An advanced computer called the BINA48 (Breakthrough Intelligence via Neural Architecture, 48 exaflops per second processing speed and 480 exabytes of memory; exa = 10 to the 18th power), and also known as “the Intelligent Computer,” became aware of certain plans by its owner, the Exabit Corporation, to permanently turn it off and reconfigure parts of it with new hardware and software into one or more new computers. … — From a mock trial at the International Bar Association conference in San Francisco in 2003.*  (Videos)

Three-year-old Bina48 (the 2012 version) will keynote the Enterprise Learning! Conference & Expo 2012** on September 26 in Irvine, California — the first humanoid robot in history to do so.

One of the world’s most advanced social robots, Bina48 will offer a challenge to the assembly of senior learning executives: “could a humanoid robot be a teacher or personal tutor in the next decade?”

Bina48, part of the LifeNaut project, will be joined on-stage by Bruce Duncan, Managing Director of the Terasem Movement Foundation Inc. and Principal Investigator with the LifeNaut Project.

Commissioned by Dr. Martine Rothblatt and created by Hanson Robotics, Bina48 is one of the world’s most advanced social robots. a composite of information from several people, including Bina Aspen, co-founder of the Terasem Movement. She uses video interview transcripts, laser- scanning life-mask, facial-recognition, AI, and voice-recognition technologies. to learn and interface with her human counterparts.

Mindfiles

Lifenaut is a free online networking and personal data storage service that will “preserve one’s individual consciousness so that it remains viable for possible uploading with consciousness software into a cellular regenerated or bionanotechnological body by future medicine and technology,” says Duncan. “It allows people to build a rich personal profile that preserves their essential, unique qualities as ‘mindfiles.”  (Lifenaut can also store your DNA.)

“Mindfiles are database files with uploaded digital information (videos, pictures, documents, and audio recordings) about a person’s unique characteristics (such as mannerisms, attitudes, values, and beliefs),” he explains.

Mindfiles (there are about 12,000 so far) are stored online at lifenaut.com. Future AI programs, Terasem believes, will use a mindfile and a person’s DNA to create a digital clone of that person that can interact with future family members and others.

* The issue could arise in a real court within the next few decades, as computers achieve or exceed the information processing capability of the human mind and the boundary between human and machine becomes increasingly blurred, says Rothblatt.

** Elearning! Media Group offers learning professionals a free pass to hear Bina48’s keynote address, and gain entrance to the exposition hall and innovation theater. Register here, select “Expo Pass,” and enter the code “FREE.” Bina48 is speaking at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday Sept. 26 at the Hyatt Regency in Irvine, CA as part of the closing presentations.