Repliee Q1 - Human Cyborg relations

The BBC is carrying this fascinating story about an android called Repliee Q1.

At first glance at the picture on the BBC's site, there is a moment where you think you're looking at two humans. In fact, before posting this blog, I did a bit of a search to verify this story from other sources as I wasn't entirely convinced!

"She has flexible silicone for skin rather than hard plastic, and a number of sensors and motors to allow her to turn and react in a human-like manner. She can flutter her eyelids and move her hands like a human. She even appears to breathe. ... She is designed to look human and although she can only sit at present, she has 31 actuators in her upper body, powered by a nearby air compressor, programmed to allow her to move like a human."

Whilst her movements at present don't appear to be as sophiscated as other robotic units, the attention to detail is quite incredible. I find it amazing that they've designed the unit to not remain still. We humans are never still, we fidget, we adjust our centre of gravity, we blink, we breathe, even our pulse produces measurable movement (as demonstrated by the heart beat scanners used by Immigration Officials). It will be the attention to that sort of detail that could produce truly life-like robots.

This leads me to think about the Star Trek Next Generation episode
"The Measure of A Man" in which Data's status is challenged.
(Note: for those strange and unfathomable people that don't watch Star Trek :o) Data is an android with a positronic neural net.) Is he an individual with rights, is he alive? Or is he a machine to be possessed and controlled by Starfleet?

(As an aside, this is one of the reasons why I enjoy Star Trek - behind most episodes is a moral question, a dilemma, something to challenge and provoke. I also think this is why I don't enjoy Star Trek Enterprise as much - this series doesn't have the same depth.)

Many people that disparage Star Trek and other similar programmes fail to see that often real science follows in the footsteps of science fiction.

To boldly go ...