Weird science: Could a robot have real feelings?

Wednesday, 17 October 2012

Clip from the myrobotmind.com website

What does it mean to be human? Can a robot ever be essentially human with its own mind and free will? How schools manage topics and questions that bridge science, religion and philosophy was put under the microscope at the University recently.

The day is now featured in a 3 minute video on the BBC website.

Over 300 students and teachers from 16 schools from across England visited the University to hear from some of the UK's leading academics who are addressing these important issues. As well as meeting scientists, philosophers and theologians, they also met scholars with different faith perspectives, in particular atheists, Christians and Hindus.

Dr Berry Billingsley, Senior Lecturer in Science Education at the University of Reading's Institute of Education, was leading the project. Professor Kevin Warwick, School of Systems Engineering and Professor Mark Pagel, School of Biological Sciences also took part.

Dr Billingsley said: "The current approach by teachers in many schools is to be thankful that students tend not to ask too many questions. This is because teachers are not confident in giving good answers and because the questions explore the frontiers of science, so perhaps are seen as potentially too challenging.

"A culture of 'silence' has become the norm in many classrooms - we call it 'the silent treatment'. As a result students are missing out on grappling with the range of ideas that are available, with many forming and staying with narrow stereotypical views of what science and religion say."

Berry and her team have discovered that students are thinking about the questions they want to ask but they keep them back, seeing them either as 'off topic' or because they can sense that these are topics that their teachers would rather avoid.

Dr Billingsley continued: "Students need to see that these issues are taken seriously and that scholars are coming up with new ideas which they debate and test. This will give the pupils the confidence to ask those important questions.

"We have produced a free website for students, which is home to video clips of experts such as the University of Reading's very own Professor Kevin Warwick, inventor of the rat brain robot and Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as well as notes for teachers to help them incorporate these topics into their lessons."

The LASAR (Learning about Science and Religion) project is led by the University of Reading and organised under the auspices of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, Cambridge. It is funded by The John Templeton Foundation.