Hmmm. An entire column on androids with no mention of Data or Blade Runner. Rosie the Robot, an android? Makes me wonder if CA really did his homework on this one.
Anyway, I really wanted to say that the future is more likely to contain cyborgs than androids. With cyborgs, you don’t have to start from scratch–you use the parts of the human body/mind that are useful, and improve on the bits that need improving. Technically, the process has already begun. Contact lenses, rosthetic limbs, hearing aids, pacemakers, etc. are mechanical fixes to substandard human body parts. But a guy with prosthetic legs can potentially outrun flesh-and-bone competitors, and there’s no reason that artificial hearing and sight devices can’t improve on evolution. Millions of people get cosmetic surgery to improve their looks; it’s only a matter of time before we see performance-enhancing surgery.
You’ve probably heard someone joke that the next step beyond Bluetooth is to have cell phones implanted directly in the ear. It shouldn’t be impossible to have subcutaneous memory chips that would interface with the brain so we wouldn’t forget stuff. I’ve heard about nanotechnology wherein microscopic machines are set loose in the body to fight disease, forestall the aging process, maintain chemical balances to improve mood, and so on.
If I project out a hundred years from now, it’s not hard to see a very blurry line between what is natural and what is synthetic in the composition of humans.
He most certainly did. Blade Runner and other films were discussed as creative hooks in the column; all ended up being rejected as they 1) didn’t seem to fit in the text, and 2) there was question about whether casual mention of robot X would be picked up on by the audience in general.
One very relevant example Cecil didn’t mention is Robonaut, a humanoid (from the waist up) robot that is scheduled to be delivered to the International Space Station in November. Apparently the main justification is that since the tools on the ISS are designed to be used by humans, a humanoid design allows the robot to make use of the existing tools.
When I first heard about this a few weeks ago I honestly thought it must be a joke. It just seems like something out of a sci-fi film. But a little research shows that it is indeed legit.
justrob, I think palindromemordnilap’s point is that Rosie the “Robot” does not exactly qualify to the level of “android” that Data does. She is more like R2D2 than she is C3PO. Data is a human looking, fully human formed android that only has minor distinctions - skin tone, eye color, behavior. He is essentially a mechanical human. Rosie is a boxy metallic object. She doesn’t even have legs, just a single post with three wheels.
She’s human-like enough to be able to use tools designed for a human, though, which was the key distinction Cecil was making. Actually looking like a human is only important for a few niche jobs, such as sexbots and possibly some customer-relations positions.
EDIT: I suppose, when you get down to it, that “sexbot” is a sort of customer-relations position.