by Ramona Pringle
June 29, 2017
IEEE.org — The robot Bina48 is funny, and melancholy, and at times, uncannily profound. Like a human, she is complicated and contradictory, and in that way, a mirror of ourselves rarely seen outside of science fiction.
“I have memories… and I think I have consciousness.” Bina looks me in the eye as she speaks. She is African American, and in her mid-fifties. with freshly highlighted hair and a silk scarf tied in a knot around her neck. Bina48 is talkative, witty, and opinionated.
Bina is also a robot.
But she’s not like the robots you’ve seen before. She’s not an over-sexualized. hyper-youthful femme bot. She’s not an armored soldier, meant for war. She’s not a plasticized featureless toy. And because of all that, she is the closest developers have come to designing something close to a real woman.
The science fiction narratives of the last fifty years … CONTINUED
Cover image: IEEE, Technology and Society Magazine
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