Automated dream

Automation is a fun topic, especially when you’re working with people who run an automated cell in production. It’s a dream to manufacturers, a machine that can do a job that takes a guy half a day in an hour. You just feed the machine necessary parts and it spews out a ready product, or a product that’s ready to move forwards on the manufacturing process. You see these ideal videos and photos from car manufacturing plants, where robots are moving back and forth putting parts together. Everything seems to move like buttered lightning, and probably smelling like that too. The reality is a bit different though. Discussing these automated cells often brings up that there are few problems with the current mode of automation nobody really talks about, first being that it’s automated to a point. It’s always pointed out that there needs to be someone to oversee the robots working, telling them what to do. This is probably the best example of tool artificial intelligence we have, where these robots know to do one job they’re told to do and they do it well. At least as well as the parts allow. Because of manufacturing tolerances, the pieces these robots put together are often misaligned, have cut corners, warped pieces, arcing issues and all that. A human can work with these parts, because we’re sentient and aware of what the hell’s happening, but a robot’s intelligence carries only as far as its programming and tools. If there’s a gap because of a warped piece and its laser eye sees it, it’ll alarm the operator to either try again or skip the step.

Automation makes more efficient production, when applicable. Automation often also results in better results cheaper, but with much higher up-front costs. Setting up automation, be it a manufacturing robot or to build a 3D model to be used in live streams, the front costs is high. For the robot it’s the whole shebang from buying the robot, remodelling the place where the robot needs to be, setting up proper power grid for it, building the spot, installing the robot, then realise you need more than one, get a guy who knows how to program the robots, proceed to do test runs and continue to improve the programs and methods in the production line to get satisfactory results. In short term, the price of an automated cell in a plant is high, but the long-term drop of costs is high. One of the few places companies often think about proper, sustaining long-term profit instead of destructive short-term. Similar thing can be applied to the 3D model, where a person has to acquire hardware and programs to start modelling, and probably learn how to model at some point. All that asks time and money. To use the model in a live stream, some kind of motion tracking hardware and software has to be utilised, and probably some other buzzing equipment. All that is high up-front cost before you are able to make profit from them, but after all that’s set up, it’s much easier and economic to change the programs or the 3D model. They’re also permanent. A robot doesn’t need to take a rest like a person needs to, and a 3D model doesn’t need to exercise or put on makeup to change its body or face. There’s an element removed from the equation that requires certain kind of physical work.

Just like how keyboards have automated writing. You no longer need to hold a pen and write something on paper. You don’t need to concern yourself with writing the letters properly. Writing the letters has been automated for you. Even spellchecking has been automated to a large degree, and it is only a matter of time, proper coding and programming before we have a tool AI that is able to properly write, say, a translation.

Automation is replacing some work people are doing, but the more automation is being refined, new robots are designed and implemented, the more coding and programs are refined, the more work will be replaced. One of the more currently relevant topic might be artificial intelligence doctors. I talked about this a bit previously, but the benefits seem to be up there with doctors and nurses that don’t get sick or get tired. IEEE Spectrum has tallied up AI vs human doctor accuracy, and while live doctors are winning in general diagnosis and photoshopped images, the rest is more up in the air. Even if the presentation is rather simple, perhaps too much, it does seem to point out that in general terms live doctors may be able to make better overall judgement calls, but when it comes to accurate, on-point diagnosis the AI has the leverage. Probably could’ve saved me from scarred lungs if these are anything to go by.

Lot of times automation has been said to replace low-skill jobs. Some of these probably are, but it appears that the word is used to describe work skills that are not attained in higher education. A welder, for example, may not have a university degree, but his knowledge and skill set has to do with material studies, mechanics, physics, little bit of chemistry with work that needs constant attention and loads of craftsmanship. Anyone can be a shit welder, just like anyone can be a shit journalist. To be a competent welder takes time and effort, and acquisition of skills most of the population don’t even know make up most of their surroundings. While I’m being on this tangent, most of our modern world is build on welding. From the buildings we live in to the chairs we sit on, from the cars we drive to phones we talk on, there are bits and bobs welded together everywhere.

It’s mostly a matter of time until automation creeps itself up the the ladder to high-skill jobs. Technology may not be there yet to replace doctors, but it’s getting there slowly. Information has already been automated with the Internet, where most news sites and journalists working there have been obsoleted by individuals reporting on their own and taking footage that usually wasn’t available to all. Some time back slew of journalists were left jobless when the sites they were working for went bankrupt. The kind of service and content they were producing was replaced by the automation of information via the Internet and the people using it. That’s automation at its core; something that makes it easier to put out much cheaper and more efficiently. All the video hosting sites like Youtube, and all the blog platforms like WordPress, are part of automation of information, where we have seen the loss of extra hands in the middle. Even with the most of the platforms and publishers do control information to some extent, it is mostly possible to get unfiltered, uncontrolled information if you’re willing to do some digging. For example, footage on how different parts of the world are dealing with SARS-CoV-19 and COVID-19 often paint a different kind of picture from what news sources may be giving you. Being able to read media properly plays a large role in this, as individuals have about as much agendas as any news source would. Sometimes it’s to push a political view, sometimes an individual just wants that particular moment out there. Automation of information has also given individuals the possibility to work to the same extent as any professional journalist, and this has clearly caused friction. What constitutes as legitimate news and does a source need to be confirmed by an outside agency, like a government, have all been raised to the table.

The more automation proceeds, the more questions are raised and the more it is being questioned. People who didn’t expect automation to enter their work field have hard time to adjust to the reality that they may need to acquire new set of skills in a world where their skills have less demand. Learning to code is one thing, another would be the person who oversees the automation.

No automation is truly independent of human interaction. Automation is nice and all as long as it doesn’t break down. All the errors manufacturing robots face and can’t be solved needs that human operator to step in and fix it. At least at this point in time, who knows what the future holds for automation and robotics. At some point, we might have robots building robots that build robots that fix the stuff the first robot can’t solve. It all ends with the nature of the work changing. We’ll always need people who know how to weld, because automation can’t be taken to the field and can’t be fit into each and every pocket. That one guy with a rod of metal fixing your car’s busted door has to work with whatever the hell you did to the car and no robot can really fix it due to the sheer amount of variables. Even when automation is taking more hold, there are niches in its wake that people will fill. They may be small niches, but at the same time, automation opens other doors of possibilities. It’s up the people to grab them. Automation won’t stop as long as consumers want their stuff fast and cheap.

The future is here, we can feel through bionics

I have a tag ”future” but it only has so many posts. Actually, I thing it only has or three. The reason why I essentially stopped writing them was because they became largely irrelevant to the blog, and that they took very large amount of work compared to the length or content. The time could be spent better on more relevant topics.

However, for whatever reason the (still) upcoming Muv-Luv Kickstarter made me read about bionics. I looked up if there was any recent news on latest developments in artificial limbs and other body parts, and it turns out that a man can now feel through his prosthetic hand thanks to technology developed by none other than DARPA.

While we have always had artificial limbs in science fiction to some extent, most of them have been relatively same in idea. Generally speaking, if an arm has been amputated below the elbow all it really needs is a vessel where to house the mechanics. This housing is of course fastened to the arm in a way or another. With modern composite materials, the prosthetics can be relatively light, or comparatively extremely light in comparison full metal housing. Depending how much arm there is left, the housing can be fasted just over the stump and have the rest go up to the elbow.

The bebionic hand is a forerunner in the overall organic design of prosthetic hands. Its overall design is highly impressive. The bebionic hand is controlled by two muscles of the arm it’s installed in, and you are able to change between preset utility settings ranging from grabbing a key or having a trigger finger. Between some settings there is a need to manually change or active some of the settings, but that’s simply due to lack of direct motor control with the bebionic hand. That’s an inherent problem with artificial limbs overall, the lack of direct input we have naturally in our nervous system.

However, back in February doctors performed the world’s first bionic hand reconstruction, where they took what looks like a variation of the bebionic hand and crafted it’s receivers directly to the artificial hand. Essentially, the signals coming from the patient translates directly into mechantronic hand function.

A harder thing is to replace a whole arm. However, even that has been made. Essentially, a man without an arm would wear a harness that would read the muscle signals from the electronics on the subject’s upper body and translate those in to the functions of the limb. Controlling an artificial hand at first must be hell to learn at first, but to re-learn how to use a whole arm must be a special kind of challenge that may break the weak.

Ultimately, an artificial limb really needs a harness to which it is attached to and some sort of casting to make it look nice. You can even 3D print your own if you feel like it.

Depending the kind of fiction you’re interested in, artificial limbs may remind you of the real deal. On the other hand, you’ve most likely seen the idea of crafting some sort of metallic socket to the subject and then have him change between arms, or have one, massively bulky arm in there. Cyberpunk most often uses artificial limbs like candy, where you can just shop from the shelf and have them fit to you almost however you want, especially in games.

Fictional design also emphasizes the completely absurd and unnecessary lines on the skin, markings, and attachments simply are thrown there without much thinking how they actually work with the anatomy. This is understandable, seeing how they emphasize on the visual side rather than functionality. Concentrating on visuals is completely acceptable as long as realism isn’t a concern to some extent, or at least as long as it follows common logic within the work itself. In a cartoon world with cartoon logic it’s acceptable to have whatever kind of big and bulky arms or legs you want. Outside cartoon logic, with each step with technology there’s very little reason to stick with old designs.

Here’s the problem with that previous statement; long running franchises have a well defined style in how they portray the visuals of their technology, and suddenly just changing these pre-established visuals would be very jarring and cause a clash. On the other hand, the change in visual tone can also be explained with the evolution of in-universe technology.

Each product is of course a reflection of its time. With the Internet in our hands, we’re not slaves just to guessing how things look or have to use outdated books in the library.

How would a modern artificial arm look in modern science fiction then? Well, the answer is that it would look much like how bebionic hand would look, just with slightly smoother action and would use direct input from the user. Even when low level technology would be present in sci-fi they would look and function much like the bebionic hand, because it’s one of the forerunners at this moment with its competitors like the Azzurra Hand may be cutting edge technology at this moment, but whenever the bionics become more common place and cheaper to produce, the cutting edge technology of future will be much more what we have now in the present day and age.

Of course, the idea of bolting an artificial limb to a human body isn’t dead. While it is technically possible in theory, there are difficulties that need to be overcome. For one, the weight of the prosthetics needs to be around as much or lighter than what the actual limb was. If it’s too heavy, it would simply plop off from its socket. The redesigned Bionic Commando prosthetic is an example of a design that in the real world is just far too overdone in every way, but that’s the least of the game’s problems. I remember Masamune Shirow showcasing this in some of his comic, I can’t recall if its was in Ghost in the Shell or Appleseed. The attachment itself is an issue too. It would need to be attached to the bone structure and supported by the musculature if possible. This opens a point how much a bionics should resemble the limbs they’re replacing.

In reality, it doesn’t have any reason why it should. It can just be few pipes with joints and electronics inside. It is more a psychological issues, where more natural looking replacement helps the user to get accustomed to it, plus it would attract less attention. Using musculature as the basis how the bionics would look like has been very popular for the last few decades now. Complicating a functioning design with unnecessarily complex elements, even in fiction, is redundant. Sure it would look neat and emulate human biology, but without a heavy reason this should be avoided. On the other hand, it’s pretty damn popular simply because it looks cool. They’ve actually developed one, but as you can see the tubing does extent over the chest of the unit. It’s a novel approach, but in the a questionable one.

Power supply is a question that full arm prosthetics can’t solve all too well. For the bionic hand the power battery can be relatively small, but a whole arm would need more juice. That said, the harness to which the arm would be attached to should have enough places to have a hanging battery pack. Batteries haven’t had a major breakthrough for some time, and as such the most complex replacements have been tested in laboratory environment only.

The last thing is that I want to shine light on is the contact point between the skin and the craft. Recently the Australian doctors made a 3D printed titanium sternum and rib cage for a patient. The surface was sandblasted in order to secure the replacement that will allow human biology to latch and attach itself to the surface and grow on it, much like on real bone. Similarly, we can see that if the craft would be attached to a human body for bionics socket, it would need to be attached to the bone structure in similar manner. The socket then could be moved with muscles, thou that is rather needless unless we were to aim to emulate human biology. Nevertheless, the problem that would still arise is at the contact point. The skin and the metal may rub against each other, irritating the skin and causing problems with it. That’s why you always see a layer of another material used in real life prosthetics to prevent chafing.

While we are living in the high tech future, we’re still missing hover cars and widespread artificial limbs. Who knows what will happen in ten or fifteen years, but it’ll be one helluva time to get there.

Revisiting cyborgs

Food for thought. I wish I had seen this earlier

“No matter in what world, you are you”

When we ask ourselves Who am I? the answer is usually simple. I am your name here. That encompasses most of it, if not all. Then we can ask what is it that makes you you. All your experiences, your memories and feelings. Then, what about your physical being? Does it dictate who you are to the same extent? It’s a good question, a question that we will have to ask more often in future where bionics will be more present.

With a similar bionic, the brains slowly rejected the implant and ultimately stopped working

With bionic eyes and hands, we will come to a point where we can replace complete body parts for functioning bionics. It’s the traditional sci-fi cliché, where a guy gets his arm replaced with a robotic one. There really isn’t anything to detract of who he is, we all can agree with that. This guy is just a guy with a robot arm.

Then what if we have a full body prosthesis? Imagine this; your body is 90% replaced with artificial components. The only things that has left untouched is your brains, and part of digestive system is left in to keep the brains running. When you look at the mirror after waking up, you do not see yourself any more, but your new physical self with robotic face, if even that. Would you regard yourself to be you? You still have your memories, your experiences and all that what made you mentally. Your body isn’t what it was. To an extent, it’s not your body, not the one you grew in. Is it still you, or is it just you in another body? The schema of self is most likely fixated to our physical bodies to a large extent, and with a full body prosthesis this schema is rattled to an extreme.

As your brains have not been altered, it has to adjust being inside a completely different kind of body. The question is if the brains rejects the body, will the mind so as well? We could presume that the brains have input similar to what a human body would give through neural pathways. How would you see and feel at first, and how off they would fee before adjusting them to feel more natural and pleasing? There are more questions than answers, as we can’t truly predict how human psyche and biological parts will act with full body prosthesis. We can make educated guesses, and it has to be enough for now.

Some people feel that they have been born into a wrong body and fix their bodies more to their liking. Perhaps this kind of feeling is what will linger after a full body prosthetic. Let’s assume that you get used to your new body rather fast, and at some point it’s functions become completely natural. Isn’t this somewhat the same way how babies learn to control their bodies as they grow? As you’ve grown with the new body, you have new experiences and memories. It can’t be said that the body becomes part of you as much as you learn to control it.

I assume that legally this person has all the same rights as he was before full body prosthesis, as the only that has changed is the physical body you have. This actually happens now as we are, but in more ‘natural’ way if you will. We grow new cells to replace out old ones all the time, so in X amounts of years vast majority of our body has been replaced with a new one. Full body prosthesis can be seen as accelerated change of the body. Naturally, what the society at large would think of this kind of body change is an open question, and how would this respond affect the mind within this body. An example of full body prosthetic in sci-fi, is Robocop. I’d recommend you to watch the two first movies again and keep on eye on these matters, as the movies touch on the subject quite a lot.

Let’s leave prosthetics out for a while, and ask how would you need to be treated if you were reconstruction of yourself.

Quantum teleportation is true at some level. Much like in Star Trek, quantum teleportation basically breaks down the object, reads the data and reassembles it at the other end. To put it bluntly, your body is practically killed and all the information it had is put together the way they were. Is the person coming out you, or your clone? This is an age old question that the Trek fandom has discussed over and over again.

How would the legal department consider this person the same as the one who was transported? Biologically and mentally it is the same person, so I believe there would be no conflicts. The continuity of self has no stops. However, what if the person begins to feel that he is a copy of himself rather than real him? There might be underlying psychological problems with quantum transportation that we have yet to see.

In the end, what we are is just information within a body. Whether or not it matters if this information exists inside an artificial body or in a reconstructed one is a personal question to us all at the moment. After all, some part of our physical self always will be there with bionics.

But what if everything physical was replaced with machinery? There is at least one story that dwells a little bit into this kind of scenario; Muv-Luv Alternative.

Kagami Sumika in Muv-Luv Alternative does not have a body any more. Her body was violated and then ripped apart, and only her brains was left alone floating inside a glass tube. To give her a body, the last bit of her physical self, the brains, had to die. Her soul, or to loan a word from Ghost in the Shell, her Ghost was implanted into a physical mechanical body. This body is not a perfect replication of human body, but almost as close as possible.

The question is whether or not she is the same Sumika she was. Her body in and out is completely different, only her mind stays. In this case we have no difficulties with brains rejecting the body, but what about the mind? How does the mind understand what the machine understands and all of its underlying complications? For example, the machine brains most likely offers higher levels of memory recollection. How will her psyche handle this new body it resides in? Does it start from the baby steps and on some level become growing into it, and adjusting itself accordingly? If we’re to believe the story itself, Sumika’s body is a replication, and her mind “grows” as it becomes more and more accustomed to the body. Perhaps it could be said the she becomes herself again.

Let me ask again; what makes you you?

If we are mostly a sum of our experiences and memories, then the body should not have much meaning to who we are, to the self. Fiction usually has one common theme when it comes to body replacements; accepting it. In Robocop Murphey had to accept the facts that had come to, and only then was able to continue on. Similarly Sumika needed to accept everything that had happened to her, and what she was in order to become ‘human’ again.

The time will come when we have to start testing the limits that our physical limitations allow us to reconsider what is an individual and human.