QuantumFog

March 2, 2006

Imagine three cellphones named Moe, Larry and Curly

Your spouse is grumpy, the 3-year-old is squawking about losing her dolly and the 18-month-old just dropped a load in his diaper. Through the malodorous cacophony you hear the cell phone ringing.

You pick it up, expecting to answer the call. Instead, the cell phone displays an entreating face and a message that say's, "I just wanna be held for a while. Thanks!"

That is the vision of Professor Kim Jong-hwan at the Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Korea. But, I don't believe he's thought about the diaper part yet.

Professor Kim became known for a robotic response system called "Rity", programmed to display a range of emotions in reaction to input. Now, Kim has taken this further by hooking up with Samsung Electronics to create a cell phone due in about a year, that "can feel, think, evolve and reproduce". Like you don't have enough to worry about controlling that hormone pump on your teenager.

Artificial single-strand chromosomes will provide the genetic code, while technical sensory organs will identify 47 types of stimuli. Add all of that to 77 behavior patterns reacting in various combinations to the outside world.

And other cellphones.

So, what happens if this thing goes psychotic and loses touch with reality?

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