We, Humans

Technology is bringing together scientists, psychologists, engineers, economists and puppeteers to explore what it means to be human. Meet MIT's Nexi, a key figure in a collaborative experiment between MIT, Northeastern, and Cornell University. Nexi is a MDS (Mobile Dexterous Social) Robot, and she is designed to be expressive. Her way of interacting with others integrates the art of puppetry into the high tech world of robotics.



http://robotic.media.mit.edu/index.html

Project member Robert H. Frank, an economist at Cornell, wonders, "How do nice people manage to survive in the world?" Nexi the robot is giving scientists a way to "study the signals that allow people to trust one another, or not, within minutes of meeting." In experiments, participants are invited to engage in conversation with Nexi, who responds with both verbal and non-verbal cues. Researchers then attempted to measure the corresponding level of trust by observing the exchange of tokens between study subjects and Nexi. Interestingly, future experiments will work the other way around, as Nexi will be asked to rate the level of trust that she has for her human partners.

One of the experiment's leaders, psychologist David DeSteno speaks of the complicated interactions between people that evoke trust. "We think it's a dynamic unfolding dance between two people. You start fidgeting; I'll start fidgeting.... My muscular movements mirror yours. We know from psychological research the body and brain can sense these movements and that builds the gist of what people are feeling."

Boston Globe:Robot may furnish lesson in human trust
Interactions could show the basis for harmony
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/07/05/robot_may_furnish_lesson_in_human_trust/

MIT's Personal Robotics Group is also exploring the use of robots to have a positive impact of social learning in the public sector. MIT is working with the Boston Museum of Science to "include the participation of the general public in multiple ways — either as participants in our experiments of as trained team members that help us staff the experiment. In either case, we hope this outreach activity not only helps us to achieve our scientific goals, but also educates and excites K-12 students to consider careers in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) areas."

Notice, yet again, that the arts are overlooked in the STEM equation. This project runs of STEAM (Insert the A for Arts). The fields of science and technology are applying the time-old skills and artistry of puppetry in new ways, and design of Nexi obviously involved so many design decisions. (Hmmm, I wonder who figured out that people would trust a white robot with blue eyes more than a red one with yellow eyebrows?) How can the human-centered, nice guy artists manage to survive in the world, if their contributions keep on getting overlooked?

There is so much that the arts teach us, for better and for worse, about human nature and the dance of life.