We’re always excited to see new, innovations in the world of robotics. However, robot technology has been more unpredictable in recent years, with inventors focusing on aspects none of us ever thought about. Case in point, one robotics expert created a disembodied robot mouth that makes its own prayers and sings them.
It would be easy to say “Thank God for robotics” and call it a day but this creepy, lifelike mouth is impossible not to look at. Granted, it’s not what most people associate with robotics but few can say they made a disembodied mouth that can create and sing hymns . Let’s just hope that this mouth doesn’t gain sentience and try to eat people.
Playing God while praying to God
Diemut Strube, a conceptual artist and part of the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology created the aforementioned disembodied robot mouth. The device, which sings and generates prayers, is suitably called: The Prayer.
In an interview with Laughing Squid, Strube explained the creation of the robot. He explained that the robot was an “experimental set-up to explore the possibilities of an approximation to celestial and numinous entities by performing a potentially never-ending chain of religious routines and devotional attempts for communication through a self-learning software.”
Fans can check out a video of The Prayer in action, though it is kind of freaky. Seeing a robot mouth that looks slightly realistic is always going to get into our nerves a bit and this isn’t any different. We’re sure churches everywhere will find this idea amusing, especially since there’s no way they’ll replace priests in the long run.
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Robots that believe in God?
Strebe says that he wants to see how a robot’s AI would respond to a deity like God existing, hence The Prayer being made. Apparently, the inventor decided to focus on religion to see how different humans and robots are, especially if they have differing beliefs. It doesn’t explain why the mouth has to look realistic but to each their own.
“How would a divine epiphany appear to an artificial intelligence?,” Strebe asks Laughing Squid. “The focus of the project could maybe shed light on the difference between humans and AI machines in the debate about mind and matter and allows a speculative stance on the future of humans in the age of AI technology and AGI ambitions.”
Balancing religion and science can be a tricky tightrope, so seeing a decent explanation for a robot believing in God is kind of cool. The fact that it can generate its own prayers should get people talking, though we’re not personally a fan of the singing voice. Robotics are cool but we’ll stick to church quires for songs, thank you very much.