Interview with Radio ABC about Robots and Racism

Posted by Christoph Bartneck on Jul 20, 2018 in Press | 0 comments

Damien Carrick from ABC’s National Radio Show interviewed me about our Robots and Racism study. You can listen to the whole interview:

Visions of our android future

Posted by Christoph Bartneck on Jul 10, 2018 in Culture, Featured | 0 comments

I started to play Detroit – Becoming Human and the start of the game introduces us to a world in which most of the work is done by androids. The designers paid attention to portraying every day life with androids. They show androids in the roles of care taker, cleaner, construction worker, but also as a companion. Many humans are without a job but still enjoy an android cleaning their mess. Of course this whole setup is a typical in-out-group setup. But if this is the future we are working towards then we will also have to address these questions. What if there is no more work left for humans? What if we like interacting with androids more than with other humans? Here are some of my highlights of everyday life in the game so far:

Android Parking

Detroit: Become Human

Android compartment in the back of the bus

The androids have to enter the public bus at the rear and are standing in a segregated compartment that is divided by a glass wall. This is of course a reference to Rosa Park who refused to give put her seat in the colored section of a bus for a white person in 1955.

Detroit: Become Human

An article on how autonomous cars make life and death decisions

The game features an article on how autonomous vehicles make life and death decisions by considering a wealth of background information to calculate the value of a person.

Here is the text of the virtual news article:

When a driverless vehicle foresees an accident, the car’s computer makes life and death decisions – for example deciding which of two pedestrians to hit. But the exact process by which cars make these decisions is not very well understood.

Martin Forlong, of CrowneCars, tries to clarify: “In these situations, the car’s imaging system gathers data to determine, the pedestrian’s age, gender, life Expectancy, etc, in the blink of an eye.” This data is parsed through the public I record “to determine marital status, employment record, life expectancy and whether they have children.” The car then assigns a ‘value’ to each possible victim based on criteria like their contribution to society: “we put a premium on lives that will save other lives, like doctors and nurses.”

All this may sound very reasonable. But Felix Gamble, head of Anti-Automation League (AAL) says the system has no rights to make such judgements: “Somebody with a criminal record is not necessarily less I valuable to society than a doctor. That kind of information is irrelevant to the sanctity of human life.”

But Forlong dismisses such claims: “We want our cars to make the best possible i choices, and that means acting on the basis of all the information they can gather. The more, the better.”

Every edition of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Lila: an inquiry into morals

Posted by Christoph Bartneck on May 9, 2018 in Culture, Documentation | 0 comments

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is arguably the most widely read philosophy book of all times. Since its first release in 1974 it has been printed by many publishers. Here is a list of all the editions that I could find. Rest in peace, Robert.

The situation for “Lila: an inquiry into morals” is a little bit easier although this is the more important work.

Using Windows Keyboard on Mac OS X

Posted by Christoph Bartneck on May 5, 2018 in Documentation | 0 comments

There are some beautiful and useful mechanical keyboards on the market but only a few of them are made for Mac. Matias Keyboards have a Mac layout and they also sell mechanical keyboards. But their keyboards are not illuminated. Das Keyboard has some Mac models but they also do not come illuminated. I could not find a Mac layout mechanical keyboard that has not just illuminated keys, but keys for which their colour could be adjusted. Most modern gaming keyboards offer this function.

LEGO Idea Conference 2018

Posted by Christoph Bartneck on Apr 11, 2018 in Design, Event, LEGO | 0 comments

I was honoured to be invited to the LEGO Idea Conference 2018. It gave me the opportunity to meet with several members of the LEGO group but it also brought me up to speed with what the LEGO Foundation is working on. I talked to Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen and gave him my Unofficial LEGO Color Guide. I met with Jan Beyer and talked about the LAN and their connection to the AFOLs. I also discovered that the LEGO House’s library features my Unofficial LEGO Minifigure Catalog.

My Minifigure Catalog in the LEGO House library

I also experienced the amazing architecture of the LEGO House. I took many (panoramic) photos of the outside and the inside. The large models, in particular the dinosaurs are amazing:

But maybe the most amazing aspect of the LEGO House are its interactive installations. Their RoboLab is just amazing:

And I also enjoyed their agent based city simulation:

What an amazing event.

Robots, Rape, and Representation in Blade Runner (1982)

Posted by Christoph Bartneck on Mar 3, 2018 in Research | 0 comments

Robert Sparrow wrote and excellent paper about Robots, Rape, and Representation. I was shocked to see exactly what he was talking about, namely non-consensual sex with androids in one of my favourite movies, Blade Runner. Rick Deckard is clearly forcing himself on the android Rachel and even asks her to tell him that she wants him. The scene stops after some more pretty forceful kissing and we don’t know what happens afterwards, but the way Rick controls Rachel and denies her leaving his apartment is highly problematic.

UPDATE: It took Youtube and Warner Brothers 30 seconds to file a copyright claim dispute about my video. Amazing.

Simple LEGO Mindstorms Mars Rover

Posted by Christoph Bartneck on Mar 3, 2018 in Design, Documentation, Featured, LEGO | 1 comment

This is simple Mars Rover model using two LEGO Mindstorms EV3 and a total of eight motors. The two EV3 are daisy chained and the model can be controlled using the EV3 IR Remote Control. The model uses the rocker-bogie suspension system including a differential in the middle axis. The two EV3s are suspended and remain horizontal in any position. There are much more complex Mars Rover models already available using many more Mindstorm bricks. My design goal was to keep it simple and experiment with the rocker-bogie suspension system. The principles works, but there is a bit too much flexibility in the model.

The 3D model and the building instructions are available for LEGO Digital Designer. The parts list and instructions are also available at Rebrickable.