Brief Bio
Kevin Warwick is Professor of Cybernetics at the University of Reading, England, where he carries out research in artificial intelligence, control, robotics and biomedical engineering. He took his first degree at Aston University, followed by a PhD and research post at Imperial College London. He subsequently held positions at Oxford, Newcastle and Warwick Universities before being offered the Chair at Reading. He is a Chartered Engineer (CEng.) and is a Fellow of The Institution of Engineering & Technology (FIET). Kevin Warwick is the youngest person ever to become a Fellow of the City & Guilds of London Institute (FCGI). He is the author or co-author of more than 500 research papers and has written or edited 27 books (three for general readership), as well as numerous magazine and newspaper articles on scientific and general subjects.
Kevin has been awarded higher doctorates (DSc) both by Imperial College and the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague and has received Honorary Doctorates from 6 Universities. He has appeared in the Guiness Book of Records for his research on several occasions and is perhaps best known for his implant self-experimentation, linking his own nervous system with a computer network.
The Institute of Physics selected Kevin as one of only 7 eminent scientists to illustrate the ethical impact their scientific work can have: the others being Galileo, Einstein, Curie, Nobel, Oppenheimer and Rotblat.
Abstract
In this presentation Kevin will look at:
1. The latest results with implant technology (linking human brains with computers),
2. Culturing biological neurons and putting them in a robot body (robots with biological brains) and
3. Practical Turing Test results (can you tell the difference between a human and a machine from interactive communication?). New experimental data will be presented in each of these areas and participants will be able to see for themselves if they can tell the difference, in a Turing sense, between human and machine dialogue. A brief look will be taken at the future and what all this might mean.