He adjective humanoid It is used to qualify what you have characteristics or appearance of a human being . The concept is linked to anthropomorphism , which consists of attributing human traits to an object or an animal.
He anthropomorphism It obeys a tendency of the psychology of our species. He Homo sapiens It tends to personify other species or real or abstract things, giving them human properties. In this way, a robot or a mythological creature can be considered humanoid.
The androids They are a clear example of humanoid beings: they are anthropomorphic robots that, in addition to having a human aspect, emulate questions of the behavior of the man autonomously The first androids were imagined in the field of fiction, although over time scientists developed the technologies necessary to create real humanoids. At present, this topic is of great interest to technophiles, although we are still far from being able to buy an android capable of chatting and living with us as if it were one more person.
One of the most popular humanoids of this class is ASIMO , a robot developed by Sling . The Japanese company introduced this android in 2000 and was surprised by its autonomy and its movements.
Faced with these creations from the fields of the robotics and artificial intelligence, there are various positions that respond to the degree of interest but also to moral issues. In broad strokes we can distinguish: those who anxiously await the emergence of androids that interact with us as another human being would; those who do not find this idea especially attractive; those who strongly oppose it. It is not necessary to explain the reasons that drive the first two groups to feel excited or indifferent, since it is probably personal tastes, but the latter has its roots in other issues, such as religion.
A humanoid-looking robot may seem like a technological achievement for many, but also an attack on the nature and an attempt to "play God" for others. Science and religion have never gone hand in hand, and in fact they tend to oppose almost every field on which they cross. While the former cannot quench their thirst for manipulating their own existence, the latter consider that such power should only be in the hands of a divinity.
The humanoid idea also appears when talking about aliens . It is understood that an alien is a living being who was not born on the planet land : So far, science has not been able to prove that these beings exist, and for this reason aliens belong to the fictional or speculative realm.
When imagining what the aliens would be like, they are often described as humanoids. Categories such as gray , the little green men , the giants and the nordic they allude to aliens who would have two legs, two arms, a head and two eyes, just like the humans .
Far from being a virtue, this tendency to imagine the beings of other planets with physical and cultural characteristics similar to ours is nothing more than a very own limitation of the human being. This is related to our difficulty in understanding the nothing, the infinite and the origin of the universe. How to contemplate the possibility of living without the five senses that we believe indispensable, or with others that no species of our planet possesses? How to devise a culture that does not need to feed, or breathe, or that does not live in society? These possibilities take us beyond our imagination, and that is why there is a need to award them traits humanoids to imaginary beings.
