2008

I love Wall-E! (Link to the Official Disney site - No Spoilers in this article!)

Full plot (including spoilers in the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WALL-E)

The latest blockbuster from the Pixar team has left me in awe and wonder, and provoked some interesting ideas of what a BabyRobot's humanity would be like.

Without spoiling the ending, the portrayal of Wall-E really got me thinking about the extent to which robots could experience what humans call emotions.

The robot characters of Wall-E and EVE are no doubt given human characteristics such as curiousity, anger, friendship, affection, and even something that might be called love...aaah!

But in reality, could any of those characteristics ever really be instilled in a robotic machine, at least in an imitative manner?

The need for an awareness field (of the real or virtual world in which BabyRobot would operate), and the need for boundary and entity recognition, would undoubtedly be the first essential steps to stimulating any human emotion or quality.

FOF: Friend or Foe indentification was a strong element of the plotline  of Wall-E that came across: For example, when Wall-E first encounters EVE, and later when a group of renegade robots are pursued by the robot police force.

For reasons of self-preservation in a potentially hostile and hazard-filled world, the provision of TDS: THREAT DETECTION SYSTEMS would be absolutely essential.

Physical threats such as incoming missiles and ABD: actual bodily damage ,would be relatively easy to deploy: Modern fighter planes are bristling with a barrage of scanners and electronic counter-measures such as against radar-jammers etc, which assist the pilot in his mission of staying alive and protecting the plane against actual or potential threats.

But in this world formed by nature and human minds, there are so many more threats and risks than just the obvious physical threats.  Could a BabyRobot ever learn to detect and protect itself and humans against such threats as:

• Unlawful acquisition (of property or wealth: could a simple legal concept let alone the intricacies of 'rightful ownership' ever be encoded in a mechanical device, how would robots actually be encoded so as not to violate The Law and keep within its boundaries and definitions)
• Violation of legal rights
• Unethical attacks (could BabyRobot ever truly understand the rules of a game when they have not been hard-coded?)
• Slander

It can be seen: Most of the above refer to Legal Rights - so my proposition is: What structures need to be put into place within the "MindBrain" of a BabyRobot and its SAF: Simulated Awareness Field, in order to give a BabyRobot some comprehension of Legality.