Great eye catching headline but now I will probably never be allowed to go near Asimo again.

The interesting question is, how can I kill something that is not alive. No one would say he killed my car (or maybe they would).

Anyway, Asimo is a wonderful little robot and I promise that I will never abuse one again if I don’t get a restraining order.
noel

I love the response that Noel always gives us.

And evan you’re headline is something that you’d hate, very sensationalist just like “killer robots choosing own their own to kill millions of people!!!”

Noel, you know ASIMO and its ancestors weren’t the first walking robots (Was that just the easy answer?). Prof. Ichiro Kato (Waseda University) pioneered walking bipedal robots in the ’70s before Honda began its research. And full-sized robots at AIST (HRP-2P) can get up on their own from a fall.

Noel,
I, and many people I know, use the word “killed” when referring to cars, robots, tools, toys, computers, anything really, that no longer functions properly. Recently the gremlins killed the TCC solenoid in my truck’s transmission. Before that my brother killed his car. My mother kills almost every electronic device she ever comes across ;)

It’s along the same lines as calling a depleted battery “dead” even though hardly anybody calls a charged battery “alive”.

The headline was sarcastic, of course… Although, if I were pretentious or something I’d say that I was attempting to make a point with a sensationalist headline that frames a robot as a victim. Good thing I’m not pretentious, right?

I’m not sure whether to say that “kill” is simply a figure of speech that can be applied to pretty much anything that transitions to an inoperative state. While the primary definition of “kill” is “to cause the death of,” the secondary is “to destroy the vital or active qualities of,” which is appropriate when it comes to robots. If you look up “death,” though, THAT definition refers to “the permanent ending of all life in a person, animal, or plant.” Not robot.

I don’t think of robots as alive, yet. To be considered for life, I think a robot would have to somehow transcend its original programming, perhaps by programming itself, something that learning robots and evolving robots are doing already.

Anyway, it’s fun to think about, and thanks for your sense of humor Noel :)

this was a wonderful interview and even more wonderful comments :D
Thanks to everyone of you!

japans robots dont think, america has the smartest and best robots… predator drone, big dog.. petman….

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