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09 Oct, 2009

Robot and Young Peoples

Posted by: Brian In: Event

The Wednesday just past I was invited to see the output from Robot Visions at the Centre for Life. All day 6th form students had been considering the societal impacts of more robots in our midst and what direction robot research should go. In this they were assisted and challenged by robotics and AI researcher Noel Sharkey(http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/~noel/).
Recommendations coming out of this will inform the EPSRC and RAE in the policies and funding.
Over an hour we had a chance to talk to the students about what they thought was problematic about robot research. For instance one group was looking at robots being used in war situations, and whether there was a justification for them being autonomous, or under human control all the time.
In this and other proposals, there was a desire that the robots not become too smart, and a disbelief that robots could become complex enough to show emotions and exhibit decision making ability.
It was an hour of lively discussions, and I was lucky to have attended it, having been invited because I was at the inaugural Newcastle dorkbot a few days earlier.

Tags: Education, engagement, Noel Sharkey, science

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Brian: Corrected, Cheers B
a: it's spelled NORTD.. and AWESOME photo.. !
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Brian Degger is a technologist/artist, he writes, thinks and makes around themes of interactivity, biomimicracy, and collaboration

Asides

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