Jump to content

Home

Well, we had a good run...


Tyrion

Recommended Posts

But now it's time to usher in the Age of Robots.

 

That scares me. Seriously. Not just in the Terminator Judgement Day way, but in the Grey Goo way too.

 

Edit- If you can't go to the article:

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Self-replicating robots are no longer the stuff of science fiction.

 

Scientists at the Cornell University in Ithaca, New York have created small robots that can build copies of themselves.

 

Each robot consists of several 10-cm (4 inch) cubes which have identical machinery, electromagnets to attach and detach to each other and a computer program for replication. The robots can bend and pick up and stack the cubes.

 

"Although the machines we have created are still simple compared with biological self-reproduction, they demonstrate that mechanical self-reproduction is possible and not unique to biology," Hod Lipson said in a report in the science journal Nature on Wednesday.

 

He and his team believe the design principle could be used to make long term, self-repairing robots that could mend themselves and be used in hazardous situations and on space flights.

 

The experimental robots, which don't do anything else except make copies of themselves, are powered through contacts on the surface of the table and transfer data through their faces. They self-replicate by using additional modules placed in special "feeding locations."

 

The machines duplicate themselves by bending over and putting their top cube on the table. Then they bend again, pick up another cube, put it on top of the first and repeat the entire process. As the new robot begins to take shape it helps to build itself.

 

"The four-module robot was able to construct a replica in 2.5 minutes by lifting and assembling cubes from the feeding locations," said Lipson.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not gonna happen

 

Isaac Asimov says so!

 

1. A robot may not harm a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

 

haha

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by DarkLord60

Not gonna happen

 

Isaac Asimov says so!

 

1. A robot may not harm a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

 

haha

 

I'd be amused to see how they would actually implement the Three Laws of Robotics(four, come to think of it if you include the Zero Law) within those tiny little nanobots.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...