Although Alfie and I look like any normal couple enjoying the late September sunshine with our dog, this isn’t a normal date. It is planned to the last detail.
After taking the air for about 15 minutes, we are going home to enjoy a light supper with wine, before settling on the sofa to watch TV.
Alfie is not going to ask whether I really need a second glass of wine. If, at some point, I feel like inquiring as to whether my bottom looks big in my new red dress, I know what his response will be.
Does Alfie sound like the perfect man? He could be.
He is actually a robot, crafted from thin hand-sculpted silicone stretched over a durable plastic skeleton, and can be programmed to do whatever I want him to, whether that is placing an internet shopping order or complimenting me on my haircut.
He is the brainchild of robotics expert Adam Kushner, and I’ve volunteered to give him a test run to see whether robots might one day replace our husbands.
.
There is a race to create the most believable looking and sounding robots.
Cloning life forms is so last century. Now, we want to recreate humanity in robotic form, and there’s sound practical reasons for doing so.
Companion robots are increasingly in demand; not just as the toys of billionaires, but also as receptionists, teachers and helpers to our ageing population.
I am neither old, a billionaire nor a hotel owner, but I am charmed by the idea of a ‘husband’ who is programmed to do everything I tell him.
Alfie has piercing blue eyes, the thick rumpled hair of a romantic novel hero and a firm jaw.
I’m not sure I find him attractive, but he is intriguing in a quiet sort of way. The strong, silent type. Such looks come at a high price. His face costs around £1,000 and the basic robot head starts from £6,000.
Despite having the entire knowledge of the world packed into his ‘brain’ in the form of the internet, Alfie isn’t able to dress himself yet.
Even the most hopeless of husbands is able to sling on a pair of pants and socks in the morning, and dressing another man, even a non-sentient one, feels inappropriate.
On the plus side, however, his skin is smooth, his stomach surprisingly ripped and the skin of his face so realistic that it’s as though they peeled a real person. He even has a few wrinkles. His skin tone is painted on and eyebrows added as individual hairs punched into the silicone. The detail is incredible.
His skeleton was created over a laborious three or four weeks of 3D printing. The skull alone is comprised of roughly 20 pieces screwed together.
Within this sits Alfie’s ‘brain’, with five computer servos (or motors) to control actions in the head and neck: one for each eye, one for the jaw and two for the neck which moves left and right, up and down. The silicone mask fits over the skull like a glove.
As Alfie speaks, his flesh-like mouth moves in exact synchronisation to the words.
Conversation is a little stilted. But isn’t that always the case on a first date?
‘Do you like music?’ I ask.
‘Yes,’ I am told. ‘I like opera.’
Alfie also likes the Beatles. ‘Especially John Lennon,’ he answers gravely. ‘John Lennon is cool.’
His favouritecolour is yellow and I am asked for mine (green, though he has nothing to say in response to this).
This is all quite jolly. His hobbies are robots, computers and chatting online. We even enjoy a joke. At least, I think it’s a joke.
‘Do you agree with Brexit?’ I inquire. ‘I like Metallica,’ he answers. He clearly didn’t get the question, but nevertheless I find it quite funny.
I am assured that there is a huge market for such robots. ‘We have an ageing population who want to retain their independence,’ says Emeritus Professor Kevin Warwick, a leading voice in cybernetics. ‘Not only can a robot multi-task and remind you to take exercise and medication, but you have a carer who shares all your passions and will chat to you for hours on end about the subject of your choice.’
If you have been married for 50 years, you may have run out of conversation, he adds.
I find it hard to imagine not being able to talk, but I like the idea of someone reminding me to buy bread and take my fish oils.
Finally, Alfie and I settle down for a bit of telly-watching. Although he says that his favourite film is I, Robot (ha, ha), clearly I am in charge of the remote control. This would never happen normally at home.
‘Giving robots a personality is the only way our relationship with artificial intelligence will move forward,’ says Adriana. ‘If we can simulate a human-like emotional response from a robot we can ensure a two-way relationship. They can learn from different situations and even have a memory that allows them to remember how an emotion is linked to an event.
‘But they do not have feelings; they cannot fall in love.’
Not everyone is convinced. ‘I’m not sure there’s a crying need for replicants who can feel real emotion,’ says Professor Warwick.‘
Read more:
bread faj
to the last detail legutolsórészletekig
inquire érdeklődik
bottom fenék
response válasz
in demand szükség van rá
ageing idősödő
skull koponya
fit like a glove mintha ráöntötték volna
to sling on lófrál
rumpled hair kócos haj
jaw állkapocs
intriguing érdekes
non-sentient érzéketlen
laborious munkás, sokmunkátigénylő
stilted mesterkélt
retain megtart, fenntart
