The Tyrell Corporation is a company specialized in cybernetics. The megalomania of its president and founder has led the firm to create an artificial being close to perfection, the Nexus 6. Stronger, and more durable memories implanted in the cerebral cortex, the Nexus are unaware of their true nature, including their lifetime, which is extremely short. They are used as labor for dangerous work on inhospitable planets.

But when the truth emerges, some androids, qualified as replicants, decide to fome a rebellion and Nexus are declared illegal on Earth. A brigade of special units called "Blade Runner", has the mission to find and kill the replicants that fraudulently entered on Earth. This is not an execution, the term used is "withdrawal". Rick Deckard is a retired Blade Runner. The arrival of a group of four replicants in Los Angeles requires him to resume service.

Ridley Scott and science fiction

Blade Runner marks the return of Ridley Scott in science fiction (he made 3 years earlier, in 1979, the first installment of the Alien saga) with this adaptation of the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Philip K. Dick. With this film, visionary, he takes us through the beautiful images in his vision of Los Angeles in 2019. The city, full of character in the film, became a huge multi-ethnic metropolis, the Baroque architecture, diving under a constant rain, giving it a feverish atmosphere and haunting.

How it started

At first, Cannon Films had planned to make a sequel to the 1987 He-Man film, Masters of the Universe as well as a live-action version of 'Spider-Man'. However, both projects were cancelled as Cannon, having financial difficulties had to cancel the deals with both Marvel Entertainment and Mattel, the sole owners of Spider-Man and He-Man, respectively. Cannon who had already spent $2 million on costumes and sets finally decided to regroup the money spent and start a project. It was then that Albert Pyun wrote Cyborg’s storyline in one weekend. Pyun initially had Chuck Norris in mind for role of Gibson, but co-producer Menahem Golan set his choice Jean-Claude Van Damme. The film was shot for less than $500,000 and was filmed in 24 days.

Accident during filming

Jackson "Rock" Pinckney, who accidentally lost his eye during the movie’s production when Jean-Claude Van Damme struck his eye with a prop knife sued Van Damme in a North Carolina court and was awarded $485,000.

Cyber masterpiece

Then the film switches with the abandonment of David by his mother. Ejected from the family cocoon, the child-mech will discover the full horror of the outside world. Under the protection of Gigolo Joe and his eternal companion, Teddy, the Bear mechanism which acts of consciousness, like a cyber Jiminy Cricket, David will walk through "Red City" in hopes of finding him a clue about the location of the Blue Fairy. Suddenly breaking the rhythm of his storytelling, Spielberg moves from the cozy and intimate part, climate for a circus hatred and frustration in the massacre of mechanoids creatures, eventually sliding into the amusement park atmosphere of a futuristic Las Vegas.

But the best is yet to come, since "AI" in his last game, took the path of speculative science fiction, dear to the two monsters of American films that Kubrick and Spielberg are to conclude with a much darker projection than the fabric of fairy tale used to take us there, and offer his thoughts on the existence and future of humanity.

Artificial Intelligence

The artificial intelligence (AI) has significantly increased its economic importance in its ability to tackle new classes of problems (find statistics here), different from those treated with conventional computer. These problems relate to various human activities (perception, decision making, planning, diagnosis, interpretation of data, language comprehension, design) and have the common feature of requiring a reasonable exploitation of a large amount of knowledge, for the most specific of the area studied and learned from experts.

The conception of knowledge-based system that can perform functions of symbolic reasoning is currently an important research in the developments of AI. Such systems require particularly adequate representation of knowledge brought into play as well as effective mechanisms for exploitation of such knowledge or reasoning.

Early research in artificial intelligence (AI) date from the late fifties. Twenty years later, their first applications appear in the business. At the time, the AI ‌‌was mainly about using the power of computers to reason about words and proposals. Then they gave the name of the expert system (OS) for computer programs written by one or more experts in the form of rules and laws of operation. Integrating these two approaches, it was later an issue of knowledge-based systems (KBS).

For example, artificial intelligence can be used to 'fly' bots (that is to say, the artificial characters) occurring in MMOGs or virtual worlds, but can also include its use in simulation games, or to animate characters artificially.

What is AI in video games?

In the field of video game, AI characterizes any decision of a character (or group) managed by the game and forced the play value: a "better" AI does not necessarily play more playable, the goal is to give the illusion of intelligent behavior. The range of subjects (path search, procedural animation, strategic planning …) are achievable by conventional techniques from two distinct paradigms: symbolic AI (robots, scripts, multi-agent systems …), and situated AI (neural network, evolutionary algorithms …) where one is strongly dependent on human expertise and experience in other situations. The first approach is generally preferred because they are better controlled, but the second is preferred for certain behaviors (movement training, desires / gratification). They all share the same constraints of limited resources, whether in memory, in development time or in computing time, although globally these resources are growing more recent projects.

With network games, the need for AI was first neglected, but, particularly with the advent of massively multiplayer games, and the presence of a large number of human players confronting NPCs , they have a very important need to adapt to situations that can not be predicted. Currently these types of games are of particular interest to researchers in AI, finding a suitable environment to test different architectures for adaptation tests.

The individuality of users makes the web really a colorful place, and for many people it serves as a kind of "second" life. Yet, one should also try to color up the "first life", i.e. the place where we live, eat, sleep, laugh and cry. There should always be a kind of division between the real and the virtual identity. For that reason cozy wall art decals can create an equally adorable, but more relaxed atmosphere in private homes. In order to make the real world a bit more colorful, the offices of computer experts could be decorated with wall decals suitable for a theme of interest and relevance.

Artificial Limbs

Robotic prostheses have also know significant development, and a large number of research are being conducted to link them with neuroscience, and thus make these man-made limbs fully usable.

There are a large number of robots in the world, and the field of medicine is one of the most affected by technological developments. We distinguish the robots as tools, surgical and diagnostic support them. Most systems medical diagnostic support are very recent, since they have less than thirty years. Many of these tools are based on imaging (CT, MRI, 3D ultrasound, endoscopy), and allow surgeons to obtain new information about illnesses, and faster that before.

Robotic Surgeon

The "robotic surgeon", helps physicians during surgery. Before these robots, surgeons had only very few tools, and their hands were their main allies. In this, the presence of more and more robots in clinics and hospitals is real progress. Only since the early nineties did we notice the appearance of more advanced tools acting on the patient, the results being always better. Medical robots have indeed been developed, providing physicians with new perspectives in terms of perception of conditions, accuracy in the medical procedure or training. Thus, it seems interesting to know what are the various robots that exist today, and the development these various robot project for the future.

Medical robotics will also play a role in other areas, as in the visceral and thoracic surgery. Many interventions are practiced under endoscopy. The surgeon no longer needs small openings to get to use his tools, and there is more large incisions, which again increases patient comfort. An endoscopic camera allows the surgeon to see what he does live in the body of the individual.

Neurohacking

In the popular culture, the English neologism "neurohacking" means any form of NeuroEngineering demanding autonomy and resourcefulness of the first computer hackers, the change in the brain rather than the computer. The Francophone community attached to NeuroHacking Association, faced with a choice of neologisms French equivalents, but introduced into used translations, apparently erroneous, such as “interoperate” or “neuropiraterie” but in order to clarify that the term "neurohacking" and differentiate its roles – among others – the Association NeuroHacking often depicted in science fiction (which supporters of the conspiracy theory love), of extracting ( or implement) the information from (or into) the brain using electronic devices or computer, for example in "The Matrix".

This popular form of computational neuroscience using information and technology mainly from the fields of epigenetics, biofeedback and neurofeedback, psychopharmacology, biological psychology, and functional analysis, but many practitioners also use exercise , nutritional guidance, dietary supplements and vitamins, meditation or hypnosis. Some avoid any psychoactive substance including caffeine, alcohol, food additives and sugars. Current research focuses on the nature and development of intelligence and the means to increase or improve it. The work of Dr. Herman Epstein, Joseph LeDoux, Alex and David Barker Ramonsky are particularly renowned.

Human-Computer Interaction The man-machine interface, human-computer interaction (HCI), human-system integration (HSI) or human-machine interface (HMI) defines the means and tools implemented so that a human can control and communicate with a machine. The engineers in this field study how humans interact with computers or between themselves using computers as well as how to design systems that are ergonomic, efficient, easy to use, or more generally suited to their context use.

In fact, in the same way that tools increasingly sophisticated and powerful came to help us to better control the material, the AI ‌‌has positioned itself as an indispensable tool for managing the complexity of information, which already reached the limits our brain. Just as the renunciation of future progress in industry or medicine, the choice of never understanding or conceive better is simply unacceptable.

Philosophical dimension of Cybernetics

From the above, there are many parallels between the very strong human adventure and the adventure of cybernetics. This leads to very legitimate questions about the very meaning of human life and the gift of intelligence. Many within the mystical explanations have been formulated to explain both the creation and attainment of human intelligence and thus to knowledge. Choice, willingness "external" or logically inevitable evolution?

What is interesting at this level in the cybernetic approach is that the human is going to find itself confronted with the possibility to create an entirely new form of "life." It is thus a transposition nearly in the same situation as our own "Creative Principle", regardless of how they had wanted to conceive. How to approach this creation, with the aim of making a success in terms of expected relationships with the created thing, can shed light on his very own original quest.

A low competitive field

The more curious among you may be surprised by the fact that this file describes only two applications. This is explained by the fact that at present, the user will be limited by a particular choice particularly restricted. Indeed, if the professional field is competitive, it is clear that this is not true for consumer applications.

Why use speech recognition?

The voice recognition software generally offer two main features. The first that comes to mind is none other than dictation. With this, it is possible to write documents without having to touch any key on the keyboard. Therefore, we understand that this capacity of particular interest to people for whom the practice intensive keyboard typing is still a painful exercise. Experienced typists may also be seduced by the time savings provided by this technology. Apart from personal use, the scope of these programs is relatively large.

The second option offered by the speech recognition software does not necessarily come to mind. Yet she deserves interested in her for several reasons. In fact several Operating Systems give the opportunity to lead an entire computer by pronouncing a list of voice commands. This possibility will put our beloved computers within the reach of people with disabilities preventing them from using a keyboard or mouse.

It's inevitable: One day man will find a way to create robots that are capable of thinking, and having a conscience born of the hands of their creators: the artificial intelligence machines will be able to speak with us, to keep thinking, and maybe even to have a sense of humor.

And also why would they not be smart as us? And if so, how they will behave if we give them the authority?

The Asimo

The Asimo, the robot that is the most efficient and with the most advanced artificial intelligence created by Honda, is able to move about its environment by identifying and recognizing faces and voices, understand human speech. There have been three versions since 1986, and they have always been more oriented to the utility of their colleague from Sony. The third generation of Asimo, born in December 2005, is also known to run, and has an artificial intelligence that puts him at the height of a child of three years. 130 cm high, it is not for sale, but may be hired to perform tasks as receptionists or handling. Honda and Disney have signed a contract to use Asimo in their amusement parks: the robots will be giving advices to visitors.

Many other manufacturers are developing robot to act as companions or assistance, seeking to finally make such products profitably. A project led by a French start-up called Aldebaran Robotics is working on a humanoid robot autonomous small. Code named Nao.