My Research Question: Will robots ever be human?

I already highlighted for the most part my reasons for taking Scientific Research.

First of all, my reason for Focusing on this topic. I have always been fascinated by the Robotics field, not only because of its apparent coolness. But also because it is one of those interdisciplinary fields that cuts across almost every facet of science and engineering. From mechanical, to electrical, to control, to software engineering, you name it. It even scoops a bit from philosophy and psychology in terms of Artificial Consciousness and Intelligence.

I hope to answer my question by basing my 'human' analysis on 4 main pillars. Gender, Emotions, Consciousness and Intelligence. I will be delving into their biological and scientific definitions in humans. I will then juxtapose with robots.

Research Papers

·         An Introduction to Neural Networks and a Comparison with Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems

·         Fatemeh Zahedi

·         Interfaces

·         Vol. 21, No. 2 (Mar. - Apr., 1991) (pp. 25-38)

·         Page Count: 14

·         The Three Laws of Robotics: Laws of the Text, Laws of Production, Laws of Society (Les Trois Lois de la Robotique: lois du texte, lois de la production, lois de la société)

·         Alessandro Portelli

·         Science Fiction Studies

·         Vol. 7, No. 2 (Jul., 1980) (pp. 150-156)

·         Page Count: 7

·         The Robots Are Here! The Robots Are Here!

·         Michael Webb

·         Design Quarterly

·         No. 121, Robots (1983) (pp. 4-21)

·         Page Count: 18

·         The Practical Requirements for Making a Conscious Robot [and Discussion]

·         Daniel C. Dennett, F. Dretske, S. Shurville, A. Clark, I. Aleksander and J. Cornwell

·         Philosophical Transactions: Physical Sciences and Engineering

·         Vol. 349, No. 1689, Artificial Intelligence and the Mind: New Breakthroughs or Dead-Ends? (Oct. 15, 1994) (pp. 133-146)

·         Page Count: 14

·         Gendering the Robot: Stanislaw Lem's "The Mask" (Le Sexe et le robot: "Le Masque" de Stanislaw Lem)

·         Jo Alyson Parker

·         Science Fiction Studies

·         Vol. 19, No. 2 (Jul., 1992) (pp. 178-191)

·         Page Count: 14

·         Interview with a Robot

·         Keith Gunderson

·         Analysis

·         Vol. 23, No. 6 (Jun., 1963) (pp. 136-142)

·         Page Count: 7

·         Animals, Zombanimals, and the Total Turing Test: The Essence of Artificial Intelligence

·         Selmer Bringsjord, Clarke Caporale and Ron Noel

·         Journal of Logic, Language, and Information

·         Vol. 9, No. 4, Special Issue on Alan Turing and Artificial Intelligence (Oct., 2000) (pp. 397-418)

·         Page Count: 22

·         The Problem of Robot Consciousness

·         Dwight van de Vate, Jr.

·         Philosophy and Phenomenological Research

·         Vol. 32, No. 2 (Dec., 1971) (pp. 149-165)

·         Page Count: 17

·         Tik-Tok and the Three Laws of Robotics

·         Paul M. Abrahm and Stuart Kenter

·         Science Fiction Studies

·         Vol. 5, No. 1 (Mar., 1978) (pp. 67-80)

·         Page Count: 14

·         III. ROBOTS WITH COMMON SENSE? THE RESEARCH SCENE TO-DAY

·         P. G. DAVEY

·         Journal of the Royal Society of Arts

·         Vol. 131, No. 5327 (OCTOBER 1983) (pp. 671-685)

·         Page Count: 15

(0100110101111001001000000101001001100101011100110110010101100001011100100110001101101000001000000101010001101111011100000110100101100011001110100010000001001000011101010110110101100001011011100010000001001110011000010111010001110101011100100110010100100000011011110110011000100000010100100110111101100010011011110111010001110011001000000011101000101001) My Research Topic: Human Nature of Robots :)

So I have decided to research on robots. Simply because they are cool.

But even with my science fiction fascination, I kind of have to be serious by narrowing this broad topic to something  specific.

I have decided to research on the "Human Nature of Robots". It is an extension of my Google science fair question "Can robots gain consciousness with enough memory and brain power?"

Here I hope to draw a parallel between the Carbon life universe and the Silicon life universe. More specifically humans and their idiosyncrasies. I hope to research human emotions, consciousness, evolution, Intelligence and gender. I hope to apply the same contexts and attempt to answer the question if all these characteristics will ever apply to robots one day as they evolve. For example, 'would silicon life have evolved on its own without human intervention', or 'should robots be prescribed genders..and if they ever become conscious, will they classify themselves into distinctive genders?'

Feels like a scene from Terminator or Wall- E right? Let's hope researching on the topic will be equally as fun. :)

Why Are You Taking Scientific Research?

My love and passion of science dates back to my early childhood. I was always that child who dismantled devices trying to understand what was responsible for the ‘miracles’ I experienced. Unexplainable phenomena, like why the fan blades spun so fast, or how the television was able to project the images of the people I saw on the screen. There was always that urge to explain what I could not comprehend.

 One of my best experiences growing older has been realizing that such technology is not actually vague or imaginary.  I realized that all this science-fiction technology is not far off in the future and can be accomplished by simply piecing simple parts of the knowledge we already have to come up with cutting-edge and outstanding technology. I hope to gather and increase my knowledge of science.

 I am also participating in this program because of the experience I hope to gather. I do not want to delve into science professionally without experiencing practically what professional engineering entails. It will help me make one of the most important decisions in my life: whether I want to study engineering as a university major and commit it to it as a profession. I believe science is a life-long journey that one should not embark on without enough perseverance.  I hope to interact with other students and faculty in order to understand their passions, learn from their stories and hopefully inspire my love for science.