Saturday and Sundry Robot-related Reflections

A weekend chuckle courtesy of Ian Lang at Quora who has, very kindly, given me blanket permission to use his Quora answers on this blog.

QUESTION
Can we build a robot that has a brain of a human being?

ANSWER by:Ian Lang, Qualified Electronic Engineer BTEC National 3.

Now look, I have, in the past, met human beings who:

had to ask how to turn on a laptop computer

failed to cook a pie, because they couldnt work out how to light the gas on an electric oven

put a 13A fused plug onto a 30A cooker and then complained that it was tripping the breakers.

seriously believed that leaving Europe meant we’d move the country into the middle of the Atlantic

asked what I was listening to on my MP3 player and when came the answer “Beethoven” replied “what, that film with the dog?”

have to wear a digital watch because an analogue one is too confusing

tried to use a computer mouse upside down and complained it’s not working

have not plugged a printer into the mains “because it’s supposed to be wireless”

have bitten into a bar of fancy soap in the belief that it was white chocolate

and have phoned their mothers to ask how to make a jam sandwich.

Really? You want robots to be like that?

" Sure, thery're handy little things to have around, but you can't deny they're potentially dangerous."

Unless mankind redesigns itself by changing our DNA through altering our genetic makeup, computer-generated robots will take over our world.
Stephen Hawking

Wouldn't it be a strange twist of fate if we discovered that we were the original A.I.
Anthony T. Hincks.