David Cope’s software creates beautiful, original music. Why are people so angry about that? A great exploration of one man, computers, and creativity.
via Triumph of the Cyborg Composer | Miller-McCune Online Magazine.

Ask many AIBO owners if robots can have emotions. MIT: “Creating a Robot So Alive You Feel Bad About Switching It Off” -A Galaxy Classic.

Any intelligence is effectively useless without an ability to perceive that which is external to the intelligence. The key to vision isn’t the how of image gathering, but the processing and interpretation of the images gathered.

Construction of our AAI will require many elements to work together for sentience to be achieved. The glue we will use comes from chaos theory.

Who doesn’t want to build a really smart robot? The trouble is, many people don’t think outside the box enough. Me? I don’t think it needs to be a box. I say we start designing for the possibilities soon to come instead of holding ourselves back.

As season 2 of Terminator – The Sarah Connor Chronicles reaches its revelatory four episode climax, we are left considering the larger issues of this universe: who is good, who is evil, and what is going on this this war? Is it bigger than John Connor?

I’ve been devoting a fair amount of thought to how humanity will be able to extend its reach beyond our planet and solar system. Even if we solved all of our local problems and could survive for an indefinite time on our planet, the fact is that the universe has a gun pointed at us. Whether it’s due to our aging sun or the impending collision with our neighboring galaxy, our time on Earth has an expiration date. How can we beat this cosmic clock and endure?

In a world where the machines are in charge, the old ways of making babies are dead. The intelligent machines will want to continue their reign. Being made out of metal and all…how are they going to do that? How could they possibly be fruitful and multiply?

It took almost thirty years, but the inevitable war of attrition finally resulted in Skynet breaking the fighting will of the humans. The cost to robotics was high but proved to be sustainable in the end. Skynet can finally relax. To what end? With the war over, what’s next on Skynet’s agenda?

On the surface it seems sort of silly to devote so many words to whether or not a fictional robot can feel emotion. Thing is, this fiction close enough to coming reality that we have to ask the questions about AI thought, and what we will do about it.