blog assignment #4

Sullins, John P., III. "Artificial Intelligence." Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics. Ed. Carl Mitcham. Vol. 1. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 110-113. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 23 Apr. 2013.

The video I watched about the Nao robot can be seen following this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2STTNYNF4lk. This video suggest that we are pretty far in the revolution of artificial intelligence and robotics but we are not fully there yet. Certain things that we make look easy such as getting up is a difficult task for a robot to do by itself but we are making progress. When it comes to presenting the capabilities of present day robots, this video is very optimistic because it looks like the future will be bright for robotics. Even though some tasks will be difficult we can still manage to accomplish them. The creator of the video is Aldebaran Robotics, to find out more on them visit aldebaranrobotics.com. I believe the creator of the video affects the accuracy and trustworthiness of the information because it shows how credible the information will be. If a random person has information and an exclusive company has information, most of the time the company will be more credible. The information of the video is widely affected by the creator of it. 

In an encyclopedia article I found from the research link we were given I found many interesting facts. According to John P. Sullins, “ Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the science and technology that seeks to create intelligent computational systems” (Sullins, 2005 p.110). This means that our electrical devices will start to interact and become very intelligent. According to this description, the Nao robot can be classified as artificial intelligence. He is an advanced computer system than can interact and move on its own. He is intelligent and cis able to do things on its own. The difference between the Nao robot and a human being is that we can always get smarter by learning on our own but the Nao will have to be programmed to become more intelligent. It can think just like humans but it comes on what information is stored on its mainframe. The Nao robots stimulate emotion because the video suggest that they do. In the video the robot was able to tell a lie and feel pain when it got knocked over. I do not think a machine being artificially intelligent is really important but I do feel it can make life a lot easier. It is not necessary but can be very cool and maybe even do wonders for the world.

After looking at the technical description of the Nao robot from class i compared it to this youtube video. The video is more appealing because you physically see the progress of the robot and the point of the video is more clear than having to read a whole description. The written description definitely gives more information about the robot and all of its features. Even though the written description provides more information the video has more advantages because it can be seen on television and on the internet. More people watch television than read. An advantage the technical description will have is those who read it will have gained more knowledge than anybody who watched the video. 

references

(2008, 03). YouTube. YouTube - Nao Robot. Retrieved April 23, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2STTNYNF4lk
John, S. (2005). Artificial Intelligence (Vol. 1). detroit: Carl Mitcham. Retrieved from galevirtualreferencesciencecollection

Blog Assignment #3

        I recently wrote my first professional memo for my English 259 class. It was not like what I thought it was going to be like, but in fact it was rather easy. We were given three topics to choose from and I am interested in mechanical engineering to I went with the buying a robot topic. In my opinion, this seemed the best topic to write about because there is so much to discuss and what I write about may actually be the future for some people. 

Two arc welding robots can accomplish much more than two skilled human welders.  They have the potential to create unlimited economic growth, since the more robots you have, the more they can produce. If something should go wrong with the robots and they malfunction, the warranty should cover the damages or might even replace them with a new one. If my highly skilled human welder malfunctions then we have to be one the hunt for a new one and fast.  There is also an employee loaded cost where we end up spending more than we are actually paying per hour. In an article entitled Loaded Cost of Employee Time by Jakob Nielsen, he says “The fully loaded cost of an employee is at least twice his or her salary. This is why consultants charge so much more than regular employees: their billable hours have to cover the many overhead costs that are implicit for your full-time employees” (Nielsen, 1997). With all of this coming into factor I will go over my budget and this company will go down. The welding robots also can produce about three times as fast an the average person with less chance of error. The only problem with the robots is they need to be serviced for two days per month but the cost to do this is as much as servicing your car.  The welding robots will do wonders for this company and I strongly believe will be put into effect immediately. 

That was a paragraph from my memo just to give an idea of what I wrote about. The solution I came up with was to buy the two arc welding robots because they are much cheaper than human skilled welders and will provide a better work output. I came up with this solution by looking at the negatives for both parties. The human workers will have some error and will need vacation time, sick days, and employee loaded cost. The robots just need maintenance every couple of months and they do not interact, they just do their job. I do not do much writing regularly, only if it is required by my professors. This was the first time I wrote a memo and I learned a lot from this.