This article was written specifically for Habr - the most advanced audience of techies in the Runet.
The author of the sketch is the illustrator Yu.M.Pak
It would seem, what is the need for a science fiction writer in the process of working on a book to resort to the help of a scientific consultant? In the end, paper will endure everything. Need a cyborg girl? No problem! What do we have at the peak of popularity now? Sexy look? Easily! Incomparable to human physical strength? Easy! Oh yes! A couple more lotions in the form of a super-powerful laser built into the eyeballs (for some reason!) And x-ray vision. Well, it started...
We went the other way. And they tried to assemble an android on the pages of the novel, who does not give a damn about the laws of physics, and using the technologies of today or tomorrow. The purpose of the article is to find out your opinion, listen to reasoned criticism and, possibly, involve you in the process of further refinement of the android, whose birth will take place in 2023 in Dubna, in one of the laboratories of the powerful CYBRG corporation. . To be honest, we have set ourselves a difficult task - to make the novel "The Age of Aquarius" a kind of "alloy of lyrics and physics", and in order for this alloy to be strong enough, we just need your help! Everyone who is interested in this introduction, welcome under cat.
It so happened that pseudo-science fiction, which is now in abundance on the shelves of bookstores and cinema screens, could never be compared in our understanding with the works of, for example, Stephen Hawking, which, on the one hand, in many respects remain fantastic hypotheses, and on the other have a well-reasoned scientific justification.
It is these works that really catch the imagination and provide food for the mind, directing it to the frontiers of the unknown, and not to the banal happy ending, where that very sexy cyborg, who has incinerated all enemies to the last page, finds happiness in the arms of a person infinitely in love with her from flesh and blood. By the way, if someone liked the picture below, it is taken )
Science fiction, in our opinion, is not just a fairy tale for adults. This is the vector that determines the direction of technological progress. And this article is a brief overview of the existing attempts to create humanoid robots and an attempt to understand whether everything is ready for the appearance of the android described in .
For those who are in business, welcome to Moscow in 2023, where chipping people is no longer a topic for discussion, but a social norm; where a global corporation controls everything from your finances to the electronic lock on your apartment door; where artificial intelligence takes on human form and a coming power struggle threatens to turn your closest friends into sworn enemies. That's all with the lyrics for now, let's return to reflections in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence.
And now the word is given , who made an invaluable contribution to the writing of the novel, providing numerous technical advice.
Hi all!
Is it possible to create an android indistinguishable from a human in the near future? Suppose the task is to design this device. And let there be an unlimited number of resources and access to the most modern technologies. Let's formulate the minimum list of systems that need to be developed:
1. Musculoskeletal system (artificial bones, joints, ligaments and muscles, sensors for controlling the position of body parts in space).
2. Realistic artificial skin with built-in pressure and temperature sensors.
3. Power supply (principle of operation, power output will need to be calculated).
4. Sensors for obtaining information about the surrounding world (organs of vision, hearing, touch, smell).
5. Communication system, namely, a device for articulate speech. Here we will add a 5G transceiver and something like a WiFi and Bluethooth LE interface (hehe, a cyborg can have something like a built-in smartphone, which will be very useful for the owner of the cyborg).
6. Nervous system (apparently, these are wires for transmitting energy to artificial muscles, transmitting signals from sensors).
7. The brain is composed of several subsystems.
The brain is the dirtiest organ in this whole story. No one knows how it works yet, but it seems like . But the artificial brain most likely should be represented by several subsystems.
The first is a heavily truncated limbic system (control of movements, balance, orientation in space, control of the nutrition system, thermoregulation).
The second is the receipt and processing of information about the world around us (most likely it will have to be plowed into the visual analyzer). Also in this part there should be a sound analyzer, some kind of gas analyzer for some reasonably limited set of chemical compounds. Well, the subsystem for the analysis of tactile and temperature sensors.
The third is the most mysterious part that defines the personality of a cyborg. These are memory and learning experience, judgment, desire, self-preservation instinct, feelings, analysis of one's own emotions and social interaction. In our novel, we came up with an organic growable substrate with a huge number of neurons, which is still missing in reality. Well, in our country, these neurons somehow agreed among themselves and suddenly began to form a certain individual)
The fourth is a built-in smartphone with a direct few-GHz bus connected to part of the third brain. For it is difficult at the present time to imagine an individual existing separately from a smartphone. So why not give our artificial individual a built-in smartphone with a direct bus to his cerebral hemispheres? )
Well, that's all. If something is forgotten - do not hesitate to write in the comments.
Creating the most realistic android is a rather time-consuming task. Suppose that several dozen highly qualified specialists in the relevant field are working on each of the systems listed above. Plus, subcontractors are needed to manufacture composite bones, for example, polymers for artificial leather, etc. Apparently, the cost of such a project will be commensurate with the creation of a new car platform and will cost several billion dollars.
We are not aware of anyone in the real (not fantasy) world attempting to solve such a problem. But if we are wrong, and there are similar projects, we will be very grateful for the comments.
At the same time, there are now quite significant advances in the creation of robots with one or more of these systems. I believe that everyone already knows the robot Sophia from Hanson Robotics. The developers are trying to give her outstanding (in the world of robots) communication skills. By the way, last year with lots of photo content on the topic.
Also widely known with their advanced musculoskeletal system, and their developers with rather controversial ethical relations with their robots)
There is an interesting example of a robot actor. He is copied from the German playwright Thomas Melle and gives a lecture based on a book written by Thomas Melle himself. A couple of years ago, he suffered from bipolar disorder and poured out all his feelings on paper, writing a bestseller. But here the main goal is not to replace a person, but rather to emphasize the difference between a natural and an artificial person. To do this, wires protrude defiantly from the head of the "writer". The video provided in , you can see the manufacturing process of such a robot.
Recently flashed on the Internet with very impressive fine motor skills. He even knows how to thread a needle (to be honest, the needle for this demonstration has a rather large eye). The video has brief performance characteristics of the device. A little hooked is that the maximum load that the robot's arm can lift does not exceed 1,5 kg. That is, if you assemble a realistic android girl on a similar platform, she will not take anything heavier than a clutch in her hands)
The progress in certain areas of android building is impressive. But it is not necessary to count on the fact that in the next five years you will meet an android on the street who will be very similar to a person. But in a fantasy novel, why not? )
If the audience has an interest in the issue of android building, and the audience bombards us with links with more advanced examples of technologies or specific implementations of androids, we will be happy to continue this topic.
That's all for now. Thank you very much for your attention and have a nice day!
Source: habr.com