Researchers Developing New Form of Life Made From Metal. Robot Apocalypse One Step Closer Now.

reply to post by mc_squared


Ibabies...

all I have to say

Calm down, Jesus!.

There is a theory that life is not dependent on carbon chemistry. These guys are trying to prove that this is the case or not. So far they are getting closer to proving it is the case. Now if they do indeed create self replicating cells from any element except carbon then hey presto the universe suddenly becomes a lot more active. It would mean life is possible almost anywhere! That is astounding but is is NOT terminator stuff.

Terminator stuff will based on our existing computer technology and what happens when that thinking machine says "hello" sometime between now and 2030.

This is indeed a great advancement in Nano-biology.

One day we will have advancements in this feild saving lives every day.

All of you neighsayers who are afraid of Terminator and Irobot senarios should just stay in front of the television where you belong.

Originally posted by mc_squared
I mean, with every advancement in computer processing power we are moving closer and closer to building a sentient artificial intelligence (I'm still eagerly awaiting the day the internet finally "wakes up"), and now it seems scientists are attacking the issue from both ends of the spectrum. By mechanically emulating life itself from the most complicated definition right down to the simplest.

We're a LONG way from any sort of artificial intelligence.

All I know for sure is we won't even matter any more because the ensuing robot army will quickly kill us all.

(sigh)

I build robots. I work with computers. These things come with a power supply and an off switch (the off switch is because we want to modify them and change instructions.) Anyone with a modicum of sense has three or four ways to shut off any device.

They'll have off switches and they'll not have unlimited power.

reply to post by Byrd


Man, I thought it was pretty obvious from the rest of my post the robot apocalypse comment was tongue-in-cheek, but I guess this is ATS - and you never can tell



But now based on this response I have to play devil's advocate.

We're a LONG way from any sort of artificial intelligence.

Tell that to this guy:



We already have all sorts of artificial intelligence, the only thing is the definition/benchmark of what qualifies as "intelligence" is constantly changing because of the AI effect.



If you meant we're a long way from any sort of sentient artificial intelligence - well, consciousness isn't something you can easily quantify, so who's to say really?

But considering today there are supercomputers hovering around 10 quadrillion calculations per second, and all the potential of things like DNA computing and quantum computing on the horizon, we're definitely not a long way off, in terms of processing power at least.



The concept of DNA computing seems particularly fitting for this thread also, since we're talking about other forms of life - possibly silicon-based. That makes it especially ironic that we're looking at abandoning silicon built computers in favour of biomolecular ones.

And that was the general point of my thread - all this research is blurring the line between traditional ideas of "organic" and "artificial", and thus it has profound implications on the question of 'what is life?'. This was the sort of discussion I was hoping to spark up. But I guess I forgot - I'm posting on ATS. Of course all the attention will become centered on "ZOMG teh robots are coming to keeell us". My bad.



So I might as well just run with it now:

I build robots. I work with computers. These things come with a power supply and an off switch (the off switch is because we want to modify them and change instructions.) Anyone with a modicum of sense has three or four ways to shut off any device.

Well I'm glad you build them with off-switches, but I think you're oversimplifying, not to mention underestimating the power of our species to royally mess things up.

We're talking two things here - nano-sized, "artificial" forms of life that can replicate themselves. So who is to say they can't "evolve"? I think when you're working with things this small, you easily open the door (Pandora's box?) to all sorts of quantum/unpredictable phenomena that are much more complicated than the more deterministic scenario you'd probably like to confine this to.

I mean - you could build something that has a 99.999999999% chance it won't deviate from the blueprint - but what happens when there's 100,000,000,000 of them?


Second, from the other end - if we're building AI that is already smart enough to be sentient, then how can you be sure the thing simply won't reprogram itself? Give it some limbs or enough tools and it could physically figure out how to find it's own power source. So what happens when it realizes it doesn't like being turned off? Hopefully from what I learned growing up in the 80's it means loads of laughs:






Seriously though - no offense, but these words:

They'll have off switches and they'll not have unlimited power.

Sound like the sort of famous last thing someone says just before the robot apocalypse begins

Originally posted by David291
reply to post by mc_squared

 

Ibabies...

all I have to say

Hey and check this out - even sometimes when I think I'm kidding, apparently I'm not:

Robot nominated to carry Olympic flame

James Law, a computer scientist at Aberystwyth University has nominated a robot to be part of the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay.

Law has suggested that the iCub robot, which is designed to learn from the world like a human toddler, should be given a chance to take part in the event

Just look at this creepy little bastard - and tell me he's not already plotting to take over the Earth: