Space Log
Comment
Bob Virkus
Wait a second, Robonaut has a FaceBook page. That changes everything. I find it ...
ReneCardenas
To the merit of artificial intelligence efforts of the past, please remember ...
Space Log: HAL gets a Twitter account
George Leopold
8/3/2010 11:43 AM EDT
WASHINGTON – As we have shown, engineers with little or no time on their hands are not big fans of Twitter.
But the machines that engineers create apparently love Twitter.
Case in point is Robonaut 2, or “R2”, NASA’s future space-faring robot. The prototype robot is scheduled to travel to the International Space Station this fall to provide NASA scientists with “a deeper understanding of human-robotic interaction” in space, agency officials explained the other day while attempting to persuade reporters to "interview" R2.
R2 has begun tweeting at his new Twitter account, NASA said, sending updates about its upcoming mission: "Hello World! My name is Robonaut 2….” (…my gears feel great after latest lubrication…).
(Yes, we made up the last part.)
Perhaps a robot aboard the space station for six months is the perfect Twitter application. (Even my kid, “Mr. Facebook,” thinks Twitter is lame.)
If NASA wants to learn more about human-robotic interaction, perhaps they should just rent “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Despite his vivid imagination, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke never dreamed of giving the equivalent of a Twitter account to the malevolent HAL 9000 computer (@HAL9000?). Instead, director Stanley Kubrick brought HAL to life through the sonorous voice of Canadian actor and narrator Douglas Rain. The choice was perfect since it literally gave voice to the banality of evil.
By contrast, the innocuous R2 has a long way to go in order to top his movie predecessors, HAL and R2D2.
In the unlikely event you have time on your hands, you can follow R2 at: http://www.twitter.com/AstroRobonaut.
Read more Space Log posts here.
|
|
|
|
|
Warren
8/3/2010 12:49 PM EDT
"...R2 has a long way to go in order to top his movie predessors" - depends on what he tweets I expect. "Hello World" seems a pretty typical start. But, true, I don't expect any surprises either.
Sign in to Reply
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/poconoarmchairreview
8/3/2010 1:55 PM EDT
Yeah, I'd like to get Tweets from some guy who is pretending to be a robot. (Ah-hem. Dear NASA. Lots of time on your hands, now that you're outsourcing, hmmm? Well, money is tight in the real world, so it's time to get serious, okay? Instead of trying to get us to talk with your imaginary robot friend, how about some engineering, starting with learning the difference between miles and kilometers? Then maybe you can start hiring engineers again instead of marketing people.)
Sign in to Reply
junko.yoshida
8/3/2010 2:10 PM EDT
Wow, what is the world coming to? Now, does NASA seriously expect us to "chat" with someone pretending to be a robot? This is just too much -- a prime example of how "marketing" can take over anything which used to have real substance.
Sign in to Reply
Silicon_Smith
8/3/2010 2:38 PM EDT
I have a feeling that this might as well end up being a hit with the twitter crowd. Disgusted, as we feel, NASA needs to justify its ludicrous projects. What better way than to gain popular vote of the 100 Million strong Twitter Nation??
Sign in to Reply
mr88cet
8/3/2010 3:33 PM EDT
Obviously, it's a PR stunt, and thus a waste of time.
That is, unless it works.
Some might argue that we would not have had an Apollo program if it weren't for Verner VonBraun's TV appearances.
Sign in to Reply
george.leopold
8/3/2010 8:54 PM EDT
The folks at NASA are masters of the PR game. To their credit, they've done nearly everything over the past 50 years -- the triumphs and the tragedies -- out in the open. Like most organizations, they are trying to figure out how to used social media as a means to building interest in spaceflight, especially among the young. To us, a "robonaut" with a Twitter account seemed a bit of a stretch.
Sign in to Reply
DrQuine
8/4/2010 9:24 AM EDT
I recall a Basic home computer program ("Eliza") in the early 1980's which served as a very convincing human correspondent. I'd guess that with the dumbing down of on-line communications, it would be even easier to be convincing today.
The challenge of creating a computer system that passes for human is an old one. It includes trying to pass the Turing test [thanks to Wikipedia]: a test of a machine's ability to demonstrate intelligence ... a human judge engages in a natural language conversation with one human and one machine, each of which tries to appear human. All participants are placed in isolated locations. If the judge cannot reliably tell the machine from the human, the machine is said to have passed the test... The test was proposed by Alan Turing in his 1950 paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”...
Sign in to Reply
phoenixdave
8/6/2010 11:09 AM EDT
OK, so I had to follow the link to see for myself....
Tweet from one hour ago: "I have a team of folks who help me respond."....... enough said.
Sign in to Reply
ReneCardenas
8/26/2010 4:47 PM EDT
To the merit of artificial intelligence efforts of the past, please remember IBM, and others have done some great work, beyond the Chess experiment demonstrated by Deep Blue, but other efforts including actual speech recognition and expert systems (predicting logical answers within a reduced knowledge set).
To my disappointment, NASA team should have taken the time to do a more meaningful exercise to demonstrate latest advances in software development, and really inspire youth. In my opinion, why not fund a small team with latest tools and I am sure you can turn some relevant proximity to HAL “pseudo-intelligence”.
This stunt is a brainless display of empty gestures for the young crowd, which I am confident that should be able to see what is behind the curtain and be more disappointed than inspired by this exercise. Shame on the NASA PR team!
Sign in to Reply
Bob Virkus
10/5/2010 5:49 PM EDT
Wait a second, Robonaut has a FaceBook page. That changes everything. I find it funny how dismissive engineers are of Twitter (is it the name?). It has proved to be extremely useful in certain situations, such as providing fire fighters with instant information on fast-moving fires. We are all trying to figure out social media and it fits into society and our lives. Trivial as it may seem its still too early to pass judgment. Anyways, why doesn't NASA just get Robby the Robot our of retirement?
Sign in to Reply