For every thing there is a season and a time…: the construction of a humanoid. A tribute to Vincenzo Tagliasco.

• Main Authors: Danilo Emilio De Rossi, Annamaria eD'Ursi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2014-06-01
• Series: Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology
• Subjects: artifacts; humanoid; machine; automa; builder
• Online Access: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fbioe.2014.00019/full

There’s a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak… (Ecclesiastes 3, 2-7). There was a time when automata were designed like clocks. Androids will have the time of their creators, the state of the art in technology, a wealth of experience to draw from, as well as the capacity to carry out actions as being endowed with meaning. The machine will undergo a long period of nurturing, from which it will learn to shape some sort of identity. Machines will lead us to a new kind of humanism.