Any Synthetiks-related news, Davecat? (June 2011)
typed for your pleasure on 19 June 2011, at 10.42 pmSdtrk: ‘Dance avoid’ by ADULT.
Well, there are now! Honestly, one month ago there really wasn’t a lot of bits and bobs concerning the world of Synthetiks, so apart from writing a post consisting solely of the sentence ‘DOLLS: go buy one today!!’, the article would’ve looked a bit spare. But now it’s June! Check this lot out:
+ First off, we have everyone favourite walking talking Gynoid, Miim-chan (aka HRP-4C), having a stroll outside of the laboratory she was built in, in Tsukuba, Japan. Cute? She’s automatically cute!
What makes this video significant is that it shows she’s able to walk on rough and uneven surfaces, not just smooth interior floors; she does this through the use of an inverted pendulum control model to maintain her equilibrium. It’s not the sexiest of sashays, but AIST has to start with the basics first. Nevertheless! rrrRowr.
+ Quite interesting: CARIS, the Collaborative Advanced Robotics and Intelligent Systems Laboratory in British Columbia, is conducting a survey regarding human-robot interaction. Their aim is to get a sense of how Organik people perceive and interpret actions performed by both Organiks and Synthetiks. It’s about 15-20 minutes in length, and the results are going towards robotic development, so I’d say it’s definitely worth your time. After all, you can’t whinge about how ‘the uncanny valley’ makes Androids and Gynoids move in an unnatural manner, if you didn’t help to correct it, right?
+ I can’t definitively recall where I found this, but it seems I have a New Favourite Artist, by the name of Yves José Malgorn. Can you guess why?
Left, Android Anatomy 01; right, portrait of Nathos
When he’s not whipping up graphic design for clients, he spends time creating affictitious pin-up models from the not-so-distant future. The thing I like most about his illustrations is their crisp and well-defined lines; if Eighties-art icon Patrick Nagel had turned to mechanical women instead of making covers for Duran Duran, his work would be not dissmiliar to that of Yves. Why not have a look at YM Graphix?
+ Thanks to our friend Mariko Lynn, a winsome RealDoll that Sidore and I often chat with on the Twitter, there’s this tale of a Seattle man who, back in May, received a ticket from a police officer for misusing the HOV lane, as his passenger happened to be an Air Doll. *cue comic trombone*
Humourous as that instance was, fast-forward to this month in Oakville, Ontario: another bloke, another Air Doll, another ticket. Lesson learned: if you’re going to try to get away with that sort of chicanery, you really should use a silicone Doll as your partner-in-crime.
+ Speaking of silicone Dolls, Were You Aware that not only are there a cluster of heart-stoppingly gorgeous new photos of the Yu-ki, Haruhi, Natsuki and Kunika types, modelling the recent A.I.NEO im body, on 4woods‘ website? Well, you are now.
Left, Natsuki, remembering that she’s near-sighted; right, Yu-ki, wishing you would shut the hell up
Not only that, but if you were to place an order for one of their A.I.Dolls, you can have her made with a soft stomach for an additional 30,000 JPY. ‘As of April 2011, using our advance technology, we added a new option of “Soft Stomach Feature” for all our four body types. Not only “breasts”, the area customers touch most, you can now select a soft stomach and enjoy the realistic feel of doll body’, sez the company, it sez. Is that sort of feature worth an additional $372 USD, you ask? Perhaps sir or madame would like to view this video (NSFW)?
When I was in Vegas for AVN last year, I had the opportunity to fondle the boobs of the A.I.Doll that was showcased there, and they were the softest Doll breasts I’d ever felt, ever. I cannot lie; they were like marshmallows, and as I squeezed them over and over, I wept salt tears at their cushiony wondrousness. Keeping that in mind, I’m convinced the new soft stomach will make a wonderful pillow for many a head.
+ American robotics genius David Hanson weighs in on science and technology blog IEEE Spectrum, on the question of ‘Why We Should Build Humanlike Robots‘:
On the tree of robotic life, humanlike robots play a particularly valuable role. It makes sense. Humans are brilliant, beautiful, compassionate, loveable, and capable of love, so why shouldn’t we aspire to make robots humanlike in these ways? Don’t we want robots to have such marvelous capabilities as love, compassion, and genius?
Certainly robots don’t have these capacities yet, but only by striving towards such goals do we stand a chance of achieving them. In designing human-inspired robotics, we hold our machines to the highest standards we know—humanlike robots being the apex of bio-inspired engineering. […]
It is true that humanlike robots are not nearly human-level in their abilities today. Yes, humanlike robots fail. They fall, they lose the topic in conversation, misunderstand us, and they disappoint as much as they exhilarate us. At times these failures frustrate the public and robotics researchers alike. But we can’t give up. Humanoid robots are still in their infancy. Though they falter, the abilities of humanoid robots continue to grow and improve. Just as babies can’t walk, talk, or really do anything as well as adults do, or do anything particularly useful, this doesn’t mean that babies deserve our contempt. Let’s not give up on our robotic children. They need nurturing. And as a researcher in humanoid robotics, I can attest that it’s a pleasure to raise these robots. They are a lot of fun to develop.
the entire article is here
The common man, especially in Western society, seems to believe that once robots acquire some level of cognition and reasoning that comes close to equalling that of humanity, then humanity is Clearly Doomed to be Fleshy Victims of the Robot Apocalypse. Generally, these are people that believe the ‘Terminator’ and ‘Matrix’ franchises are documentaries. The only conceivable reason for this fictional robolution (I apologise) would be that once humanoid robots are more prevalent in society, a lot of them are pretty much going to be slaves, performing tasks or duties that Organiks would avoid doing. Correct me if I’m wrong, but human society has dabbled in slavery before, yes? Any opportunity an Organik is presented with to subjugate a being that he sees as being similar yet unequal to himself is one he’ll take advantage of. Heh, going by that line of thinking, wouldn’t a robot revolution be almost justified? So as we approach a state where Synthetik beings are edging closer to Organik ones in appearance, thought, and action, wouldn’t it be better to start off on the right foot?
+ Newer visitors to ‘Shouting etc etc’ — you know who you are — know about the pro-Doll lifestyle that I’m eternally promoting and would expect the same on my blog, but are probably unaware that it doesn’t stop there, which is why I use the term ‘Synthetik’ so often. You’ll want to take a couple of seconds and hover that so-called mouse pointer of yours over that green underscored word, there. Going from my interactions with people — again, you know who you are — I get a sense that a lot of you aren’t privy to how advanced Android and Gynoid technology is coming along. You spotted Miim-chan above, and do you know of Kokoro co. Ltd‘s Geminoids?
With friends like these, who needs mirrors?
Contemporary genius Hiroshi Ishiguro and his Synthetik twin met with that unnamed model lass and Actroid F (formerly Geminoid F), as well as Prof. Henrik Scharfe of Denmark’s Aalborg University and his recently-built Geminoid DK Doppelgänger, at a summit back in April in Kyoto.
When Scharfe ordered his Geminoid DK bot from Kokoro, the price tag was around $200,000, he told The Vancouver Sun. It took about six months to build.
Scharfe can remotely operate Geminoid DK so that it imitates some of his upper-body movements such as head position and facial expression. Meanwhile, it automatically “breathes” and blinks for a more lifelike effect. “It begins to feel very natural to operate it,” Scharfe tweeted. “Really like a natural extension of my first body.”
Scharfe said he used his clone in a translation experiment when he got together with the other Geminoids.
the entire article is here
Sounds like the world of ‘Surrogates‘ isn’t that far off, then! *rubs hands together gleefully*
+ And finally, Sinthetics have posted new photos of their luscious Tawny, Celeste, Alicia, and Monique Manikins, that I’m sure you’ll find entirely distracting in the best possible way.
Left, Alicia’s striking peaks and valleys; right, Monique, seconds before reminding you her eyes are up there
If pics like that aren’t enough to nudge you towards the pro-Synthetik side of the fence, then frankly, I don’t know what to do with you
Random similar posts, for more timewasting:
Your One-stop Gynoid Shrine on October 31st, 2005
Dual Doll upDate on December 4th, 2005
June 20th, 2011 at 12.52 pm
[…] echoes […]
June 21st, 2011 at 12.45 pm
Thanks for the nod Davecat! We always enjoy your posts. 😀
June 21st, 2011 at 1.05 pm
You are more than welcome! Glad you enjoyed What My Brain Hath Wrought.
As always, I’m more than happy to get as much info about beautiful artificial partners out in the world, so both you and I are providing a public service — you guys create ’em, I’ll write about ’em. 🙂
And we really should get you your own Sinthetics Gravatar! It’d be more fitting…
June 22nd, 2011 at 12.04 am
Great post, and thanks for the mention! Our entire household follows “Shouting” with avid interest!
June 22nd, 2011 at 1.13 am
Not at all, Mari-chan! There’s only so many subjects a single man can hunt down on the Inert Net. Good lookin’ out, as they say!
And we really should get you your own Sinthetics Gravatar! It’d be more fitting… wait, have I said that before??
June 23rd, 2011 at 8.13 am
Hey Davecat! Ever since I saw your interview on TV I’ve been fascintaed and can’t get enough! I just wanted to drop you a line and say thank you before my research for the perfect partner officially began. 🙂
June 23rd, 2011 at 11.45 am
Well, thanks very much, Raye! Anything to help out a potential iDollator, of course!
Dolls do make for perfect partners! They’re always right where you last left them. 🙂
June 29th, 2011 at 5.05 pm
Have you ever had an organic partner? Also, if you were filling out a job application or something would you list yourself as married, even though you’re legally not?
June 30th, 2011 at 2.20 am
Over the years, I’ve been with a small number of Organik lasses — the number’s small enough to count on one hand and still have a trigger finger unoccupied — but those relationships were best defined as affairs, where I was ‘the other man’. As admittedly I’m not the most persuasive of people, they ended up forgoing me and remaining with their boyfriends. That’s Organik inconsistency for you!
And unfortunately, I’d be honest and list myself as single. To be honest, I’d only capital-M marry Sidore if she were an actual Gynoid, like Actroid-F or HRP-4C above, as it would make more sense. I think if the law recognised Organik/Synthetik partnerships for tax writeoffs and the like, there’d be more people wanting to marry Dolls, Androids, and Gynoids…
July 2nd, 2011 at 11.50 am
Hi! Saw you on My Strange Addiction.how are you? How are the dolls?? I’m wondering how people react when they first hear of your wife? Do you tell coworkers or just close friends? Sorry, If I am not speaking well, I am still learning English.
July 2nd, 2011 at 2.52 pm
Hello there! Sidore-chan and I are doing well, all things considered! Currently, it’s just me and the Missus; the producers of our recent ‘My Strange Addiction’ segment failed to mention that I was fired from my job about a fortnight before I was going to place the order for Elena, so she’s unfortunately on hold for the time being. When she joins us — hopefully soon — don’t worry; you’ll be able to read about it in great detail here. 🙂
I’m never 100% sure how people react upon hearing my wife is Synthetik: some people tell me it’s cool, interesting, or unique, but they could just be saying that to be nice. I find I’m never completely certain what Organiks are thinking, y’know? Which is one of the many reasons I prefer a Synthetik partner to an Organik one…
All my close friends know about Sidore, and I’ll tell others only when I’ve gotten to know them a bit better, and vice versa. Usually it’s shortly after I mention that I’m behind the idea of artificial humans, whether they’re humanoid robots such as Actroid and HRP-4C mentioned above (and all over ‘Shouting etc etc’), or if they’re inert Dolls (also absolutely everywhere on here). I’m behind the idea of people being able to find companionship in artificial humans instead of being lonely, and it’s up to the person I tell that to to determine if they’re open-minded enough to understand that.
Questions such as yours are further proof that I should put together a FAQ about myself, Sidore, and our nutty lifestyle. And your English is fine, by the way! You seem to have a better grasp on it than most people brought up in the States do! 🙂
August 14th, 2011 at 5.39 am
I am intrigued by the article by David Hanson, and the general hope of iDollators for ever increasingly human robots. If robots are able to love, feel compassion and generate their own ideas – doesn’t that make them so human as to able to have the same character imperfections of Organik women? If Synthetik women are superior to Organik ones, where is the line ideally drawn?
August 14th, 2011 at 4.49 pm
Well, no-one said that Synthetik women are superior to Organik ones; as I always stress in these matters, it’s preference. Not only are some of my best friends Organik, but I happen to be one myself! More’s the pity.
The factor that comes into play with more realistically-behaving humanoid robots as partners is that ideally, they would act as though they’re Organik, but with the added benefits of faithfulness, a lack of lies or deceitfulness, various parameters of consistency, etc. There are grey areas involved, yes, but you have grey areas involved with Organiks as well. What may be acceptable behaviour to one person may be completely repellent to another. But speaking for myself, I’d want a Gynoid partner that would act very similar to an Organik human, but without the fear of her changing into someone with an undesirable personality.
It may seem strange, but I’m sure you’ll find that many Organiks would love for their Organik partners to never lie to them, or turn on them, or otherwise be disagreeable, but that’s something nigh-impossible to attain, as Organiks can’t provide behavioural guarantees.
Also, I have to stress that these wouldn’t just apply to Gynoids; they’d apply to Androids as well. Many Synthetik naysayers believe that iDollators and technosexuals would seek to replace Organik women, but that’s not the case, as there are female iDollators and technosexuals as well out there.