http://crosstalks.tv/ The Human Brain Project will involve 87 universities in a simulation of the cells, chemistry and connectivity of the brain in a supercomputer, in order to understand the brain’s architecture, organisation, functions and development. The project will include testing brain-enabled robots. “Will we be able to – just by the fact that we can build a brain – build a human? Why not? What would stop you?” Kragic asks. Nevertheless, consumer-grade robots are a long way from reality, says Kragic, who in addition to serving as Director of KTH’s Centre for Autonomous Systems, is also head of the Computer Vision and Active Perception Lab. She says that in order for robots to offer some value to households, researchers and developers will have to overcome some daunting technological challenges. Robots will have to multitask and perhaps even be programmed to have emotional capacities programmed into their logical processes, she says. “Based on the state of the environment and what it is expected of the robot, we want the outcome action to be acceptable to humans,” she says. “Many things that we do are based not just on facts, so should machines somehow have simulated emotions, or not? Either way, it is difficult to predict how that will affect their interaction with humans.” Kragic sees robots making a largely positive contribution to society. But they will also present some novel problems for which humans have few reference points, such as what are the social norms for interacting with robots? “There is a discussion about robot ethics and how we should treat robots,” Kragic says. “It’s difficult to say what’s right and wrong until you are actually in the situation where you need to question yourself and your own feelings about a certain machine – and the big question is how your feelings are conditioned by the fact that you know it’s a machine, or don’t know whether it’s a machine.” Kragic predicts that one of the most popular consumer application of robots will be as housekeepers, performing the chores that free up time for their owners. They could also take over jobs that are repetitive, such as operating buses or working in restaurants. On the other hand, the robot industry will expand and create jobs, she predicts. As for the possibility that one day robots will turn on us – Kragic is skeptical. “A robot rebellion - that’s the ultimate science fiction scenario, right? It’s worth placing some constraints on robots, such as (author Isaac) Asimov’s Three Rules of Robotics. At the same time, we have rules as humans, which we break. No one is 100 percent safe, and the same can happen with machines.” Human rebellion against robots is far more likely, she says, pointing out that even as society’s attitudes toward automation evolve over generations, the debate over whether humans have the right to “play God” will likely continue. “There will be people for and against it,” she says. “But what is wrong with building a human? We have been raised in a society that thinks this is wrong, that this is playing God. “Subsequent generations could have a different view.” Blade Runner is a 1982 American dystopian science fiction action film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. In the Blade Runner film. Replicants use on Earth is banned and replicants are exclusively used for dangerous, menial or leisure work on off-world colonies. Replicants who defy the ban and return to Earth are hunted down and "retired" by police special operatives known as "Blade Runners". The plot focuses on a brutal and cunning group of recently escaped replicants hiding in Los Angeles and the burnt out expert Blade Runner, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), who reluctantly agrees to take on one more assignment to hunt them down. Contacts and sources: Robotics researcher Danica Kragic, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Source: Nano Patents And Innovation

Read More........→April 01, 2013

Leading scientists shocked by the achievements of Russian indigo-children

© Flickr.com/zen/cc-by-nc-sa 3.0

In recent years the phrase ‘indigo-children’ has become a buzz-word for those youngsters whose intellectual potential significantly surpasses that of most adult scientists. While many remain skeptical towards the idea of the ‘genius youth’, one can hardly ignore the growing number of teenagers endowed with exceptional and often unprecedented talents in various spheres of science and humanities. 
By:Yulia Zamanskaya, The recent innovation exhibition for the young adults of pre-university age organized by Bauman Moscow State Technical University (MSTU) presented Russian scientists with an opportunity to ‘witness the miracle’ and get to see the creations of gifted children. Leading experts were positively shocked by such exhibits as energy-efficient home suitable for severe climate conditions of Siberia and a robot rover constructed on the basis of Tolchin’s inertioid. Bauman MSTU has long become a synonym for technological innovation and change. Ever since its foundation in 1763 by the order of Russian Empress Catherine II the institution has become the home of greatest scientific minds. The walls of this most renowned Russian technical university have witnessed the inventions of such revolutionary apparatuses as the very first oil cracking machine and a swash plate, which subsequently allowed building helicopters with extraordinary steadiness and controllability characteristics. However, never before has the university contemplated that remarkable scientific breakthroughs can be made by young adults who are yet to receive higher education. Every year the university organizes ‘Step to the Future’ – an innovation exhibition for pre-university teenagers to uncover the potential of the Russian youth and motivate the most gifted youngsters to pursue a career in technology. Over the years, the university professors and leading experts who oversee the exhibition have already become used to creative and unusual technological solutions proposed by the Russian youth. Nonetheless, the exhibits of December 2012 have come as a shock even to those scientists who were accustomed to ‘usualunusualnesses’ of the exposition. Eleventh grade student Anya Shvetsova from the city of Noginsk, Moscow Region, has captured the audience with her robot rover. Her exhibition stand is always crowded with Russian leading scientists who marvel at Anya’s creation and try to figure out how it works. Noisily creeping on the floor, the machine is reminiscent of either a UFO or a silver bowl. When Anya toggles the switches on her hand-made console the plate immediately changes the course and starts crawling across the floor in the opposite direction. The girl calls her invention “an autonomous landing vehicle” and suggests that should her idea be realized under the sponsorship of the Russian Space Agency the robot rover will be able to land even on Venus. When asked about the technical characteristics of the machine, Anya habitually answers that “the apparatus’ main engine is constructed on the basis of Tolchin’s inertioid”. In plain language, it means that the vehicle’s propulsion depends on the movement of two asymmetrical tooth-wheels that are put in motion by electricity or solar energy. While the mechanism seems to be quite straightforward, the way how the rotation of the two tooth-gears drives the whole apparatus remains a mystery even for the most renowned experts. When asked about her plans and future projects Anya sets her standards very high. In the very near future the girl aims to teach her robot to surmount ramps with the gradient of more than 15 degrees and to change the material of the rover in order to make it heat-resistant. Anya also hopes to make her rover work up to 12 times longer than all other existing landing vehicles, which is a very audacious plan. Three years younger than Anya, Danil Bibnev from Usolye-Sibirskoe town, Irkutsk region, has presented the public with a similarly ambitious invention. In just two years Danil has constructed a house which is suitable for severe weather conditions of Siberia – its highly efficient heating system is able to conserve heat for the whole duration of long and extremely cold Siberian winters. The key component of Danil’s design is the vortex heater which is remarkable for its ability to spend less amount of energy on heating the water than the amount of energy subsequently derived from water’s heat. While the house is fully operational, modern scientists find it difficult to understand how the vortex heater works since its logic undermines the fundamental law of thermodynamics. This law, which is usually referred to as the energy conservation rule, dictates that the total amount of energy in an isolated system remains constant over time. Thus, Danil’s use of the vortex heater in his energy-efficient house has a potential to be become a cardinal breakthrough in modern physics. Another innovative element in Danil’s project is the use of ‘matrioshka principle’ which he used while deciding how and where to place heating pipes. Positioning the pipes along the building’s pedestal, the boy placed the hot water pipes in empty pipes with greater diameter so that the heat from water transferred to the air thereby creating a hot air cushion. Danil dreams to continue his education in Bauman MSTU. While the family does not have sufficient funds to sponsor Danil’s higher education, the boy hopes that he will get a governmental grant. These grants – often called the ‘indigo-grants’ – are due to be realized in two years, exactly when Danil graduates from school. Source: Voice of Russia,

Read More........→January 21, 2013

The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'

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By Carol Clark: A neuro-imaging study shows that personal values that people refuse to disavow, even when offered cash to do so, are processed differently in the brain than those values that are willingly sold. “Our experiment found that the realm of the sacred – whether it’s a strong religious belief, a national identity or a code of ethics – is a distinct cognitive process,” says Gregory Berns, director of the Center for Neuropolicy at Emory University and lead author of the study. The results were published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Sacred values prompt greater activation of an area of the brain associated with rules-based, right-or-wrong thought processes, the study showed, as opposed to the regions linked to processing of costs-versus-benefits. Berns headed a team that included Emory economist Monica Capra; Michael Prietula, a professor of information systems and operations management at Emory's Goizueta Business School; a psychologist from the New School for Social Research and anthropologists from the Institute Jean Nicod in Paris, France. (Click here to see the full list of names.) The research was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation. “We’ve come up with a method to start answering scientific questions about how people make decisions involving sacred values, and that has major implications if you want to better understand what influences human behavior across countries and

cultures,” Berns says. “We are seeing how fundamental cultural values are represented in the brain.” The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to record the brain responses of 32 U.S. adults during key phases of an experiment. In the first phase, participants were shown statements ranging from the mundane, such as “You are a tea drinker,” to hot-button issues such “You support gay marriage” and “You are Pro-Life.” Each of the 62 statements had a contradictory pair, such as “You are Pro-Choice,” and the participants had to choose one of each pair. Click here to download the full list of questions, and the responses by the subjects. At the end of the experiment, participants were given the option of auctioning their personal statements: Disavowing their previous choices for actual money. The participants could earn as much as $100 per statement by simply agreeing to sign a document stating the opposite of what they believed. They could choose to opt out of the auction for statements they valued highly. “We used the auction as a measure of integrity for specific statements,” Berns explains. “If a person refused to take money to change a statement, then we considered that value to be personally sacred to them. But if they took money, then we considered that they had low integrity for that statement and that it wasn’t sacred.” The brain imaging data showed a strong correlation between sacred values and activation of the neural systems associated with evaluating rights and wrongs (the left temporoparietal junction) and semantic rule retrieval (the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex), but not with systems associated with reward. “Most public policy is based on offering people incentives and disincentives,” Berns says. “Our findings indicate that it’s unreasonable to think that a policy based on costs-and-benefits analysis will influence people’s behavior when it comes to their sacred personal

values, because they are processed in an entirely different brain system than incentives.” Research participants who reported more active affiliations with organizations, such as churches, sports teams, musical groups and environmental clubs, had stronger brain activity in the same brain regions that correlated to sacred values. “Organized groups may instill values more strongly through the use of rules and social norms,” Berns says. The experiment also found activation in the amygdala, a brain region associated with emotional reactions, but only in cases where participants refused to take cash to state the opposite of what they believe. “Those statements represent the most repugnant items to the individual,” Berns says, “and would be expected to provoke the most arousal, which is consistent with the idea that when sacred values are violated, that induces moral outrage.” The study is part of a special issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, titled “The Biology of Cultural Conflict.” Berns edited the special issue, which brings together a dozen articles on the culture of neuroscience, including differences in the neural processing of people on the opposing sides of conflict, from U.S. Democrats and Republicans to Arabs and Israelis. “As culture changes, it affects our brains, and as our brains change, that affects our culture. You can’t separate the two,” Berns says. “We now have the means to start understanding this relationship, and that’s putting the relatively new field of cultural neuroscience onto the global stage.” Future conflicts over politics and religion will likely play out biologically, Berns says. Some cultures will choose to change their biology, and in the process, change their culture, he notes. He cites the battles over women’s reproductive rights and gay marriage as ongoing examples.Source: eScienceCommons

Read More........→November 27, 2012

Compassion meditation may boost neural basis of empathy

The idea behind the compassion-based meditation is that "the feelings we have about people can be trained in optimal ways," says Lobsang Tenzin Negi, who developed the protocol.

By Carol Clark: A compassion-based meditation program can significantly improve a person’s ability to read the facial expressions of others, finds a study published by Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. This boost in empathic accuracy was detected through both behavioral testing of the study participants and through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of their brain activity. “It’s an intriguing result, suggesting that a behavioral intervention could enhance a key aspect of empathy,” says lead author Jennifer Mascaro, a post-doctoral fellow in anthropology at Emory University. “Previous research has shown that both children and adults who are better at reading the emotional expressions of others have better relationships.” The meditation protocol, known as Cognitively-Based Compassion Training, or CBCT, was developed at Emory by study co-author Lobsang Tenzin Negi, director of the Emory-Tibet Partnership. Although derived from ancient Tibetan Buddhist practices, the CBCT program is secular in content and presentation. The research team also included senior author Charles Raison, formerly a psychiatrist at Emory’s School of Medicine and currently at the University of Arizona, and

Research shows that people better at reading the emotions of others have better relationships.

 Emory anthropologist James Rilling. When most people think of meditation, they think of a style known as “mindfulness,” in which practitioners seek to improve their ability to concentrate and to be non-judgmentally aware of their thoughts and feelings. While CBCT includes these mindfulness elements, the practice focuses more specifically on training people to analyze and reinterpret their relationships with others. “The idea is that the feelings we have about people can be trained in optimal ways,” Negi explains. “CBCT aims to condition one’s mind to recognize how we are all inter-dependent, and that everybody desires to be happy and free from suffering at a deep level.” Study participants were healthy adults without prior meditation experience. Thirteen participants randomized to CBCT meditation completed regular weekly training sessions and at-home practice for eight weeks. Eight randomized control subjects did not

meditate, but instead completed health discussion classes that covered mind-body subjects like the effects of exercise and stress on well-being. To test empathic accuracy before and following CBCT, all participants received fMRI brain scans while completing a modified version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET). The RMET consists of black-and-white photographs that show just the eye region of people making various expressions. Those being tested must judge what the person in the photograph is thinking or feeling. Eight out of the 13 participants in the CBCT meditation group improved their RMET scores by an average of 4.6 percent, while the control participants showed no increase, and in the majority of cases, a decrease in correct answers for the RMET. The meditators, in comparison to those in the control group, also had significant increases in neural activity in areas of the brain important for empathy, including the inferior frontal gyrus and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. These changes in brain activity accounted for changes in the empathic accuracy scores of the participants. “These findings raise the intriguing possibility that CBCT may have enhanced empathic abilities by increasing activity in parts of the brain that are of central importance for our ability to recognize the emotional states of others,” Raison says. “An important next step will be to evaluate the effects of CBCT on diverse populations that may particularly benefit from enhanced empathic accuracy, such as those suffering from high-functioning autism or severe depression.” Findings from the current study add to a growing database indicating that the CBCT style of meditation may have physical and emotional effects relevant to health and well-being. For example, previous research at Emory found that practicing CBCT reduced emotional distress and enhanced physical resilience in response to stress in both healthy young adults and in high-risk adolescents in foster care. Source: eScienceCommons

Read More........→November 05, 2012

Higher-math skills entwined with lower-order magnitude sense

While many animals understand the concept of less and more, only humans can learn formal math.

By Carol Clark: The ability to learn complex, symbolic math is a uniquely human trait, but it is intricately connected to a primitive sense of magnitude that is shared by many animals, finds a study to be published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). “Our results clearly show that uniquely human branches of mathematics interface with an evolutionarily primitive general magnitude system,” says lead authorStella Lourenco, a psychologist at Emory University. “We were able to show how variations in both advanced arithmetic and geometry skills specifically correlated with variations in our intuitive sense of magnitude.” Babies as young as six months can roughly distinguish between less and more, whether it’s for a number of objects, the size of objects, or the length of time they see the objects. This intuitive, non-verbal sense of magnitude, which may be innate, has also been demonstrated in non-human animals. When given a choice between a group of five bananas or two bananas, for example, monkeys will tend to take the bigger bunch. “It’s obviously of adaptive value for all animals to be able to discriminate between less and more,” Lourenco says. “The ability is widespread across the animal kingdom – fish, rodents and even insects show sensitivity to magnitude, such as the number of items in a set of objects.” Only humans, however, can learn formal math, including symbolic notations of number, quantitative concepts and computational operations. While the general magnitude system has been linked primarily to the brain’s intraparietal sulcus (IPS), higher math requires the use of more widely

The dot test shows variation in people's ability to intuit number and area.

distributed areas of the brain. For the PNAS study, the researchers wanted to build on work by others indicating that a lower-order sense of number is not just a separate function, but plays a role in the mental capacity for more complex math. The researchers recruited 65 undergraduate college students to participate in an experiment. To test their knack for estimating magnitude of numbers, participants were shown images of dots in two different colors, flashed for only 200 milliseconds on a computer screen. They then had to choose which color had the greater number of dots. Most people can quickly distinguish that a group of 10 dots is greater than a group of five, but some people have a finer-grained number sense that allows them to discriminate between 10 and nine dots. The participants were also shown dots of varying sizes and colors to test their ability to gauge magnitude of area. They then completed a battery of standardized math tests. The results showed that the more precise the participants’ abilities were at estimating the magnitude of a number, the better they scored in advanced arithmetic. The same correlation was found between precision at gauging magnitude of area and the geometry portion of the standardized math test. “By better understanding the psychological mechanisms underlying math abilities such as arithmetic and geometry, we hope to eventually inform how we come to learn symbolic math, and why some people are better at it than others,” says study co-author Justin Bonny, an Emory graduate student of psychology. “It may then be possible to develop early interventions for those who struggle with specific types of math.” U.S. teens lag in math skills compared to other industrialized countries. China ranked number one in math in 2010, the first year that the country participated in the Program for International Student Assessment, while the United States ranked number 31. “Falling behind in math is a huge problem,” Lourenco says, “given that we live in an increasingly technilogical society and a globally competitive world.”Source: eScienceCommons

Read More........→October 31, 2012