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It could begin with the development of cyborgs. As our knowledge of brain function advances the possibility of direct interface and replacement of damaged neurological parts with cybernetic parts could continue until there is nothing left of the original biological brain. Such a machine/person could plug into any number of body types including a humanoid that would look much like a bio-human. One question is, would the resulting machine be considered a legal person?
I read the OP as referring specifically to robots though. In my mind, cybernetic enhancement is human wearable or implantable machines. In other words, human-controlled or piloted machines. A robot is something different. It does not have any human input. It may contain artificial biological material however.
IOW - my take on the OP was more, will we ever have androids? (think: Bishop from Alien)
They're still pretty crude and limited at present, but the technology is slowly advancing.
But humans with experience would be able to tell you those things. They could produce a rough estimate of how large it is by looking at it, how heavy it is by holding it, how cold it is by touching it, and its composition by knowing that ice is made up from water.
For a general-purpose robot to do better than any possible human could do that, it'd have to have the instruments equivalent to those that a human would use to measure those things built in.
And as for knowing that it's cold, why wouldn't a robot be able to experience that?
The robot named Dvorak in the Freefall webcomic came up with the solution to this (I can't be bothered to search the archives to find the exact comic). He built a small heating pad and a thermometer into his hand to be able to experience the way that humans feel hot and cold.
(It's not just the temperature of the objects we handle that affect how hot or cold they feel to us, but also their thermal conductivity, which is why he needed a heating pad in his hand to experience this.)
I read the OP as referring specifically to robots though. In my mind, cybernetic enhancement is human wearable or implantable machines. In other words, human-controlled or piloted machines. A robot is something different. It does not have any human input. It may contain artificial biological material however.
IOW - my take on the OP was more, will we ever have androids? (think: Bishop from Alien)
Your points are all valid. I have some reservations about building a robot or AI from the ground up using only hardware and software that could pass the Turing test, which would be the minimum requirement for a robot that would act human. Another possibility is to design a computer with an organizational structure like the human brain and then copy the patterns from a living brain to the cybernetic copy. Now you have a machine that thinks it's a person, that could be practically immortal.
Coldness, as humans conceive of it, is a value of temperature plus associated data. Robots (or computers) can of course do that. There's no magic to being human, just a lot of complexity.
If it's a matter of experiencing the sensation of coldness, why couldn't intelligent machines be able to experience that too?
(And if this isn't about experiencing the sensation of coldness, and it isn't about being able to sense the low temperature, then I have no idea what you're talking about.)
No the point is Mordell completely missing the reality. Our temperature sensor are measuring temperature against a reference threshold. Then the brain implicitly aware of that reference, state it is cold or hot. It is very simple programming, of the order of IF temperature>threshold_max THEN Send(brain,"HOT") ELSE IF temperature<threshold_min THEN Send(brain,"COLD") ELSE Send(brain,"") and then brain analyze as being "normal temperature". Nothing a robot could not do. Mordrell is simply missing all the implicit mechanism.
(As an aside it is in fact very defective. For the same temperature if you touch a surface which conduct warmth quicker, you will feel it as colder (or hotter). Try touching a 10°C metal plate and a 10°C wood plate. Or try standing in the rain of water at 10°C and a wind at 10°C or a stand still temperature of 10°C).
The recent advances in machine technology,and robotics notwithstanding, will
machines ever be truly humanlike.
For a Breath I Tarry, by Roger Zelazny (extract).
Mordel drove a shaft of metal downward into the snow.
He retracted it, raised it, held up a piece of ice.
"Regard this piece of ice, mighty Frost. You can tell me its
composition, dimensions, weight, temperature. A Man could not look at it
and do that. A Man could make tools which would tell him these things,
but He still would not know measurement as you know it. What he would
know of it, though, is a thing that you cannot know."
"What is that?"
"That it is cold," said Mordel and tossed it away.
"Hey, Mordel," Frost said, "did you know that when a human touches something really cold it feels the same as something really hot? My sensors don't make that error."
But humans with experience would be able to tell you those things. They could produce a rough estimate of how large it is by looking at it, how heavy it is by holding it, how cold it is by touching it, and its composition by knowing that ice is made up from water.
For a general-purpose robot to do better than any possible human could do that, it'd have to have the instruments equivalent to those that a human would use to measure those things built in.
And as for knowing that it's cold, why wouldn't a robot be able to experience that?
My thoughts exactly. The moment I read Zelazny's quote I thought "This is stupid on several different levels"
The robot named Dvorak in the Freefall webcomic came up with the solution to this (I can't be bothered to search the archives to find the exact comic). He built a small heating pad and a thermometer into his hand to be able to experience the way that humans feel hot and cold.
(It's not just the temperature of the objects we handle that affect how hot or cold they feel to us, but also their thermal conductivity, which is why he needed a heating pad in his hand to experience this.)
The day human males can buy a robot that will stand in for a woman (sexually and wash his underwear) will be day one of the imminent extinction of the human race.
I think that advanced AI is inevitable, and "human-like" robots likely, if we can solve the attendant problem of a sufficient power source.
The late Isaac Asimov speculated a great deal about robot/human relations, of course. He had an essay in Asimov's Science Fiction about sex with robots.... Reasoned that if we could, we would. After all, humans have sex with all manner of inanimate objects, including "sex dolls" that look about as human as a bathing cap.
NPR is running a gaming blog on Tumblr, and they just had a segment on the ethics of killing NPCs which will at some point be controlled by more-advanced AI.
The day human males can buy a robot that will stand in for a woman (sexually and wash his underwear) will be day one of the imminent extinction of the human race.
Coldness, as humans conceive of it, is a value of temperature plus associated data. Robots (or computers) can of course do that. There's no magic to being human, just a lot of complexity.
How easy it is to summarize this situation when you don’t ever have to actually admit that you don’t know what you’re talking about. We'll just call it 'associated data' and then we'll sound like we understand all things.
Why not call it 'gobbledygook'...or 'flabberwokky'...or just plain BS!
Coldness, as humans conceive of it, is a value of temperature plus associated data. Robots (or computers) can of course do that. There's no magic to being human, just a lot of complexity.
….except that neither you nor anyone else on this planet actually has any idea how it happens. But hey, if it makes you feel better not to have to admit you’re ignorant (like every other human being), then knock yourself out.
As to the OP....robots already are 'human-like'. You could even find 'human-like' qualities in the proverbial thermostat if you look hard enough.
The real question is....what is a human? When a robot can answer that question, then a robot will be truly human-like. So far, humans can't even answer that question (except for the occasional messiah)(....and Pixy of course).
Increasingly resembling humans? No doubt, but with limits to the usefulness of further advances.
Ever able to pass for a human? Never. For example - it might well make sense to create a robot whose pupils react the way a human's eye pupisl do to light. But then a human has a further adaptation where the retinal pigments 'bleach' in bright light but recover in darkness. There would be no point building this into a robot when much simpler mechanisms could achieve the same outcome. And what would be the point in giving a 'male' robot a prostate gland? To fool the doctor?
Ah yes, an android that is "fully functional", as she so seductively put it. Just don't let her know about your attraction to Nancy Allen. Things can go downhill fast.
The day human males can buy a robot that will stand in for a woman (sexually and wash his underwear) will be day one of the imminent extinction of the human race.
No the point is Mordell completely missing the reality. Our temperature sensor are measuring temperature against a reference threshold. Then the brain implicitly aware of that reference, state it is cold or hot. It is very simple programming, of the order of IF temperature>threshold_max THEN Send(brain,"HOT") ELSE IF temperature<threshold_min THEN Send(brain,"COLD") ELSE Send(brain,"") and then brain analyze as being "normal temperature". Nothing a robot could not do. Mordrell is simply missing all the implicit mechanism.
(As an aside it is in fact very defective. For the same temperature if you touch a surface which conduct warmth quicker, you will feel it as colder (or hotter). Try touching a 10°C metal plate and a 10°C wood plate. Or try standing in the rain of water at 10°C and a wind at 10°C or a stand still temperature of 10°C).
Cold' is a relative term." (Frost)
"Yes Relative to Man." (Mordell)
"But if I were aware of the point on a temperature scale below which an
object is cold to a Man and above which it is not, then I, too, would
know cold." (Frost)
"No," said Mordel, "you would possess another measurement. 'Cold' is a
sensation predicated upon human physiology."
"But given sufficient data I could obtain the conversion factor which
would make me aware of the condition of matter called 'cold'.(Frost)
"Aware of its existence, but not of the thing itself." (Mordell)
"Thank you," Foyle said.
"My pleasure, sir," the robot replied and awaited its next cue.
"Nice day," Foyle remarked.
"Always a lovely day somewhere, sir," the robot beamed.
"Awful day," Foyle said.
"Always a lovely day somewhere, sir," the robot responded.
"Day," Foyle said.
"Always a lovely day somewhere, sir," the robot said.
Foyle turned to the others. "That's me," he said, motioning to the robot. "That's all of us. We prattle about free will, but we're nothing but response ... mechanical reaction in prescribed grooves. So ... here I am, here I am, waiting to respond. Press the buttons and I'll jump."
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