Anthropomorphobia « NextNature.net

Posts Tagged ‘Anthropomorphobia’

The NBIC Convergence: When Machines and Matter ‘Have Sex’

The Singularity, as popularized by Ray Kurtzweil, refers to a near term, theoretical time when machine intelligence greatly surpasses our own. At this point we will experience a transition in our culture that poses an event horizon, beyond which future events cannot possibly be predicted or understood. Although Kurtzweil is no better placed than any of us to imagine what ‘The Singularity’ actually involves, he discusses our transition towards this point as ‘technologically enlightened’ humans increasingly upgrade their natural bodies with devices. As our physical substance becomes more technological, he proposes that we become more closely allied with machines rather than other humans. Those that reject the progressive mechanization of the human body are destined to play a secondary, if not vestigial position in the evolution of our species.

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Rachel Armstrong
on 28/05/12 Comments Off
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- Anthropomorphobia | Digital-Presence | virtual-for-real | Wild-systems
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Robutt

Tokyo University of Electro-Communications, revealed SHIRI (尻 = “buttocks”), a “Buttocks Humanoid That Represents Emotions With Visual and Tactual Transformation of the Muscles.” It was made by Nobuhiro Takahashi’s team, known for his robotic kissing machine.
Arnoud van den Heuvel
on 12/05/12 Comments »
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- Anthropomorphobia | Augmented-Bodies | Bionics | Feed-Back | Humane-Technology | Physical-computing
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Huggable Vending Machine

Finally a vending machine that doesn’t want you money, it wants hugs. Embrace it to get a free can of coke. Might give you rushes of anthropomorphobia too though.

Via The Pop-Up City. Thanks Teun.
Van Mensvoort
on 24/04/12 Comments »
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- Anthropomorphobia | Brand Territory | Corporature | Humane-Technology | Intimate Technology
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Twitter Implant becomes a Reality

You all probably know the ‘Twitter implant‘ from the Nano Supermarket. Scientist at the University of Princeton now created the first working prototype.

The implant is actually a sensor which could be tattooed on a tooth. The tattoo could diagnose an infection and transmit that information to a medic. This would be useful for military personnel to determine wether or not a wound becomes infectious.

Although the tattoo does not exactly twitter your coffee intake, it is a big step in monitoring over distance. I wonder which Nano Supermarket product would be next to become reality?

Via Gizmodo
Marco van Beers
on 03/04/12 Comments »
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- Anthropomorphobia | Augmented-Bodies | Intimate Technology | Physical-computing | Technorhetoric
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Monkeys fall into the ‘Uncanny Valley’ too

The uncanny valley, a phrase coined by Japanese robotic researcher Masahiro Mori nearly three decades ago, describes the uncanny feeling that occurs when people look at representations designed to be as human-like as possible – whether computer animations or androids – but somehow fall short. It turns out monkeys have that too.

In an attempt to answer deeper questions about the evolutionary basis of communication, Princeton University researchers have found that macaque monkeys also fall into the uncanny valley, exhibiting this reaction when looking at computer-generated images of monkeys that are close but less than perfect representations.

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Van Mensvoort
on 02/04/12 Comments »
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- Anthropomorphobia | Fake-nature | Manufactured Animals | Plastic Planet | virtual-for-real
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Arne Hendriks – Incredible Shrinking Man

The human population is expected to grow to 9 billion within this century. As a result we need more energy, more food and more space. If we continue our current consumptive patterns we soon need three planets. But what if we could turn this trend around?

Artist Arne Hendriks explores the possibilities and implications of downsizing the human species to better fit the earth. Can we do it?
Van Mensvoort
on 30/03/12 Comments »
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- Anthropomorphobia | Augmented-Bodies | Back to the Tribe | Green Blues | Humane-Technology | Technorhetoric
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Is the Human Body Redundant?

The increasing ‘liveliness’ of machines and accessibility to the virtual world has raised questions about whether it is possible to uncouple the mind from the body in through a host of different strategies. The basic idea is that if we are able to escape the ties of our own flesh then we can upgrade them and even replace them with immortal ones. Performance artist Stelarc has made some of the most extreme and enduring work on this subject. The artist characteristically depersonalises his anatomy and claims that it is not only an object that can be subjected to re-designing but is also ‘obsolete’. During his performances, Stelarc mentally ‘vacates’ his own body to prove its obsolescence, and claims that his body is no more than a site for redesigning and re-engineering the human form.

In my view, Stelarc’s work paradoxically highlights the profound importance that embodiment holds for being human. When Stelarc dissociates his mind from his body he demonstrates its sheer plasticity and robustness. The artist then recolonizes the body with robots, communications technologies and soft prostheses as proof of this inbuilt physical redundancy. Yet the machines he hosts are given context by the presence of a body – for in its absence, they are just a collection of machines devoid of meaning. Moreover, redundancy is a characteristic of complex systems, which are a form of organization that does not obey the Cartesian, dualistic laws that govern machines. The artist’s rejection of these qualities simply highlights that the human body is not a machine.

There is nothing liberating about having an anesthetized body, nor one that is functionally redundant. While Stelarc’s suspensions and performances demonstrate that we can temporarily ‘forget’ our bodies in order to explore a transcendent state of being, there are those who live in a permanent state of disconnection.

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Rachel Armstrong
on 24/03/12 1 Comment »
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- Anthropomorphobia | Augmented-Bodies | Bionics | Humane-Technology
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Will Eugenics Become an Acceptable Strategy to Avoid Climate Change?

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of today and various scenarios, ranging from artificial trees, pollution trading, co2 capturing to geo-engineering, have been proposed to cope with planetary heating. Most of these existing strategies, however, focus on the altering our environment, but as global warming is inflicted by people, why not start at the root of the issue and change humanity itself to cope with climate change?

Recently New York University bioethics professor S Matthew Liao published a paper (PDF) in Ethics, Policy and the Environment arguing that one way to tackle the challenges of a rise in energy use is to modify humanity to simply use less energy.

The researchers argue biomedical modifications of humans so that they can reduce and/or adapt to climate change is potentially less risky than geo-engineering. They suggests a range of ways to achieve this, from creating an aversion to meat by giving diners a mild intolerance to it, to using gene therapy to create smaller children.

Although eugenics, the deliberate “improvement” of the genetic composition of people, has been in disfavor since its mid-20th century association with Nazi Germany, the researchers argue it “deserves further consideration in the debate about climate change”. Apparently radical problems require radical measures? Certainly next nature causes more next nature.

Via Wired. Download the entire paper (PDF)
Van Mensvoort
on 22/03/12 Comments »
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- Anthropocene | Anthropomorphobia | Augmented-Bodies | Green Blues
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Internet Traffic is now 51% Non-Human

So you thought the Internet was made by and for people? Think again. A study by Incapsula, a provider of cloud-based security for web sites (mind you where this data comes from), concludes that 51% of all Internet traffic is generated by non-human sources such as hacking software, scrapers and automated spam mechanisms. While 20% of the 51% non-human traffic is’ good’, the 31% majority of this non-human traffic is potentially malicious.

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Van Mensvoort
on 18/03/12 7 Comments »
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- Anthropomorphobia | Organized-Networks | Sentient Spaces | Wild-systems
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Nature Ludens: The Natural World at Play

An ingenious Russian crow that used a lid as a snowboard to slide down a snowy roof persuaded millions of YouTube viewers that animals are not merely beasts of burden – they also want to have fun. Indeed, the natural world appears to be teeming with creatures enjoying themselves in all kinds of different ways, and wildlife experts even claim that bonobos and dolphins have sex for fun.

But how can we know this is the case? Aren’t we really just projecting our human values on to animals? After all, moods are subjective, so it’s hard enough for humans to communicate clearly enough to each other, even when they share the same language – let alone try to figure out what another species might be feeling. So, to keep things simple and empirically testable, the kinds of scientific experiments that have established the ‘feelings’ of animals have focused on responses to stimuli in which cause and effect are not at all complicated such as withdrawal from pain [1].

Unsurprisingly, this has produced a very limited model of scientifically ‘proven’ animal behaviour, since there are still no clearly identifiable behavioural markers of conscious experience that don’t involve language. We still don’t know how to unequivocally prove what animals may be thinking. We can only claim that creatures such as these fox cubs playing on a trampoline appear to be having fun, since we cannot be objective about what we observe. However, the work of philosophers of science such as Thomas Kuhn, Stephen Toulmin and Patrick Heelan, among many others, questions the long-held view that scientific data are absolutely objective.

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Rachel Armstrong
on 07/03/12 Comments »
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- Anthropomorphobia | Manufactured Animals | Wild-systems
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Corpus 2.1

Could you imagine yourself having QR-code freckles, or a chlorophyl skin? Dutch artist Marcia Nolte visualises these kind of speculative scenarios in a very non-spectacular yet beautiful way. This Corpus 2.1 series is a follow-up to her earlier Corpus 2.0 series, of which we also featured a stunning image in our book.

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Hendrik-Jan Grievink
on 06/03/12 Comments »
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- Anthropomorphobia | Augmented-Bodies | Bionics | Officegarden
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Edible Implants

Why turn to implants when the female body can do it by itself? Dutch designer Femke Mosch came up with the idea of making edible implants that stimulate breast growth from within.
Rolf Coppens
on 19/02/12 Comments »
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- Anthropomorphobia | Augmented-Bodies | Designed-by-Evolution | Genetic-surprises | Supermarket
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#10: Enhance Human Experience, Don’t Replace it

Part 10 in the 11 part series Anthropomorphism and Design.

The hidden danger with interactive products is that they will become so good at fulfilling our needs that they start to replace actual humans. This is not a futuristic scenario: In an increasing number of locations, from supermarket self-scan checkouts to online bookstores, automatization has replaced human contact. Eventually this may lead to us becoming alienated from other people, which seems to contradict today’s rapidly increasing communication possibilities. Anthropomorphic products have the potential to support, stimulate and enhance human contact, but they may also eliminate it.
NextNature.net
on 06/02/12 Comments »
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- anthropomorphism and design | Anthropomorphobia | Augmented-Bodies
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#9: Be Aware of the Ecosystem You’re Invading

Part 9 in the 11 part series Anthropomorphism and Design.

With most products, one wouldn’t normally worry about the environment that it enters. However, anthropomorphic products inevitably elicit responses from others, even from non-human entities. This can have obvious advantages, for instance, when a human-shaped scarecrow frightens off the birds. But when daddy’s new toy frightens the children or the pets, there is a significant chance that it will end up on the attic. Bringing home an anthropomorphic product can be like introducing a new person into the household, which doesn’t always go as smoothly as the family might hope.

Image via I’m Not Obsessed.
NextNature.net
on 31/01/12 Comments »
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- anthropomorphism and design | Anthropomorphobia
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Rule #8: Use Human Ethics

Part 8 of the 11 part series Anthropomorphism and Design.

Anthropomorphic products blur the boundaries between products and people. Ethical norms for people don’t usually apply to products and vice versa. For example, there’s no need to apologize if you accidentally run into an object. But with an anthropomorphic product, you might instinctively say sorry, because it seems like the right thing to do. People can apply their attitude towards humans to products, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But transferring attitudes from a product to a human might lead to problems, especially when the product induces abnormal social behavior. Don’t make your product do what you wouldn’t want a person to do.

Image via Lazy Bone.
NextNature.net
on 26/01/12 Comments »
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- anthropomorphism and design | Anthropomorphobia | Augmented-Bodies
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Rule #7: Respect Social Standards

Part 7 of the 11 part series Golden Rules of Anthropomorphism and Design.

Anthropomorphic products enter the human social space. Humans have the most complex social behavior of any organism on Earth. Anyone or anything trying to join in should be careful to do it right. Although an anthropomorphic product may function perfectly, if it crosses social boundaries it will still tick people off. This can cause the product to become a social reject, which won’t do sales much good. Luckily, it’s not hard to figure out why things go wrong. Imagine a scenario where a person and a product interact, then replace the product with a second person. If the actions of the second person and the product don’t match up, then there’s something off about the product’s design.

Image via Anvari.
NextNature.net
on 21/01/12 Comments »
Tags
- anthropomorphism and design | Anthropomorphobia | Back to the Tribe | Officegarden | Technorhetoric | Toys-are-Us
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<a href="http://www.vimeo.com/29046176">http://www.vimeo.com/29046176</a>
Playing With Pigs

Besides children and pets, it turns out that pigs are also attracted to interactive interfaces. Pig Chase is a computer game in which pigs and people can play together. The aim of the project is to entertain pigs in the bio-industry and to research the relationship between the cognitive capacities of pigs and people.

So, how does the game work? A screen with light effects in the pigs’ pen is connected to an iPad. Pigs are fascinated by the movement of light and attracted to new light spots on the surface. The iPad user controls a ring of light, which the pig follows with its snout. The human participant leads the pig’s snout to a target. When the target is reached, the pig is rewarded with a display of fireworks.

Pig Chase is developed by The Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU) and Wageningen University. Video and more information on Playing with Pigs. Via Mashable.
Lisa van der Voort
on 18/01/12 Comments »
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- Anthropomorphobia | Calm-technology | Digital-Presence | Manufactured Animals | Toys-are-Us
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Rule #6: Meet People’s Expectations

For past entries and an introduction to the 11 Golden Rules of Anthropomorphism and Design, click here.

People expect many things from each other: Expect them to say hi in the morning; expect them to buy a ticket for the bus; expect them to watch out when driving a car; expect them to do their jobs well. People also expect certain behaviors from anthropomorphic products. When a product works differently than promised, this can cause confusion or anger. When a person gives commands to a product and the product ignores him, he becomes frustrated, because the product feels like a person who rudely turns his back. You wouldn’t accept that behavior from a person, so why would you accept it from a product?

The robot Saya has been developed to teach elementary-grade school children. She can speak different languages and make facial expressions, and hopefully confirm to what the kids expect of an instructor.

Image via The Daily Mail.
NextNature.net
on 17/01/12 Comments »
Tags
- anthropomorphism and design | Anthropomorphobia | Augmented-Bodies | Biomimicmarketing | Bionics | robotics
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