Honda's ASIMO scares me

ASIMO ("Advanced Step in Innovative MObility") is a robot developed by Honda Motor Company. It's not available to the public, and Honda hasn't made many of them yet, but ASIMO has been on display at conferences, most recently at the Youth Engineering Show in Newcastle, England, on June 25.

It can walk, it can speak, it can recognize faces and moving objects, and look up information on the internet. You can find a listing of its capabilities on its official site as well as a summary on Wikipedia. I'm all for using technology to improve our lives, but I want that technology to help us work better, more efficiently, and whatever else--not do work on its own.

I'm into science fiction, and I watch a lot of movies. I have an overactive imagination that's mixing ASIMO with Terminator and I, Robot, and I don't like what I'm seeing: a human-like robot that can act independently and possibly turn against humans.

ASIMO even has its own commercial, and I'm creeped out--rather than impressed--by it. Sarah Connor told us Skynet was humanity's biggest threat. I'm thinking differently.

Technorati: Honda, ASIMO, robots, technology