BOULDER, Colorado – People have been exploring outer house since April 1961 with the pioneering flight of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
In the present day, a number of nations are making new plans to launch human beings again to the moon, then onward to Mars and maybe past. However will that pursuit be short-circuited by the fast-paced merger of synthetic intelligence (AI) and superior humanoid robots?
That proposition was broached throughout a People to Titan Summit, held right here June 11-12, a first-time occasion attended by specialists searching for to ship astronauts to Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. It is an attractive, attention-getting place in space. Titan comes with a thick atmosphere and is a distinctive world of clouds, rain, rivers, lakes and seas of liquid hydrocarbons like methane and ethane. But will humans ever set foot on Titan, or will AI-powered advanced robots make the voyage instead?
Exciting and futile
“The futile part comes from the fact that humans going to Titan is a longer-term goal in an age where technology is evolving so quickly,” Lee told Space.com. “But it has to be done and it’s worth doing as it gives us some sense of direction.”
Lee’s central position is that a human trek to Titan would be decades in the future. No surprise there.
“Meanwhile there’s a revolution that’s taking place on Earth,” he said, the emergence of android robots imbued with AI, innovations that are brewing and maturing relatively quickly.
Artificial super intelligence
“Everyone is aspiring to achieve artificial ‘general’ intelligence. However, we’re nearing the moment where AI is no longer narrow and focused on specific tasks to a point where it essentially matches human intelligence.
“Artificial ‘super intelligence,'” said Lee, “is actually having the complexity and subtleties of human thinking,” he said.
Whether such an android would have a soul or be self-aware, Lee said that’s more speculative. “But it certainly can get to the point where it becomes a very objective observer and scientist.”
Doesn’t take a visionary
“Android robots have exceeded in many ways the performance of many humans,” said Lee. “They can run, jump, do acrobatics, and with AI it doesn’t take a visionary to see that you essentially get an artificial human,” he said.
A multi-tasking android robot doesn’t need to be fed, nor breathe or sleep, and doesn’t produce its own waste, Lee said. “It has all the usefulness of a human being and none of the risks and shortcomings, along with the cost of sending humans. It automatically becomes your best exploration system,” he said, “and behaves like a biological human, but minus the biology. That’s our future in space.”
In the meantime, robotics is making strides.
So much so that having a robot look like a human is no longer strictly science fiction. In terms of the physical performance of robots, Lee senses “the race is on” between China and the United States.
Training ground
In fact, Lee points to a humanoid robot offered by China’s UBTech Robotics, the Walker S2. It may well change its personal depleted battery, swapping it out with a recent, fully-charged battery.
That talent mimics mortality, Lee mentioned, with the Chinese language agency calling it one other step towards totally autonomous machines able to working 24/7.
Noting the NASA Haughton-Mars Challenge — an analog subject analysis effort located on Devon Island within the Arctic — Lee mentioned that web site may very well be used as a coaching floor for a way people and android robots can group up collectively.
“My hope is that on Devon Island we may begin working with AI and ‘able-to-learn’ android robots. You may practice an android robotic to be a subject assistant,” mentioned Lee.
Circling again to Titan, Lee envisions that when an android-installed infrastructure on that distant Saturnian moon is ready up, people may make an official go to to the power, fully run by robots.
“I believe, in the end, we consider Titan as the following massive leap past Mars. However to me Titan is much more attention-grabbing because the final leap earlier than interstellar journey,” Lee concluded.
