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FeedDo Androids Dream of Electric Philip K Dicks?
Monday, June 20, 2005 → by Danieru
Ever wondered how best to make a fitting tribute to a legendary science fiction author?
Dick's works of fiction often blurred the human and the machine into one. Indeed in 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep', arguably Dick's most famous book (later turned into the Ridley Scott movie 'Blade Runner'), a number of androids are almost indistinguishable from humans, some even believing that they are human. It seems to me that an android built in Dick's image is the perfect way to make tribute to him, and I am absolutely sure that Dick would have loved the idea. I'd pay a lot of cash to ask the Dick 2.0 some questions. The original PKD was known for his mannerisms and his creative, conversational gymnastics, it would be fascinating to see how/if the team has integrated these into the android.
For some background on PKD see my previous post on him here. Check out the PKD Android site here or visit their expanding blog about the exhibition here... and if you want to catch up with Philip K Dick movie news keep an eye on A Scanner Darkly, the superb cyberpunk psychological-thriller, set to become part of 21st century consciousness sometime next year (click here for the amazing trailer).
"Do androids really dream of electric sheep? Now you can ask P. K. Dick himself. This bust relies on 36 servomotors to mimic the sci-fi legend's facial expressions, and features a polymer called Frubber that looks and moves like human skin. The bot uses motion-tracking machine vision to make eye contact with passersby, and best of all, artificial intelligence and speech software enable it to carry on complex conversations. "It invents new ideas using a mathematical model of Philip K. Dick's mind extracted from his vast body of writing," says David Hanson, founder of Hanson Robotics. The mechanized tribute to the author is a fitting one: Having grappled with the question "What is reality?" throughout his career, Dick would have delighted in Hanson's efforts to blur the boundaries between humans and their android imitations."
Dick's works of fiction often blurred the human and the machine into one. Indeed in 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep', arguably Dick's most famous book (later turned into the Ridley Scott movie 'Blade Runner'), a number of androids are almost indistinguishable from humans, some even believing that they are human. It seems to me that an android built in Dick's image is the perfect way to make tribute to him, and I am absolutely sure that Dick would have loved the idea. I'd pay a lot of cash to ask the Dick 2.0 some questions. The original PKD was known for his mannerisms and his creative, conversational gymnastics, it would be fascinating to see how/if the team has integrated these into the android.For some background on PKD see my previous post on him here. Check out the PKD Android site here or visit their expanding blog about the exhibition here... and if you want to catch up with Philip K Dick movie news keep an eye on A Scanner Darkly, the superb cyberpunk psychological-thriller, set to become part of 21st century consciousness sometime next year (click here for the amazing trailer).
Categories: Books, Movies, Robotics, AI, Links, Cyberpunk, Philip-K-Dick, PKD, Sci-Fi, News, Technology
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