David Hanson dubs this founding member of our Future Ruling Masters, “the superhero of the singularity.”
So to save the world, he[David Hanson] formed Hanson Robotics and built Zeno, a 17-inch robot boy, who smiles, laughs, recognizes your face and remembers your name.
[…]
“We want to be damn sure that by the time [robots] become as smart as we are, they have a conscience and compassion and that we are friends.,” Hanson said. “There’s no guarantee. They could be psychotic.”
Hanson wants robots: to think, to learn, and to be more sociable? I see his plan. He wants to give them all the tools necessary for dominating our kind in a grand effort that they, our Future Robot masters, will look kindly upon him when R Day arrives.
Sneaky, Mr Hanson. Treacherous and sneaky.
(via wired magazine, hanson robotics)
More on Zeno’s child-like plans for domination of the species after the click.
Zeno is himself a visitor from the future — a robot who reached consciousness in 2029, but is found by government web crawlers. From there he’s put into a government academy for artificially intelligent robots, where those in charge may have nefarious motives.
[…]
This narrative, crafted by Hugo award winner Tony Daniel and University of Texas performance professor Thomas Riccio, is intended to make Zeno into a character that people identify with and want to to see develop — something with the depth of a movie character or a figure from a Homerian epic.
That makes Zeno into as much of a sociological experiment as it is a technical marvel or fun toy.
