Japanese develop 'female' android

I want one of these:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4714135.stm

perhaps for TL (third life)?

I wonder when we will reach the tecnology described in Blade Runner and answer the question " Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

Which then begs the question of what the ramification would be if they could get her to play Second Life?

hehe.. I want two of them! Some of us are talking about it over in Off-Topic. The wave of the future and much more realistic than a blow-up doll!

I caught that yesterday, Snowcrash. There was some disagreement on another board of mine that claimed they were only showing an animated dummy.

In Second life terms, we're talking both AI and CGI. Moore's Law would seem to indicate that we're only a decade or so away from emulating reality. Toy Story 1 used 5 or 6 million polygons per frame. Toy Story 2 used 12 million. Reality is roughly estimated at 800 million polygons per frame.

I wonder though -- if we are all running Eighth Life on a 100GHZ Intel machine, will we still have TP problems?

only if you wear an ao

Cindy, indeed exponential growth of technology and computer power predicts that within 10-15 years we will have real human like avatars in SL. You can read all about the power of accelerating technology here: http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0134.html

The question is when will androids be practical to take over our real life functions? I suspect 20-30 years?. We can then all live in the matrix and let the machines support us Yeah imagine what a havoc TP problems would create then hehe.

Is it just me or the lag period between hard Science Fiction becoming real is getting shorter and shorter

This is gonna be the best prom EVER

yeah, mad robot scientists have the best sex toys

One Word Eekkkekkekkekekkekekek

You can generally look at history to make rough estimates on what the future holds, in many cases. Technology has reduced the amount of labor required to produce the basic widget, lowered prices so that the middle class can afford more material goods, and given us the 40 hour work week. It has also left a large segment of the population in the minimum-wage range because they have no technical skills. It has allowed us to export and outsource and commit economic suicide in some ways.

But it all comes down to this: Man will some day be able to choose what he wishes to do, even more so than now. I don't foresee the day when machines will replace men in the areas of art, creativity, philosophy, or invention. Perhaps it's only another couple of hundred years away, but our ability to make intuitive leaps and to express our emotions would be extremely difficult to program into any system of silicon chips. Further, I don't expect us to ever really want to yield those areas. If we're not creating and inventing we're not a happy species.


In some cases, the SciFi writers were actually too conservative.

I was talking to a friend the other night about how addictive virtual worlds can be. We tried to remember all of the movies and fiction that have touched on it. This is my 'short list':

William Gibson, Neuromancer (Daddy of them all, supposedly in production for the big screen now)

Brainstorm - Natalie Woods' last movie. Thought provoking in its day.

Virtuosity - Denzel *drool*, and the first time I remember really noticing Russell Crowe.

Dark City - Dark movie, a different take on reality with William Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland and Jennifer Connelly.

Johnny Mnemonic - Keanu Reeves warms up for The Matrix

The Matrix - all 3. (I play Carrie-Ann Moss, who plays Trinity)

For books, possibly my favorite in this vein has to be Tad Williams' Otherland series. It took me most of the first book just to figure out what was going on, and by that time I was hooked.

I love the Japanese!

dude did you even see her hands? she has man hands. no thanks =\

Look at you. A pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you chalenge a perfect immortal maschine?"

--S.H.O.D.A.N--

does any of you dont see this as a prophecy? (cf: system shock)