What if your brain would never die?

Recently, I watched an interview on the Charlie Rose show about the future of robotic avatars. Before I go any further, here is a link to that interview. You'll have to skip to the 18:30 mark, because it's a two part show.

Charlie Rose Interviews Robotics designer David Hanson & Dmitry Itskov, founder and chair, 2045 initiative on robotics and avatars of the future

I wanted to give you a chance to watch this interview before you read my opinion on it, because these plans and ideas are somewhat controversial. I thought you should get a chance to make up your mind before reading the rest of this post.

I found the interview really thought provoking. It made me think of Frankenstein and The Stepford Wives, and neither of those stories ended too well. I could tell that the men being interviewed meant well, and there probably are some positive purposes for these avatars. I got a little nervous when they started talking brain implants, though.

I imagined what it might be like to be the only human left on Earth, surrounded by a planet full of these creations. I thought a little about Cassandra from Doctor Who - that thinly stretched piece of skin who was the last technical "human" left on a future planet Earth. At what point is something not human anymore? People who have had endless amounts of plastic surgery are still human, as are people with artificial limbs.

Cassandra was still composed of human parts, and definitely had a working brain. Where she stored it, I couldn't tell you! It must have been flat. Oh wait! I just checked Cassandra's Wikipedia Page and it turns out she stored her brain in a "designer jar" that was connected to her skin/eyes/mouth self. That Wikipedia page is really worth a read.

An eye-rolling Cassandra

So would the creation these men proposed (a robotic body created in the form of someone who once lived and encasing their original brain) still be human? 

They brought an example of their work to the interview, but it wasn't passing as a living human yet. It was still pretty impressive in the way its eyes and lips moved. They got the human mannerisms right! If you watch one of the men being interviewed and the robotic creation, you'll see the facial mannerisms are similar. They'd designed their creation so it could mimic facial movements.

I've been thinking about the future, should this experiment actually come to be. I would think that the human race would basically end at just one generation and never reproduce. Reproduction would probably not be the best plan, because I could see overpopulation being a problem if no one ever died.

The men on Charlie Rose were basically talking immortality. Would you go for this option? I mean, if you were near the end of your life and very old, would you like your brain to be placed in a robotic replica of your former self? Or I suppose you could have it placed in a body that was the replica of a movie star's. The body options would be endless!

Flowerbot and the Friendly Greeter

Even though it hasn't felt much like spring around here, it was still recently time for The Milwaukee Art Museum's annual Art in Bloom show. For this event, floral designers interpret the museum's art collection through plants. You might remember last year's show: Spooky Blooms at The Milwaukee Art Museum

Last year, in keeping with my blog's theme, I searched through the displays for anything remotely dark and titled the post "Spooky Blooms". I'm always on the lookout for the dark or mysterious aspects of my everyday activities, so I can share those here. This year, not a whole lot was spooky. There was one piece, however, that really fit the bill. It was hands down my favorite floral interpretation, and a work of art in itself.

As you can see, there's a metal rib cage encompassing the floral organs. There was even a spinal cord on the back of the display. It looks like it's grabbing a person with its skeletal hand in the photo below!

The skeletal robot, or "Flowerbot" as I've decided to call him, had some very cool hands:

The floral display was representing a sculpture titled The Greeter, which is a friendly, waving robot.

A new character at the museum was this headless writer, busy at his desk. At first I was reminded of The Headless Horseman and countless Halloween props. The figure was wearing noticeably bright fabrics. If there was any information about him displayed, I couldn't find it. At least I managed to find out who the artist probably is. From a lot of similar pieces I found online, I'm going to assume the artist is Yinka Shonibare. It's worth looking at more of his work: http://www.yinkashonibarembe.com

As often happens in the process of writing my blog posts, I learned something new. This time I learned about Yinka Shonibare. There are many interviews with him on YouTube. This video about his work is one of my favorites:

I learned from the video above, that the headless figures signify The French Revolution, or probably any time power is taken from those who abuse it. From what I read on the artist's web site, a lot of his work is about colonialism and politics.

So, what I saw at our museum was a headless figure dressed in a fancy 1700s style. The fabric is obviously not what he would have had on; the artist uses a lot of African fabric. Still, this is a style of clothing worn by a rich French man of that time, and his head is cut off. He's surrounded by Rococo paintings. Rococo is one of the most excessive styles of French art, a style in which you mostly see rich people having a good time. If you take all these things into consideration, this room is a striking and somewhat eerie placement for the figure!

I'm going to transition from the talk of heads being chopped off to this ceremonial axe. I'm sure this axe was not actually used for any purpose like that. Still, it seemed funny that the next object I planned to share was an axe. The axe has probably been at the museum for some time, but I hadn't seen it before. Isn't it beautiful? I can't imagine what the object next to the axe is.

All I know about these objects is that they are African. From what I've read about similar objects online, they were probably used by someone of high standing in a society and during ceremonial rituals. If you know any more about these objects, I'd like to hear it!