Robots as life partners

Could this be ?

[ msnbc reports ]
Levy argues that psychologists have identified roughly a dozen basic reasons why people fall in love, "and almost all of them could apply to human-robot relationships. For instance, one thing that prompts people to fall in love are similarities in personality and knowledge, and all of this is programmable. Another reason people are more likely to fall in love is if they know the other person likes them, and that's programmable too."

In 2006, Henrik Christensen, founder of the European Robotics Research Network, predicted that people will be having sex with robots within five years, and Levy thinks that's quite likely. There are companies that already sell realistic sex dolls, "and it's just a matter of adding some electronics to them to add some vibration," he said, or endowing the robots with a few audio responses. "That's fairly primitive in terms of robotics, but the technology is already there."

[via /. ]

My Brain running wild

If this became very common wouldn't you rather have this machine as a partner and not go through all the pains that you need to go through to make a relationship work. What if it is the pain that makes the relationship that much more special.  Well then we could always go back. Its not as if these robots can take us over. So the software running on them has to clearly be some form of AI thing. So each of these machines will develop their own character. We could have small boxes like iPods called the "iSoul" which would carry the entire personality of the wife robot. We would have to buy new bodies for these Souls every new Year or so. You could take your wife's iSoul and plug it in your car. Maybe not, that sounds a bit too weird. The wireless technologies should be strong enough to access my iSoul which is docked from anywhere in the globe. So then I dont have to baby-sit and control all that iSoul does.

Hell if someone hacks into my iSoul ?? But whats the fun if I completely control the experiences that iSoul is exposed to. Maybe iSould should be able to connect to something like 2ndLifee and enrich her own experiences.

You think school kids would date each others iSouls then ? Would parents gift their kids an iSoul on their 15th birthday because the kid cant find a single decent date ?

Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance -
When you realize that one of your cognitions is dissonant with another cognition.
Example: File wrong taxes, justified by saying we paid more last year, or govt sucks anyways.
Problem : We don't learn because the dissonance is resolved by flase justifications.
Solution : Increased awareness. Surround myself with people who dont agree with me. Listen to criticism.
Since I am reading Macbeth today, I quote Shakespeare " Give everyman thy ear, but few thy voice. Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement".



Listen to Elliot Aronson interview on Talk of the Nation

"The engine that drives self-justification, the energy that produces the need to justify our actions and decisions — especially the wrong ones — is an unpleasant feeling that Festinger called "cognitive dissonance." Cognitive dissonance is a state of tension that occurs whenever a person holds two cognitions (ideas, attitudes, beliefs, opinions) that are psychologically inconsistent, such as "Smoking is a dumb thing to do because it could kill me" and "I smoke two packs a day." Dissonance produces mental discomfort, ranging from minor pangs to deep anguish; people don't rest easy until they find a way to reduce it. In this example, the most direct way for a smoker to reduce dissonance is by quitting. But if she has tried to quit and failed, now she must reduce dissonance by convincing herself that smoking isn't really so harmful, or that smoking is worth the risk because it helps her relax or prevents her from gaining weight (and after all, obesity is a health risk, too), and so on. Most smokers manage to reduce dissonance in many such ingenious, if self-deluding, ways."

Craig Venter: Building synthetic chromosome

Craig Venter, the controversial DNA researcher involved in the race to decipher the human genetic code, has built a synthetic chromosome out of laboratory chemicals and is poised to announce the creation of the first new artificial life form on Earth.



The team of scientists has already successfully transplanted the genome of one type of bacterium into the cell of another, effectively changing the cell's species. Mr Venter said he was "100% confident" the same technique would work for the artificially created chromosome.

The new life form will depend for its ability to replicate itself and metabolise on the molecular machinery of the cell into which it has been injected, and in that sense it will not be a wholly synthetic life form. However, its DNA will be artificial, and it is the DNA that controls the cell and is credited with being the building block of life. [ ..Guardian article]

[via monkeyfilter]

Debating with believers

So the general argument they have is, if science can't prove the paranormal phenomenon that does not mean our explanation (which has no sound basis) is wrong.
The point they seem to be missing is that, no one can just make a claim without trying to explain or prove it. The onus is on the person making the claim to prove that this happens, by any method that you choose. You can't say I am right until you prove me to be wrong.

Can we fall below this ?

While rape has always been a weapon of war, researchers say they fear that Congo's problem has metastasized into a wider social phenomenon.

"It's gone beyond the conflict," said Alexandra Bilak, who has studied various armed groups around Bukavu, on the shores of Lake Kivu. She said that the number of women abused and even killed by their husbands seemed to be going up and that brutality toward women had become "almost normal."