| Professor Paul Newman discusses the present and future state of robotics: asking how the state of the discipline measures up to science fiction, and discussing how Robots can learn to navigate our world, with profound consequences for society. |
At a recent lecture at Oxford University, Professor Paul Newman asked the question, "Where are the robots?" He look at how our view of the robots from science fiction is miles away from actual current robotics development.
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As a child and through my teens I was utterly fascinated about how to synthesise something that acts in the world on our behalf and with independence. This interest was fed, as it was for many of us, by icons of kids' science-fiction films. That influence was fun then, but now I worry about what it obscures in a grownup world. It gets in the way of things adults need to talk about.
According to Newman, we need to be able to have a grownup conversation about robotics. We need to make sure we consider the full gamut of what robotics and automation will bring us – the brilliant, "obvious win" stuff as well as the stuff that needs us to be careful.
Newman says that we have a view we can get involved, but to be helpful we must be informed by reality and not science fiction. Furthermore, if only for balance, we really owe it to ourselves to look at and anticipate some of the astounding and wholly positive outcomes of robotics and automation.
Newman is a faculty member of the Department of Engineering Science and the BP Professor of Information Engineering at the University of Oxford. He is mainly involved with the Mobile Robotics Group (MRG) at Oxford.
SOURCE Oxford University
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