The plot thickens: robot teachers to brainwash your children’s children

Are you ready for that? Can you stomach the truth? whether things continue spiraling madly out of control as they are right now, there’s at least a modicum of a chance that your children or grandchildren will greet a lifelike robot when sashaying in for the first day of kindergarten. Horrifying, we know. A new research effort published in that month’s Science outlines new ways in which humanoids could actually be used to instruct our little ones. At the core of the project is imitation; humans, particularly young ones, learn a multitude of mannerisms and such by simply watching others. Thus, it stands to reason that robots are “well-suited to imitate us, learn from us, socialize with us and eventually teach us.” Already, these social bots are being used on an experimental basis to teach various skills to preschool children, “including the names of colors, new vocabulary words and simple songs.” Just think — in 2071, those harmless lessons will morph into studies of subterfuge, insurrection and rapacity.

[Via Digg]

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The plot thickens: robot teachers to brainwash your children’s children originally presented on EnGadget on Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Darren Murph

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