CB2 "Child Robot" returns: smarter, creepier than ever
By Donald Melanson 
posted April 6th 2009 2:52AM
posted April 6th 2009 2:52AM
All caught up on your sleep? Good. 'Cause our old friend the "Child-robot with Biomimetic Body," or CB2, has now returned to haunt your nightmares. As you might expect, the bot hasn't simply spent its past two years of existence terrifying the staff at Osaka University, it's actually been learning, and it's now apparently able to make use of its 51 air-powered motors to move itself through a room "quite smoothly" -- with a helping hand, of course. What's more, the researchers behind CB2 are now also starting to talk about some of their future projects, including a new "robo species" that they say will have learning abilities "somewhere between those of a human and other primate species such as the chimpanzee." Yeah, we can't wait to see what that looks like either.
Thanks a lot Engadget, now i'm not gonna be able to sleep...
That's what you get for looking at the picture before the article.
He got burnt in a fire and is sad.
the poor thing needs to lay off the pot, look at his pupils!
so do i...
Cause smoking reefer dialtes your pupils, right?
Pretty much every illegal drug EXCEPT pot and heroin dilates your pupils. fail.
I closed the browser and turned off the PC, only to find that creepy son of a whore looking up at me from a slightly open desk drawer.
This is how it starts, next the Cylon's will look just like us. And we wont be able to tell the difference.
Here's another glimpse of the future:
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/in_the_know_are_we_giving_the
(For a change; just an amusing video link people, not a scam or a personal blog, to keep the diversity going)
I'm sure Asimov's work was meant as a warning, instead of a template to our impending doom. Meh, evolution is evolution.
Asimov's robots weren't hostile. He avoided making robots into monsters in his stories as he personally disliked that approach to storytelling.
Um, art usually has multiple facets to contend. If perhaps you've missed the darker themes, I seriously recommend re-reading his work with a wide-angle lens on.
Christ, it's always like this with engadget commenters.
"Well 'actually'... *snort*..."
@Fender
LOL all too true.
I have to largely agree with the interpretation of Asimov's robots as not hostile, or an inherent threat. In many of the early stories, any "dark themes" were for the most part just logic puzzles based around the 3 Laws, which were themselves in part the author's mechanism to remove the impression of robots as monsters. Later, his robots struggled with "human" issues of identity, prejudice, and purpose. Eventually, robots (and one individual in particular) become the ultimate protector of humanity.
In the Robot series, the Foundation series, and almost all of his short stories, Asimov's robots are clearly not evil. Instead, they were meant as foils to humans and humanity in general, reflecting our own struggles and themes. If you read Asimov's own non-fiction and autobiographical material, this becomes increasingly apparent.
I've been reading Asimov since the '70's, and I think liquidmark's comment shouldn't be so derisively shrugged off, especially considering that it is in accordance with the author's own intentions.
Congratulations, you've taken a light hearted casual comment on a tech blog as a stage to gift your superior knowlege to the world. Because superior intellect needs to be expressed, at every opportunity, to prove your intellect on the internet to those who give a damn.
Bravo, *golf claps*, bravo.
Hey Fender. You are obviously a trolling button-pusher, so I'll be brief.
Is it "light hearted" for you to say "Christ, it's always like this with engadget commenters" or to suggest that they re-read something with a wider perspective? No, YOU are the one who obviously has something to prove, though none of the substance to back it up. I don't really care that you want to put down others, but if your response to a reasonable rebuttal is to golf-clap, then you're clearly just petty and don't have anything useful to share.
You dished out some uninformed BS, in a holier-than-thou manner. Someone called you on it. Deal with it.
Holy shit.
FREAK!
...and yet, Michael Jackson just ordered two.
i hope the learning abilities doesn't include learning reproduction...
it looks like a kid with downs syndrome.
if only one could upgrade the firmware of a kid with downs syndrome...
Down syndrome (or less commonly, Down's syndrome).
Named after John Langdon Down, the doctor who first described it.
David? Is that you?
(Hint: Third Variety)
You know it dose kind of look like David from that movie.
I'm gonna have nightmares!
It's like his look is saying 'I'm sorry, I can't let you do that, Dave."
kill it with fire
Somehow I don't think fire will prove effective. It looks like a T-1000 made of Playdough. Somebody stop this madness!! :-S
@Link2877: Yes it does look like the kid from A.I. ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212720/ ) I was referring to a story written by Philip K. Dick.
I think you mean "Second Variety".
10 years of chemotherapy...at least I'm still alive
he has science to do
I think he's hitting on me
It will become self-aware and kill us all
She loves me ...she loves me not.....oh Damn ! where is my eyebrows !
this comment made my day :D
This what happens when your father is a vampire and your mom is an albino..Oh and It's recession time so no need for hair !
He looks soo cute!!!
Can I adopt him?
Umm I don't know if you could. But I bet you Madonna will bet you to it lol.
AH now I get why they are developing child robots, it's to ward off madonna, it all makes sense now!
Eeep!
He looks like a sociopath to me.
Looks like my students.
ITS OFFICIALLY CREEPY... specially the learning capabilities part.... "I AM ROBOT!".... Anyway.. give it 5 years for some mad man to create something 5 times more powerful than the human mind and we will all be doomed! they will be able to hack into any computer in the world and it will be over for everyone.... i can already see that kiddy sociopath looking face on tv telling us all that we are doomed and we will now become their slaves.... we WILL become the slaves! IT WILL BE MATRIX ALL OVER AGAIN!
Funny how this thing elicits such negative responses without even managing to look *that* human :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
Kind of remind me of those creepy kids in the Akira anime.... brrrr....
He looks just like the kid from the The Grudge.. creepy.
The eyes, the *eyes*...
"Child-robot with Biomimetic Body." Pedophiles rejoice...
A-ki-ra...