The future is here... and I'm a little scared

            My dad has said for years - "I have seen the Borg, and they are Us." Now, this reference probably makes little sense to those of you that don't know Star Trek, but for me and any other Trekkies the statement is impactful. A humanoid alien that is fully integrated with technology. This sort of leads me to the article that really caught my attention this week.

            On Tuesday, BBC News reported on Baxter, a humanoid robot who is designed to work alongside factory workers. Baxter has designed by Rethink Robotics, and will cost around $22,000 when he/it goes on sale in October. This doesn't seem to out of the ordinary until you see that Baxter has a face! And you learn that he (it?) looks confused when it doesn't understand something? BBC News wrote,  "If the robot does not understand, it responds with a confused expression."

            Then you learn that Baxter uses common sense! I mean that - Baxter has a computer screen face, and the common sense stems from "knowing" he/it has to get another of something if he/it drops the first.  To teach Baxter something, one simply has to guide his arms through a task and press a button to program it in.

            The New York Times reports that he/it, "has an elaborate array of safety mechanisms and sensors to protect the human workers it assists." This sounds creepily like the first of the "Three laws of Robotics" that Issac Asimov wrote about in I, Robot. Get this - Baxter's face turned red when humans are around, to let them know that he/it is aware of them. Baxter is also equipped with an "e-stop" button that will cause him to immediately shut down. The manufacturers say it isn't necessary though.

The things that have me concerned about Baxter are:

*One - are there limitations to what you can program his arms to do or could you make him do I'm a little Teapot all day if you wanted to.

* Two - it sounds as if he is slower, but more personable (??) than traditional manufacturing robots. Is that going to be good for the manufacturing industry? Won't that just make things even more expensive?

            This is a huge advance in the field of Robotics, and while I joke about the impending fall of man to technology, I am interested to see where this technology takes the field and I don't think I'll start looking for Neo just yet.

Read the full articles here and here