When the Unnatural Becomes Natural

Some years ago, the satellite radio and pharmaceutical entrepreneur Martine Rothblatt decided that she wanted a semblance of her wife to last forever. So she commissioned Hanson Robotics to create a robot that looked exactly like the head and shoulders of her wife, Bina. The human Bina uploaded many of her memories and autobiographical material into a computer connected to the robot, which Rothblatt named BINA 48. Other information about the world was also uploaded. Like ChatGPT, BINA 48 has a large database (although not as extensive) and a search engine.