You don't think the Robot Apocalypse
is upon us, but we assure you, it is. The HUMAVIPS project,
which will span three years and hopefully result in robots being
developed with "social skills," may seem innocent -- even beneficial --
at first blush, but let's think about it. Will "humanoids with auditory
and visual abilities in populated spaces" have more power than you, as
an Earthling, would like? If all goes well, these robotic dudes and
dudettes will be able to mimic what's known as the "cocktail party
effect," which is better explained as "the human ability to focus
attention on just one person in the midst of other people, voices and
background noise." So yeah, this definitely goes two ways -- on one
hand, you could finally have a live-in robot that pays attention to your
feelings as the world around you crumbles, but on the other, these guys
won't have any issue overlooking your wailing when it's them
bringing everything down. Yikes.
