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Michio Kaku: Are Robonauts Better Than Astronauts?

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Dr. Michio Kaku returns to Big Think studios to discuss his latest book, The Future of the Mind (). Here he discusses the possibility of "surrogate" robotic astronauts.

Transcript -- When you saw the movie Surrogates you said, "Well, that's science fiction" when Bruce Willis has a mechanical robot who is perfect. Absolutely perfect. Handsome with superpowers and you put your consciousness into the robot. So you go into a pod. Your body ages. Your body is strapped to a pod but you mentally control an avatar, a surrogate who has superpowers, perfectly formed and has all your abilities. This sounds like science fiction, right? Or the movie Avatar where again you're put inside a pod and you control an alien being on another planet breathing poisonous air. Is that possible? The answer is definitely yes. In Japan scientists at Honda Corporation have made a robot called ASIMO. It's one of the most advanced robots ever made.

ASIMO, the size of a young boy, can run, walk, climb up stairs and even dance. In fact he dances better than me. I've been on science specials with him and he out dances me every time. Honda Corporation has now taken a worker, put on an EEG helmet and have him control the robot. So it's now possible that you can have a surrogate. This could be the future of the space program. Why is outer space not opened up for tourists? Because of a dirty four letter word that begins with C -- cost. It costs ten thousand dollars to put a pound of anything in near Earth orbit. That is your weight in gold. Think of your body made out of solid gold. That's what it costs to put you in near Earth orbit. To put you on the moon costs about a hundred thousand dollars a pound. And to put you on Mars is about a million dollars a pound. So you're talking about your weight in diamonds to go to the planet Mars.

Why not put a surrogate? Because it's life support. Life support that makes things so expensive in outer space. You see, robots don't have to breathe. They don't have to eat. They don't bellyache. And most important, they don't have to come back. So why not put surrogates on Mars, surrogates on the Moon and you the astronaut can just take a breather and go into your living room and mentally communicate with a robot on the Moon. This would be by far the cheapest way to have a permanent Moon base and that would be, to you the astronaut, communicating with a surrogate by radio.

Directed/Produced by Jonathan Fowler and Dillon Fitton
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