How soon will robots replace our children and pets? - By N.L. Belardes

It was a surreal moment. I stood at Wired Nextfest in the dark lights of the Exhibition Hall near a table lined with robots, computers and people. I’d just watched the life-like Hanson Robotics boy robot twitch its simulated facial muscles and stare wide-eyed into the direction of all the people gathered around.

It was a robot zoo. Or maybe a birthing center like the kind you see in hospitals with large windows so you can peer in and see what life has just created.

As I started to walk away amid the buzz and whirl of sound and sight I heard a woman coo. Sure, there were a lot of parents and kids around, but this was weird. It was like the kind of coo you would hear from someone doting over another person’s baby.

I had a camera with me but I just froze. I couldn’t even take a picture because I thought I might ruin the moment. I suddenly felt like I was staring right into the face of one of the greatest ethical dilemmas our society will soon face: the question of whether robots will soon replace our children.

The woman’s own face contorted into a look of coddling pleasure. She looked to be in her mid-40s, with shoulder length brown hair. She was expressive. Zeno, the revolutionary robot friend in the shape of a boy was being talked to in motherly fashion. The woman said something like, “Oh, I think you are so handsome… oh yes I do, look at you… you are adorable…yes you are!”

She responded to every blink, turn of the head, and open-mouthed grimace the toy robot made.

Sure I’ve seen Blade Runner a million times. The final cut is coming out soon. It’s a cult classic that includes life-like robots that may or may not be friends to the creators who developed them. Some of the robots are child-like.

Or AI. Remember that Spielberg flop of a film? It might be time to dust it off, watch it again, and dive into the ethical issues of robots in the image of man, albeit a little man, a kid.

Innocent, right?

I remember meeting the concept developer for AI. He was living right here in Bakersfield. We spoke about the artwork involved, the robotics. The same guy had done all the ideation for Terminator. Nice robot man-killer designer turned friendly fluffy AI designer of all robots friendly to humans: stuffed bears, prostitutes and yes, little boys that can replace the idea of a real boy. Pinocchio in reverse. Make them all out of wood and electrodes...

That idea isn’t as far-fetched as you think. While I’d love to sit here and type a wonderful piece about how all Americans have perfect family values, that just isn’t the case.

Maybe some families would cling to robots more than their gang warfare kids...

And it’s not even a family value issue when discussing moral ethics and whether we as a society should allow life-like robots to replace our children and our pets.

And let’s not forget your cars, jewelry and whatever else you’re obsessively attached to. How hard would it be to be attached to a robot that only cost the amount of a Wii, and that talks to you, wanders around your house, and calls everyone by name it sees with its camera eyes?

And expressive through simulated skin movements. And intuitive.

And no dog poo to clean up, and with its own heat source so that it’s not so cold and lifeless as the recently hailed Robosapien robot toy. And you never have to turn it on or off. And you control it wirelessly. 802.11b friendly as it maneuvers through your house, suddenly, and without warning, a part of your family.

I ask you once again, how soon will robots replace our children and pets?

Watch the expressions on the Zeno prototype:



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Wired Nextfest 2007 Reveals User-Friendly Future."

Is the National Press Club saying bloggers are not journalists? - By N.L. Belardes

Do bloggers fit in with the elite D.C. media circle?

On a day when Lithuania bloggers made news in America, I can’t help but think fellow bloggers might be interested in an overlapping tale.

I’ve never considered myself a journalist, though I did recently try to join the highly touted National Press Club in Washington D.C.

Seems the Lithuanian parliament isn’t the only entity saying bloggers aren’t journalists by refusing accreditation to applicants. Last November I applied to the National Press Club on a tip from a friend of a National Press Club VIP who thought bloggers might be allowed into the fold. I would have never tried on my own. But I figured, why not? It was a friend who brought up the idea anyway.

I’d already been beating the local paper to minor news stories, even provided fodder for news junkies interested in stories that made national headlines out of Bakersfield: creationism courses making headlines in nearby Frazier Park, immigration marches on the streets of Bakersfield, political prop 85 protests, and the bombing of children on Maple Street just one street away from where I live in Bakersfield’s Oleander area.



So I spent a hefty $100 and went through the National Press Club’s application process. Easy enough. It was a simple online procedure that took just a few minutes. I was asked to follow up. I did that in a lengthy email.

I didn’t hear anything back.

Four months went by and I had pretty much forgotten about having applied. Out of sight, out of mind I guess. Besides, I was still going to do what I was going to do—be a feisty blogger—with or without the consent of the National Press Club.

About week ago I inquired again. This was a non-refundable hundred-dollar investment on whether I could label myself a journalist by National Press Club standards—literally a hundred-dollar question. I thought those were only in the movies.

So the National Press Club lost my follow-up email. No big deal. Could happen to anyone. I found the message and resent. I linked up to my Emilio Estevez article on the film premiere of Bobby. There I had been standing with the press, a holy monk, a seer along with the rest of the mystic gathering in the press room. I not only asked Estevez a poignant question, I even took video. I thought it was journalistic; blogger meets journalism meets novelist. Maybe I should have sent them the Modesto Famous piece. Talk about some digging for that work of blogospheric art!

Maybe that article would have failed me too. Am I really just a citizen with a blog? Just… a… citizen?

OK, I’m joking. I know I’m sort of a soloist in a sea of media.

Hey, there are a lot of people who fly solo. The media farms stories off non-accredited sites, buys film footage from others. Yet these people aren’t considered journalists. What are they, we, me? Hackers? Who is this journalist locked up for his San Francisco protest video? Did he even have a blog? Is he a journalist?

I’ve never called myself a journalist, so I’m not worried. I have used the term ‘citizen journalist’. And I have had articles in trade journals, and magazines.

Doesn’t matter. The Paperback Writer blog eventually got rejected. Case closed for now as they say in the Anna Nicole diaries…

I did receive a nice rejection:

The Membership Committee reviewed your application again after receiving the additional information you submitted and unfortunately they concluded that you do not currently qualify in any of the membership categories. We thank you for applying to the National Press Club and hope that you will continue to utilize our services as a guest.

Once again, since my blog isn’t newsworthy to the National Press Club in Washington D.C., it shouldn’t matter that I reprint a simple rejection, right?

Yet I can’t help to wonder how many already in the National Press Club write blogs or are affiliated with them… And what was it about Paperback Writer that made them toss me in the bin of rejection?

Is it because I’m in Bakersfield, or maybe it’s too much Op. Ed., or the big baby blue background? I wrote the National Press Club to find out what they thought.

No response yet.

So I went to some people who I thought might give me some opinion…

I asked Howard Owens, Director of Digital Publishing at Gatehouse Media, Inc. if he considered bloggers as journalists. He gives a lot of credit to self-made bloggers out pounding the streets with narratives and digital media blogs:

Bloggers can commit acts of journalism. Anybody who finds something out and reports it is being a journalist. You don't need credentials or a paycheck to do journalism.

If a blogger does journalism and calls himself a journalist, I would consider him a journalist.

Yet Howard recognizes that some bloggers don’t want to be held accountable in the crossover to what some like the National Press Club might consider as legit media. According to Owens, “Not all bloggers want to be journalists. Some are just journalers and happy to be so.”

Owens goes on to say:

All people, whether you call them journalists or not, who self publish, have the same and equal right to free speech and all government protections for protecting sources, gathering data and asking questions.

You don't need a license to be a journalist. You only need the first amendment (and outside the US, as a matter of morals and ethics, you only need its spirit).

I asked Matt Munoz, fun-loving Product Manager of the big Bakersfield blog community, Bakotopia, if he considers bloggers journalists. He says, “Sometimes, but then again it all depends on their mood.”

But what does Owens considers N.L. Belardes and the Paperback Writer blog? Citizen journalist/blogger/novelist? Or... Owens says, “Mostly what you do on your blog I would consider journalism.”

And King Bakotopian, Munoz? His answer reverses that of Owens, “Blogger, but then again it all depends on your mood.”

So really it’s just a matter of opinion even between journalists and journalist organizations. The National Press Club didn’t actually say, “No, Belardes, you’re not a journalist.” Yet I failed in qualifying. So I suppose take that how you want. All that can be said in the end is the National Press Club has a particular exclusivity regarding joining and taking part in their club and club benefits.

And bloggers from Bakersfield might just have a tough time getting in…

*This article may be updated