(34) Tangram Touchstone 9

1

The following words are contained in the text below. They appear here in the same order as in the text. Before you read, try to match up English words with their Slovenian equivalents.

(D1)	The Bionic Woman	(T8)	pristajališča
(D2)	a sci-fi series	(T5)	inženirka bionike in robotike
(D3)	integrating machines with humans	(T9)	krmariti po površini Marsa
(D4)	artificial intelligence	(T15)	človeški miselni procesi
(D5)	a bionic and robotics engineer	(T7)	(raziskovalne) vesoljske ladje, namenjene na Mars
(D6)	software	(T2)	znanstvenofantastična nanizanka
(D7)	Mars probes	(T13)	rover (terensko vozilo)
(D8)	landing sites	(T4)	umetna inteligenca
(D9)	navigate the Martian surface	(T3)	združevanje strojev in ljudi
(D10)	"neural network"	(T14)	pesek, kamenje in prod
(D11)	rugged terrain	(T1)	bionska ženska
(D12)	mapping human intelligence to an aerial robot	(T10)	"živčna mreža"
(D13)	rover	(T11)	skalnat/zahteven teren
(D14)	sand, concrete and gravel	(T6)	programska oprema
(D15)	human thought processes	(T12)	prenos človeške inteligence na antenski/radijski robot

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2

Read the following text.

When Ayanna Howard was twelve years old, she watched The Bionic Woman, a cheesy '70s sci-fi series.

She became totally captivated by the show's idea of integrating machines with humans.

She started reading books on artificial intelligence.

For Ayanna the TV series was a springboard to a career.

Today she is a bionic and robotics engineer at NASA, and she is creating robots that think like humans.

Howard is currently developing software that will enable future Mars probes to choose their landing sites and navigate the Martian surface.

Her "neural net work" mimics the way a human pilot would handle the job.

It reacts the same way humans do when facing rugged terrain, for example, avoiding steep grades.

"People always look for the straightest, clearest path, so we're mapping human intelligence to an aerial robot," she says.

The early result is SmartNav, a rover the size of a lawn mower that can distinguish sand, concrete and gravel.

On Mars, such networks will keep rovers exploring on their own rather than waiting for instructions from Earth.

Howard believes that within a decade robotics will produce robots that mimic human thought processes.

"This isn't about mechanics," says Howard.

"It's about creating something new, something like us but different - something that can live."

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E-Touchstone 9 – (1.0)