BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | US robot builds copies of itself — This is kind of creepy.
US researchers have devised a simple robot that can make copies of itself from spare parts.
Writing in Nature, the robot’s creators say their experiment shows the ability to reproduce is not unique to biology.
Their long-term plan is to design robots made from hundreds or thousands of identical basic modules.
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Reminds me of that movie starring your favorite Governor. 😉
The problem of dealing with robot birth control is an interesting prospect for a future society; I wonder if I’ll ever get to see it (or if I even want to). But for now, I’m interested as to how those “cubes” do what they do, i.e. why do they look like block puzzles with the curved inner sides? I suppose they don’t want to reveal too much.
It could be that someday this sort of technology may end up looking like something totally incomprehensible to current-day eyes. (not tin men, that is).
We are as baby gods and better grow up soon!
I will be impressed when I see it making its own parts out of iron ore, etc. I’ll be really scared, too.
There’s a pretty interesting short story in Stephen Baxter’s book “Evolution” where a man creates a line of robots that can replicate themselves by using the resources on mars. Eventually they become sentient and move out throughout the galaxy. Eventually returning to earth near the end days of life to try and learn more about their creator.
I wonder if the military has a Stargate and the Goa’uld and the Asgard will pop out of nowhere?
“The robot’s creators say their experiment shows the ability to reproduce is not unique to biology.” Ah, but these robots learned to reproduce somewhere. “Intellegent Design”, perhaps?
As far as iron ore is concerned, I’m sure there would be plenty of interests to help them out with that. Unless, of course, someone cleverly figures out a way for them to not even need iron ore…
Einstein told people for years that his work proved that nuclear energy would never become accessible. He believed it too, apparently (shows how much he knew).
Whatever, it probably will go somewhere into the unknown. All else may be just fanciful idle guesses. Skip-to-my-lou.
“Their long-term plan is to design robots made from hundreds or thousands of identical basic modules”
I got it – they can call the modules “Cells”.
It would be interesting to see more details on the building materials provided to the robot. It seems that perhaps the materials are almost entirely assembled already.