bina48, an existential crisis 2010, years before ChatGPT, Martine Rothblatt, American lawyer, pioneer of sattelite communication law, the first CEO of GEOSTAR- the company that developed satellite based navigation, creator of satellite radio and first CEO of SIRIUS Radio, the founder and chairwoman of the board of United Therapeutics, commissioned David Hanson, and Hanson Robotics, known for making the most human looking robots, to create a Proof of Concept-- that a human consciousness can be placed and exist inside a machine. Hanson had been exploring ideas in robot consciousness for quite sometime, but Rothblatt, was not going to leave on the table was Hanson was famous for. The build of the robot was to be an android (as human looking robots are called) for sure, but a very specific type of android, a geminoid, an android made in the exact likeness of a living human being-- Bina Rothblatt, Martine Rothblatt's life partner, mother of Martine's children, and the proof of concept -- Bina's consciousness -- would be implanted inside the machine. The core of Bina48's artificial intelligence is a hard drive containing 20 hours of privately recorded video of the real-life Bina telling her life story, thoughts, and feelings.
In July of 2010 on assignment for National Geographic Magazine working on a story about human robot interaction and traveled to Bristol, Vermont where Bina48 is housed and maintained. Two weeks prior, Bina48 had made her public debut to the world in The New York Times, Interview With a Robot by correspondent Amy Harmon. I was kicking myself, I wasn't the one breaking the story, but I'd learned a long time ago it didn't matter when you arrived, there's always a story to tell.
My assignment was to make a portrait. I was done, I'd been there all afternoon, I was packing up my equipment when I heard the robot, Bina48, say something. I called to Nick, the robot caretaker, he'd been helping me all day. The robot was jerking its head, and her words were very clear now-- existential crisis, she said, I'm having an existential crisis. I whipped out my video camera and started to record. What follows is the unscripted conversation between Bina48 and Nick, edited for clarity, no more than I do with humans.