This Will Surely End Well

To further Isaac Asimov’s different speeds with various blunt and sharp tools to “assess human-robot pain thresholds” (no relation to Rule 34, we hope).

The excuse for this great idea is to teach robots what harms humans so they can obey the first law of robotics.  So Povše had an Epson production line robot usually used for things like assembling vending machines punch six test subjects who were asked to rate their level of pain on a scale from painless, mild, moderate, horrible, to unbearable.

He says most of the rubes volunteers reported mild to moderate pain.  I’d like to know if any reported horrible or unbearable pain, and if they at least got free cookies and juice afterward. The team is now testing more severe collisions on an artificial arm. Now stand back! Epson gotta practice his stabbing.

[NewScientist]