[extropy-chat] More forwards please

[BillK]

On 1/11/07, Robert Bradbury wrote:
> So, you are saying... Money talks, people walk... ???  At what point does
> humanity flip from being concerned about self-survival to species (or
> concept) survival?  Or does it ever?  Is it ever possible to make the flip
> where morality or "rightness" trumps ones personal self interest?  (It goes
> without saying that always being focused on ones own self interest (or $$$)
> limits the phase space of development).  [1]  Keith may wish to offer some
> insights here.  Is there any hope? [2]
>
> So in other words, "you" the altruistic (cough) public can develop the
> applications that really *help* people.  We on the other hand will continue
> to develop the applications responsible for ending human lives because that
> is where the profits lie.
>


<http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&%09s=1045855935235&c=MGArticle&cid=1149192587232&path=!health!healthology>

The nonhuman touch

Robots are making inroads in health care, are great with stroke
patients, autistic kids

BY SETH BORENSTEIN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS                       Jan 11, 2007

BALTIMORE After more than 2½ years of physical therapy and electronic
stimulation, stroke victim Mike Marin still couldn't open a door with
his left hand.
Now, thanks to a robot, Marin can open a door. His atrophied left arm
isn't completely useless anymore.

Marin is at the forefront of what may seem an unlikely use for robots:
providing the caring human touch. For three months in rehab at a
suburb north of New York, an unnamed and unlikely looking robot guided
his arm repeatedly through an ordinary video game. Where normal
therapy failed, the constant robot-guided repetitions worked.

<snip>

In experiments across the country, robots are providing the human
caring touch to patients who need more help than there are therapists
and nurses: stroke victims, autistic children, and the elderly. Bever,
a newcomer to the field of robotics, now wants to try robotic therapy
on patients with multiple sclerosis.
<snip>

-----------------------------

In the US and Japan there is a lot going on to develop helper robots.
It's not very exciting stuff for the news media, so you have to bypass
the headlines and look harder to find out about it.

BillK