iCub the Robot Toddler

iCub robot

The iCub is a robot project that uses the mind and physical dimensions of a human two-year old as its basic design model.  Its developers, at RobotCub.org a European Union consortium reason that using a two-year old’s mind as a starting point, the iCub will gradually develop and learn much as a young human would, due to its ability to consolidate new information in meaningful ways. The project’s coordinator, Prof. Giulio Sandini, located at the University of Genova, believes that human intelligence derives from physical interaction with the world as well as mental processes, so the iCub’s dimensions are an important component of its future development.

The video below gives a nice overview of the project:

Transcendent Man: Kurzweil’s take on the future of humanity

The 2009 Tribeca Film Festival in New York recently released a documentary about Ray Kurzweil’s ideas on the future evolution of humanity in a computer-driven world.  Here’s a trailer for the film, Transcendent Man that attempts to summarize Ray’s ideas. 

My previous post on Singularity University briefly described how his  2005 book, The Singularity is Near,  discusses a possible future where the distinction between humans and computers becomes increasingly grey.