Omni Magazine

:'^Kfe#!«' iiB?%3l A SINGLE .'.'.*, ill. 1 SI CHALLENGING OUR r r.v ' « 3 -_j i.H OF INTELLIGENCE, EMOTION, AND INDIVIDUALITY. IT WILL CHANGE WE WORK AND THE WAYWE LIVE. THE MACHINE IS, OF COURSE, THE ROBOT A SPECIAL EDITION onnrui EDITOR & DESIGN DIRECTOH: BOB GUCCIONE PRESIDENT: KATHY KEETON EXECUTIVE EDITOR: DICK TERESI GRAPHICS D RECTOR FRANK DEVINO ART DIRECTOR' ELIZABETH WOODSON CONTENTS PAGE OMNIBUS Contributors 10 COMMUNICATIONS Correspondence -.2 FORUM Dialogue U EARTH Environment James Kilfield 18 LIFE Biomedicine Helen E. Fisher 20 SPACE Comment T. A. Heppenheimer 22 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Computers Phoebe Hoban 30 CONTINUUM Data Bank 35 SPECIAL ROBOTICS SECTION FIRST WORD Introduction Marvin Minsky 6 ROBO-PSYCHOLOGY Mind Michael Edelhart 26 ROBOTS AND OUR JOBS Opinion Stanley Poicyn 35 ROBO-SHOCK! Article Kathleen Stem 44 AT - = ROBOTS HOME : Richard Wolkomir 70 ROBOTS: FANTASIES AND 1 REALITIES : : : Michael Edelhart 80 — JOHN McCAR Interview Philip J. Hilts 100 RO BO-SCULPTURE The Arts Marjorie B, Mann 132 LAST WORD Humor Randy Cohen 154 BLIND SHEMMY Ficlion Jack Dann 52 GENE FIXERS Article Tabitha M. Powledge 92 THE END OF THE WORLD NEWS, Part II Fiction Anthony Burgess 108 ANTIMATTER UFOs. etc. 115 '-- h ::--.~:ons Travel Doug Garr 134 BOOKS The Arts Hans Fanlel 138 CREDITS 142 NEXT OMNI J46 VAPLE LEAF Phenomena R. Hamilton SmBti 148 STARS Astronomy Patrick Mocê 150 GAMES Diversions Scot Moms 152 Car! Fiatow. a New York-based photographer, was inspired by Michelangelo's "The Creation of Man" to interpret tne re-creation oi mscnanoitis in '-nan's own image. This comment on the ert'erysnce o! rooois in our time was commissioned tor World magazine. 4 OMNI As the e:a of the robot approaches, Omni scraps—a^c utter netlc Common r = . ';; s devoting much o: ib:s issue to the sense, for e.<a",p :: a . : " : _ " _ question of how intelligent machines might the excep- :"= : e .e toucan change our lives. We're rapidly adjusting put things in your pockei—ou! not it " : to using automation in our science, an. they're too c z tc :: i" _ : sc~?cne sr-.c bus.nesses. Bui so lar -'machines nave else, or bite too hard) Ancfirinds must _ - :-.-, " :-e:ped us msTsiy with -ho things we hale also know abc„: : e " e : s now ;o do What then wil-i happen when we and when one should pas si subm r face new options m our work and homo, or balance between action and reflection. wnere mo'e nteiligoni machines, can Howbig are re. these ~_~a" webs - " belter do ine things we iike 10 do? What or information and be e :: z.e:- a kinds ol minds and oersonalities should blltion links would more "~v ~;:~ "~e we- dispense to Ihsr" Whai kinds or mind ol any sage. A bilfion seconds gh'.s and privileges should we withhold stretches 30 years—anc no psychologist 1 " to ihom? A'c v»'c-! âady to face sucn has ever found a way to make a person : '-.. questions?; team something new each sees- : ; . Today cu- robots arc -iko toys. Tney do any prolonged period. But a billion bytes only !he simple ih;ngs they're p'ogra~med of memory may soon be cheap. Today to. But c:eady they're abou; to cross rre computer memories do single operations edgetess line pas! wh ; ch they'll do tire at a-time; soon they'll do millions things we are programmed '.<;. Akeady simultaneously. But let's face facts. We there s so much power -r- :hosf; arcade just don't yet. know how to weave our chins thai one might minx the lovs knowledge webs into our new machines. are playing wiih our kids. I see this as the most exciting research FIRST hf-ci-. robots celling around these .days problem of our time, how to pu! enough 'are- me re -fakes, 'emoto-controlied by mechanisms together in harrrtor He people hiding out of view. A tow. though. form minds of growing competence and ; .-- people siiil m.nk such IAJDRD do some thirr n real n ,.u breadth. Most : - _~ i !o do . louhds of erta n things must be impossible fJereland By Marvi^ Minsky words and acting on these words and I think they're only ver , corap cated : mWhat kinds of minds ledge bet -: and personalities should we wai dispense to robots? machines, how will we then spend ou 7 What kinds pf rights and time Which entertainments will -we choose, what custom-programmed me privileges should stimuli? And what of Time itself—how we withhold from them? 5 long will we tolerate the meager years bodies last? Our mortal stay seems fixed by makeshift engineering: Our fc cells, "controlled" by programmed suicide and war, degenerate and die houghts. We'l- rnd help teaer = nind. We!- : : : e.e I . need reach, ". :.- friend strange I ,-."P" ;= 't-. Star"! - -.; se «s DO in Assoa&on lot Aiti&csl Mre%i NTRBUTORS QruiruiEus I ^% I elcome to the Era of Robotics, superintelligerrf machines, shares his III I the focus of Enis issue of philosophical musings about the role of mm> U Omro. The pages ahead mechanoids. Cofounder, with McCarthy, of celebrate the arrival of a technology that MIT's Al laboratory, Minsky forecasts a promises to alter the next 100 years as world in which robots will be programmed surely as the steam engine transformed as we are programmed—that is. their the century before. But our reports of computer brains will be capable of the coming robotic revolution also carry common sense. a counterpoint: The growth of these At the same time robots stimulate humanlike machines has stirred sub- questions about human learning and stantial misgivings and even some development, the machines themselves primordial fears. are becoming more like people. On page Consider an obvious and immediate 26 freelance writer Michael Edelhart problem: the rapid robotization of industry describes a fledgling science, called robo- and the displacement of millions of psychology, that studies this .; phenomenon, h andiron ic :'. r i i macr.ine:; workers. ; A labor-and-technology analyst In researching his article Edelhart met or she ua.T9, this rnonlh we a so at MIT predicts that in the next ten Rover— the crude prototype of a "smart" salute the pas! ana uLLJfo;- achieve- years, General Motors alone will purchase robot—which can respond intelligently ments of 'ne Japanese esriior ol 20,000 robots that will disrupt the lives to novel situations and can sense and Qnv:i. The Obunsha Company of to 40,000 50,000 auto workers. But maneuver around obstacles without OLihlishers ol a wide assortment of according to Stanley Polcyn (page 35), preprogrammed instructions, be-ixs. educations 1 .'inference unless the United States introduces robots But as robots gain intelligence, they works, and magazines, launched iho into industry, it won't to be able compete also provoke more controversy. And. in Japanese version in May 1982 with foreign markets, and even more jobs fact, controversy spread even to the l he HdiTJon is our second nasive- will be lost. Polcyn is president of the Omni staff, specifically over the choice of arciuace entry into the international Robot Institute of America and senior vice- illustration for the story "Robots at Home" mar-.e; [the first s She iranan Omn:). president of Unimation, Inc., a leader in (page 70). Art director Elizabeth i draws 50 percent ot ;!.s rat.engl the of industrial construction robots. Woodson chose a painting of a female from the corcurent U.S. edition, Many other prominent, respected— humanoid with mechanical arms, for with she '-emairvng 50 percent and sometimes eccentric—authorities its beauty and for its synthesis of woman oenvoc !-om pas: U.S. editions anc have contributed to this issue. John and machine. But writer Richard Wolkomir indepencier Japanese sources McCarthy, the one of founding fathers of points out: "The robots in the article Our congratulations go to presidon; robotics and the man who coined the have male names, such as Isaac and Yoshio Akao exooL.tive oirectcr phrase artificial intelligence (Al), is the Bob. Anyway, in my house we divide the "skLJi Ishikawa. eanct in er e< subject of this month's Interview (see so-called woman's work." Tadashi Okada. and ire entire start page 100). And in First Word (page Overall 6) editor of our robotics section ii hiss ir.DQ Marvin Minsky, another pioneer of was senior editor Douglas Colligan. 10 OMNI KATHY KEETO'N LETTERS OMNI PUBLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL LTD. THE CORPORATION r.t Bob Gucc.oê < znatmm; *; no?"l) coruiruiuriJicMTioais -ailiy Kuh'l::-' i.,-):-e-!.'OS."ri Devia J. Myerson ich.a oj::,vhw;.; yfy.e". Anthony „ i.- ...-:. oris ijecrete/j^fisesuref) EWonr.r,h.e/ Bos-Glji- ai; Man no ,-.:: rtfrc 1 D::u(ils=Co:icari Gui.'- Cloned Archaeologist explosive and violent sexuality of the I have studied archaeoastronomy under female factory workers. Caught off guard Anthony R Aveni at Colgate University he was emotionally, if not physically, located in Hamilton, New York. Some raped. This experience became the years ago I heard a rumor that Mr. Aveni subject of his celebrated short story was cloned while on a field trip in "Tickets Please," and, according to a Mesoamerica. He is now supposed to be close friend, was the direct cause of able to do twice as much work as he Lawrence's well-known cynical attitude Farricl. Moars. Qifices: We* v.^;.-. 909 Tirrci Ave r could before. (York, NY. 10022 TBI ;21.?j 59j-;,30! c«No do toward women. I26; tonctan, 2 Bramber Hosrj Wns! Kensington To get to the point, in your September George Whitesel Jon WHBP8.

Load more