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Julie: This video raises so many questions.
Robert: For starters we know that the cat and the duck are both alive, but what about
the Roomba?
Is this robotic vacuum cleaner a living thing?
Julie: It's actually a more difficult question than you think. After all, what does it mean
to be alive?
Robert: If you hold the Roomba to all the standards of organic life, then no. It's not
self-propogating, it doesn't grow, and it's not made of cells.
Julie: But the Roomba is actually smarter than some people give it credit for. It's
not just bouncing around the room like the cursor in a Pong game.
It senses its environment and maps the room out in its head.
Robert: Humans bump into a wall, note the error, and then remap it all in their brain
so it doesn't happen again. The Roomba does the same thing.
Julie: But this leads to the larger questions: Are robots alive? Are they even capable of
achieving that status? It's a divisive question.
Robert: For starters, you have to differentiate between mere automotons and actual robots.
An automoton, such a mechanical manipulator on a vehicle assembly line, has the ability
to sense and act.
A vehicle frame advances on the conveyor belt, the manipulator senses its presence, and then
installs a windshield.
Julie: A true robot applies one more step to the process, reason.
It analyzes the sense data and then acts based on its computations. We do the same thing.
So you can could that robots are alive in the sense that they reason and act accordingly.
Robert: And you might also consider robots alive since they can exhibit emergent intelligence.
In this, they sense, reason, act, and emerge new behaviors.
Julie: Where robots fall short, however, is that they require humans to tell them what
exactly they need to sense in order to reason, act, and even emerge.
Robert: This is where the study of artificial intelligence really comes into its own.
Programming robots with the ability to navigate a see and sense data and determine what should
influence behavior and decision making, like with our crude learning vacuum bot friend
here.
Julie: Ah, but here's a far simpler question: Do they feel alive?
Well we like to think so because we love to anthropomorphise. All we have to do is give
them some eyes and maybe a cool name.
Robert: So what do you think? Is a Roomba alive? At what point does a robot become a
living thing?
Julie: [Robotic voice] Let us know in the comments below and make sure to subscribe
for more mind blowing videos!