Chapter 180: Obstacles to Scientific and Technological Progress
Tesla Building in California.
Although it was announced three years ago that it would relocate its headquarters to Texas, the production base in California has still maintained its scale and has been further expanded in the past two years.
It is also the base for many of Tesla’s scientific research projects.
One fact that has to be admitted is that the technological talents in California are indeed better than those in Texas.
"...OK, goodbye."
Musk ended the call with a fluent Chinese sentence and put down the phone.
He who likes to stay up late doesn't care at all that it's 11 o'clock in the night. He only knows that if he doesn't make this call today, he will feel unhappy all over his body.
His assistant has long been accustomed to the boss's routine, and sat aside and handed him a cup of coffee at the right time.
Musk reopened the screen on his phone. As the smoke was rising, he took a sip of coffee and placed his fingertips on the screen.
This video was moved from douyin to Tik Tok, and then transferred to Twitter.
The content of the video is very ordinary. It is a group of people holding mobile phones and following a man, a woman and a robot walking on the road.
Frankly speaking, as long as he doesn't recognize the young man in the video, no matter how powerful the uploader of the video is and no matter how large the crowd of onlookers is, he will think it is a fake video.
Because this bipedal robot is very unusual.
It is not a functional robot like Boston Dynamics with a bunch of batteries on its back - an indisputable fact is that Boston Dynamics is indeed very good in the field of making bipedal robots move.
In a sense, it is more like Tesla's upcoming concept robot - it has a built-in battery, has a slim body, and conforms to the beauty of the golden section.
As an engineer-turned-boss, he can predict how beautiful this robot will be once it is designed with skin.
More importantly, the way this robot walks even reveals an indescribable sense of elegance and beauty.
It's as if she is not a robot, but a real human woman, very ladylike.
So you know how scary this is, right?
However……
He knew the young man.
This man’s name is Ye Ming, shareholder and founder of Jizhi Technology, and one of the youngest candidates for the Nobel Prize - the Peace Prize, etc. Don’t mix it with the scientific field.
Ye's equation, the proposer of Ye's limit, is more of a genius than Iron Man.
Yesterday, he joked that he wanted to spend 50 billion to buy Jizhi Technology.
Today, it is estimated that this number would have to double before it would be worthy of a joke.
"Mike, if I were the government, I wouldn't engage in any negotiation at all." Musk pointed at Ye Ming's head in the video: "Just hit it with a Minuteman 3."
The assistant coughed and laughed: "BOSS, this joke cannot be made on Twitter."
"Okay, no kidding. Book a flight for me right away. I want to go over and take a look."
"BOSS, it seems we are not the ones who should be worried, right? They don't seem to be interested in getting involved in launch vehicles and smart electric vehicles."
"Yes, it seems that the people in Silicon Valley should be worried." Musk took another sip of coffee, was silent for a few seconds, frowned and asked: "But are you really sure that they will not consider going to space?"
The assistant was stunned.
Musk put down his coffee and picked up the phone again, his face gradually darkening.
After a while, the call was dialed.
"I ask you to bring your designed robot to my office right away!"
"I don't care what method you use, whether you let her walk, let her run, or whether you carry her on your back or carry her, I will see you in half an hour!"
"no excuse!"
After hanging up the phone, the richest man took a deep breath.
"A bunch of stumbling blocks!"
*
*
After seeing off the two professors, Ye Ming returned to the office.
He was a little too happy.
It must be late at night with the richest man, right? It’s hard for him to call after midnight...
Well, I have to say that this style of conduct is indeed in line with the rich man's personality as a genius engineering man - for technical matters, there are so many messy business trajectories, so it would be much easier to just come to him!
Obviously, the richest man was stimulated.
After closing the door, Ye Ming sat on the sofa.
Etta's robot sat quietly across from him.
Ye Ming knows that the robot is in attitude control and "sleep" mode at this time - if it is described in terms of data and algorithms, it is now only using the attitude control system and task waiting system that exist on the server.
She needs to be awakened before she can call upon Aita's core thinking system.
The pure mechanical structure in front of her was all alloy skeletons and circuits, PCBs, and chips at first glance... but the more Ye Ming looked at it, the more she felt that she did have a quiet beauty that came from her bones.
Maybe this is the beauty of bones?
The door was lightly clicked twice and then pushed open. Seeing Ye Ming staring at the robot, He Mo was startled for a moment, then smiled and said, "Are you fascinated?"
"Kind of."
"Pfft... I just designed it to look good, ha?" He Mo also sat down next to Ye Ming and looked at it seriously for a few seconds: "What kind of case are you going to install? Silicone case or metal case?"
"I haven't thought about it, and I don't know..." Ye Ming pursed his lips and swallowed "What does she like?"
This is the body that Yin Ta designed for herself. Although she doesn't mind handing over the design to Ye Ming to copy - she has a sense of pride and superiority that is completely different from humans, and has no illusory concept of "exclusiveness", but she still hopes
All designs are done by her.
Ye Ming still has to respect her on this point.
"The metal shell is not easy to get dirty, and it is easy to clean if it is dirty, but it is easy to leave dents if it is bumped. The silicone shell is more realistic, it depends on your choice." He Mo did not hear anything wrong with Ye Ming's hesitation.
, but he held his chin with his hand and said while thinking: "Also, I remind you to pay attention to the uncanny valley effect."
Ye Ming nodded.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The uncanny valley effect refers to the fact that when robots are similar to humans in appearance and actions, humans will also have positive emotions towards robots.
And when the similarity between robots and humans reaches a certain level, humans' reactions to them will suddenly become extremely negative and disgusting.
Even if there is only a slight difference between a robot and a human being, it will appear very conspicuous and dazzling, making the entire robot feel very stiff and terrifying, just like facing the walking dead.
When the similarity between robots and humans continues to rise, equivalent to the similarity between ordinary people, humans' emotional reactions to them will return to the positive side again, resulting in empathy between humans. (Note: copy of
)
Although this theory was proposed in the 1970s, to this day, robots have not clearly caused this effect. On the contrary, some animals and virtual animated images are in line with this theory.
It's just that...the robot equipped with Aita is not an ordinary robot.
If there is a slight mistake in the appearance design, coupled with Aita's own proficiency in human natural language, then she can easily fall into the uncanny valley effect.
Or just design her to be exactly like a human being.
But in that case, not only is it difficult to achieve vivid human body and expression expressions, even if there is no difficulty in terms of technology and cost, there will still be an emotional transfer.
This has to do with ethics.
Although Ye Ming doesn't pay much attention to the Internet, He Mo and Mo Gu, two lesbians who love "gossip", will chat with him about relevant news, hot searches, etc. every time they have dinner.
He knows that in the West, especially Western Europe, a group of people who have nothing to do but have enough to eat have begun to discuss the ethics of artificial intelligence entering the home.
Well...it's purely a stumbling block to human technological progress.