The Coming Age of Androids

Mankind’s dependence on artificial intelligence and robotics is increasing rapidly as technology becomes more advanced. Finding a way to seamlessly intertwine these two worlds will help boost productivity in society and aid in a variety of ways in modern civilization.

Androids, Cyborgs, and Robots in Contemporary Culture and Society is an essential scholarly resource that delves into the current issues, methodologies, and trends relating to advanced robotic technology in the modern world. Featuring relevant topics that include STEM technologies, brain-controlled androids, biped robots, and media perception, this publication is ideal for engineers, academicians, students, and researchers that would like to stay current with the latest developments in the world of evolving robotics.

NOTE: this is an author's draft of chapter 12 of the book "Handbook of Posthumanism in Film and Television," eds. Michael Hauskeller, Thomas D. Philbeck, Curtis Carbonell (Palgrave, 2015).  The final, published version is here: http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/doifinder/10.1057/9781137430328.0018?focus=true  ABSTRACT: LaGrandeur demonstrates how the character of the android in film and television represents three themes common to the idea of the posthuman: our blindness to the possible dangers of our own ingenuity and evolving technology; the problems posed by technology-spurred species creation and species-transition (androids often are represented as an emerging species—or human hybrid); and, concomitantly, the perils of human exceptionalism that could lead to the exploitation of any new, intelligent species we may create in our image—in other words, the possibility of a new slave class, with all that it entails.

The creation of artificial intelligent subjects is an actual phenomenon in the collective worldview due to the anxiety generated by the influence that can produce on human life. Science fiction has pondered, since long ago, about the possibility of a cohabitation between humans and artificial beings, bringing this issue to the experiential field. In the tv series Westworld (HBO, 2016-), a theme park set in the Far West is home to humanoid robots whose appearance is perfectly human-like, where the people who visit it can unleash their primary instincts and exercise violence on their bodies. Consequently, the series explores the moral legitimacy of dominating subjects that don’t own the human condition, but who feel and suffer just like them. Also, it shows other difficulties such as the hidden power in the control of human behaviour information or the biotechnological improvement ethics of the human body with a view to a (post)humanist future. Therefore, this study analyses the relationships between humans and artificial beings in the TV show, focusing on how these relations can shape and transform the identity of both subjects.

La creación de sujetos artificiales inteligentes es un fenómeno presente en el imaginario colectivo por la inquietud que genera la influencia que pueden ejercer sobre las vidas humanas. La ciencia ficción lleva tiempo reflexionando sobre la posibilidad de una convivencia entre seres humanos y seres artificiales, trasladando esta cuestión al terreno experiencial. En la serie televisiva Westworld (HBO, 2016-), un parque temático ambientado en el lejano Oeste americano alberga a unos robots humanoides de apariencia indistinguible a la humana, donde las personas que lo visitan pueden dar rienda suelta a sus instintos más primarios, desatando su violencia contra sus cuerpos. De este modo, la serie explora la legitimidad moral de dominar y oprimir a unos sujetos que no gozan de la condición humana, pero sienten y padecen igual que ellos. También, presenta problemáticas como el poder que subyace en el control de la información sobre el comportamiento de los individuos o la ética del biomejoramiento con vistas a un futuro (post)humano. Así pues, la presente investigación analiza las relaciones entre humanos y seres artificiales en la serie, centrándose en cómo estas pueden configurar y transformar la identidad de ambos sujetos.

This paper focuses on the development of Android based control and monitoring system for leg orthosis. This study mainly focused on the designing an android application to control and monitor leg orthosis exercise system. The main function is to helps user or physiotherapist to control and monitor the leg orthosis during exercise session. Leg orthosis is an instrument used to help the paralyzed patient to move their leg during rehabilitation or mobility process. The Android application is deploy using MIT App Inventor 2 (BETA). In this project, Bluetooth communication has been used to communicate between the Android application and the controller. Arduino Uno R3 has been used as a controller to control the hardware. User can monitor patients pulse rate during exercise. The result shows that the Android application is successfully developed and can be used to control and monitor the leg orthosis.

Pneumatic robots are essential for material handling in chemical industries where electric or hydraulic robots are unsuitable due to fire hazard. A 3 axes (3 Degrees of Freedom) articulated pneumatic robotic arm was designed and assembled in this project along with its control system. Pneumatic rod less linear actuators were used as the main drive system for the robotic arm and were controlled by pneumatic 5/3-way proportional directional control valve. The design of the arm for this project implements crank mechanism to convert linear actuation displacement to angular displacement about the joint.

São duas formas distintas para o futuro do trabalho na era dos robôs. Estas formas servem tanto para as redes, quanto fora delas, e exceto pelos processos serem reais ou virtuais, os resultados são equipotentes. A primeira, forma, e mais atual, é a convivência entre maquinas e pessoas de um modo mais ou menos harmonioso, cada qual com suas funções, com poucas sobreposições. A segunda é uma forma, onde os robôs fazem o trabalho da humanidade, substituindo completamente a maioria dos postos, e esta forma pode tanto ser boa quanto ruim. Não é difícil perceber, que hoje, com os trabalhos remotos, trabalhos em horários alternativos, e também os temporários, a forma do trabalho tem outra dimensão, não apenas pelos seus métodos, mas também, e de um modo que a meu ver é preocupante: a forma de organização dos próprios trabalhadores. Justamente devido esta não organização existe uma grande probabilidade que no futuro sindicatos ou mesmo associações sejam raros ou extintos. Este ensaio é uma tentativa de reunir algumas visões, para que possamos perceber o rumo que a tecnologia está tomando.

The Job selection process in today's globally competitive economy can be a daunting task for prospective employees no matter their experience level. Although many years of research has been devoted to job search and application resulting in good integration with information technology including the internet and intelligent agent-based architectures, there are still many areas that need to be enhanced. Two such areas include the quality of jobs associated with applicants in the job search by profiling the needs of employers against the needs of prospective employees and the security and verifications schemes integrated to reduce the instances of fraud and identity theft. The integration of mobile, intelligent agent, and cryptography technologies provide benefits such as improved accessibility wirelessly, intelligent dynamic profiling, and increased security. With this in mind we propose the intelligent mobile agents instead of human agents to perform the Job search using fuzzy preferences which is been published elsewhere and application operations incorporating the use of agents with a trust authority to establish employer trust and validate applicant identity and accuracy. Our proposed system incorporates design methodologies to use JADE-LEAP and Android to provide a robust, secure, user friendly solution.

RecDroid is a smartphone permission response recommendation system which utilizes the responses from expert users in the network to help inexperienced users. However, in such system, malicious users can mislead the recommendation system by providing untruthful responses. Although detection system can be deployed to detect the malicious users, and exclude them from recommendation system, there are still undetected malicious users that may cause damage to RecDroid. Therefore, relying on environment knowledge to detect the malicious users is not sufficient. In this work, we present a game-theoretic model to analyze the interaction (request/response) between RecDroid users and RecDroid system using a static Bayesian game formulation. In the game RecDroid system chooses the best response strategy to minimize its loss from malicious users. We analyze the game model and explain the Nash equilibrium in a static scenario under different conditions. Through the static game model we discuss the strategy that RecDroid can adopt to disincentivize attackers in the system, so that attackers are discouraged to perform malicious users attack. Finally, we discuss several game parameters and their impact on players' outcome.

This paper and the accompanying video, (which can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW_xLSzrHjQ) present the current findings of a project researching how computer games and their related technologies could be adapted to create virtual and mixed reality intelligent environments. After describing the developed strategy and the methods of deployment used by the project, a new research focus for the project is introduced. A new mechanism, still under development, aims to produce artificial intelligence controllers for human non-player character avatars, which would be usable within a virtual or mixed reality intelligent environment to provide an alternative to real people during evaluations.

Artificial intelligence has been depicted in film for decades. It embodies the tension in our societies between interest, enthusiasm, scepticism and anxiety about the technologies we have created and which surround us every day. Hollywood imagery exists alongside productions in all types of genres, from sci-fi to melodrama, that depict machines controlling the most intimate aspects of our lives.

Social Networking is a harbinger to a more recent era in the area of computing where allocated and central resources are used in an exclusive manner. Millions of people around the globe with access to the internet are part of one or more social networks. They have permanent online accounts on Facebook and Twitter etc. where they create profiles, share photos, videos, useful links, their thoughts and spend hours catching up with what their friends are doing in their lives. The problem arise when somebody needs specific information about any city inside a country e.g. Where he/she can live? What he/she can eat? Where is the best place for outing? What are the special events relevant to that region? And may be any other help? In this paper we suggest a social network called Google map based social network (GMBSN), where users can choose their desired city of interest from the list. The selected city will be highlighted on Google map. After choosing any city from the map, the user will be able to select any category from the list and start finding and sharing information about the desired city of any country.

Some years ago I reached the point where I can usually tell from the title of a book, or at least from the chapter titles, what kinds of philosophical mistakes will be made and how frequently. In the case of nominally scientific works these may be largely restricted to certain chapters which wax philosophical or try to draw general conclusions about the meaning or long term significance of the work.  Normally however the scientific matters of fact are generously interlarded with philosophical gibberish as to what these facts mean. The clear distinctions which Wittgenstein described some 80 years ago between scientific matters and their descriptions by various language games are rarely taken into consideration, and so one is alternately wowed by the science and dismayed by its incoherent analysis. So it is with this volume.

If one is to create a mind more or less like ours, one needs to have a logical structure for rationality and an understanding of the two systems of thought (dual process theory). If one is to philosophize about this, one needs to understand the distinction between scientific issues of fact and the philosophical issue of how language works in the context at issue, and of how to avoid the pitfalls of reductionism and scientism, but Kurzweil, like nearly all students of behavior, is largely clueless.  He, is enchanted by models, theories, and concepts, and the urge to explain, while Wittgenstein showed us that we only need to describe, and that theories, concepts etc., are just ways of using language (language games) which have value only insofar as they have a clear test (clear truthmakers, or as John Searle (AI’s most famous critic) likes to say, clear Conditions of Satisfaction (COS)). I have attempted to provide a start on this in my recent writings, such as The Logical Structure of Consciousness (behavior, personality, rationality, higher order thought, intentionality) (2016) and The Logical Structure of Philosophy, Psychology, Mind and Language as Revealed in the Writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein and John Searle (2016). Those interested in all my writings in their most recent versions may consult my e-book  Philosophy, Human Nature and the Collapse of Civilization  - Articles and Reviews 2006-2016  662p (2016).  I will give a very brief presentation of this framework since I have described it in great detail in many recent papers and several books, available on this site and others.

Also, as usual in ‘factual’ accounts of AI/robotics, he gives no time to the very real threats to our privacy, safety and even survival from the increasing ‘androidizing’ of society which is prominent in other authors (Bostrum, Hawking etc.) and frequent in scifi and films, so I make a few comments on the quite possibly suicidal utopian delusions of ‘nice’ androids, humanoids, democracy, diversity, and genetic engineering.
I take it for granted that technical advances in electronics, robotics and AI will occur, resulting in profound changes in society.  However, I think the changes coming from genetic engineering are at least as great and potentially far greater, as they will enable us to utterly change who we are. And it will be feasible to make supersmart/super strong servants by modifying our genes or those of other monkeys. As with other technology, any country that resists will be left behind. But will it be socially and economically feasible to implement biobots or superhumans on a massive scale? And even if so, it does not seem remotely possible, economically or socially to prevent the collapse of industrial civilization.

So, ignoring the philosophical mistakes in this volume as irrelevant, and directing our attention only to the science, what we have here is another suicidal utopian delusion rooted in a failure to grasp basic biology, psychology and human ecology, the same delusions that are destroying America and the world.  I see a remote possibility the world can be saved, but not by AI/robotics,CRISPR, nor by democracy and equality.

Those wishing a comprehensive up to date framework for human behavior from the modern two systems view may consult my book ‘The Logical Structure of Philosophy, Psychology, Mind and Language in Ludwig Wittgenstein and John Searle’ 2nd ed (2019). Those interested in more of my writings may see ‘Talking Monkeys--Philosophy, Psychology, Science, Religion and Politics on a Doomed Planet--Articles and Reviews 2006-2019 3rd ed (2019), The Logical Structure of Human Behavior (2019), and Suicidal Utopian Delusions in the 21st Century 4th ed (2019)

In present world all of us are facing global warming crisis of water. Main causesfor these issues are growing population, improper management of water utilization. This problem is quietly related to poor allocation, inefficient use and lack of adequate water management system. Therefore, the efficient use of andmonitoring the same is essential for home, office etc. In this paper, anandroid application is developed that wouldmonitor the level of water in the cistern or any storage tank and automatically turns the motor on/off based on user requirement.This project can be implemented in any storage medium like well, cistern, etc.The purity of the water is measured using various sensors.Major advantage ofour system is that it detects any obstacles/solid particle present inside the storage tank. The obstacle or any object if found on the surface of water or even in sink, the image of the obstacle gets captured by the pi camera and image of the object will be sent to android application.By seeing these images user can take action. An alert message about water level as well as quality of water is sent to user. Thus, the system will be maintained systematically and the quality of the water gets notified.