I was watching something on either the sci-fi channel or the discovery channel about this. They were discussing the possibility of robots exterminating the human race, And they had professors from pretty well known universitys from england and the u.s talking this. And what they said was that as advanced computers today their only going to get more advanced and smarter i the next ten to fifteen years, And they say within that time they could come into their own conscisnous, Which i don't doubt, And there was some robotics firm in china or japan that actually built a robot that looked just like the freakin' terminator a couple years back it could walk and everything else except for talk, And one professor said that it would be entirely possible for us to build a supercomputer like skynet over the next 15 to 20 years and the one thing he said really worries him now is that we rely on computers for everything from airplanes, the stock market and alot more than that , And he said that if machines had a conscious state of mind if they wanted to eliminate us they wouldn't have much of a probem doing it.

with the amount of computer glitches...viruses...crashes... etc I've had lately... it is a concern... Remember that movie ages ago when this kid accidently locked into the security of a real Nuc. bomb.... when he thought he was playing war games...??? don't remember too much of the details of this film as I was trying to erase it from my memory.... yes we are developing smarter computers... ones that
...can communicate... and they are trying to develope programs that can read our thoughts and are operated with the mind!!! eg for parraplegics at the moment... Imagine if computers start to eaves drop...and think of it as an instruction... or communicate back at a subconscious level..use telepathy on us.... or read our dreams and nightmares ...fears... and think of them as instructions!!!!!!!...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/193946.stm

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=3168

There are sooooooo many possible scenarios...possible consequences we need to sort out before we programe...evolute these computers further....

This is a very real possibility but some machines are fragile unless armored so maybe we have a chance? I hope that people arent dumb enough to accually do this stuff. They must think about consequinces before they try and make our lives better.

Until I see this actually being used and not on a 'next 10 years' possibility, I'm not worried. Last year, I read about some people in Italy making some small robots that are basically creating their own language. They were identifying a ball by making a certain noise until they decided on a particular noise. I thought it was interesting.
Not only could our machines be free thinking while shooting us up, they'll have their own language too.

if machines take over the world my homemade retractable claws are ready

the damage sharp aluminium can do

Its just a pitty you dont have have claws...and would aluminium not be a tad fragile?

A computer linked up to the web with ego, consciousness and a superiority complex would not need an army of terminators to wipe us out. Although I am sure they would be used to exterminate us like termites in the end.

Fact is a computer with billions of times the processing power of our brains would be so much smarter then us it would likely anticipate every move we make to destroy it countering. Basically If we went to war with a super computer it would be like a mongoloid facing off with Kasperov in a chess game. A computer this powerful would likely disable our power grids, communications, water, gas etc. this followed of course by strategically using UAV and tactical nukes to wipe out cities.

Everything is increasingly becomming automated from factories to even the military. Every computer will eventually be linked through cyber space, and every one of these systems in the future has a chance to be hijacked by a sentient computer. We make things automated and we simply hand control over to computerized networks etc, all in the name of convenience.

Robots will eventually have to be givin the same rights as humans or we will have war. Why use machines and computers when we can work with them in harmony. This will ultimatly be the final solution to this problem, if we choose to enslave them it will lead to our destruction.



Aluminium such a weak metal I would have used carbon steel or titanium with laser sharpend edges.

only one problem, with making a computer with an ability for self-recognition and human-like thought, would take more man hours, and code than you can possibly imagine. there are at least 60 universities in the U.S. and 20 more world wide, who are studying, and trying to create exactly that, but i talked to the professor of Computer Sciences at SIU Carbondale last year, and he said, that AI Artificial Intellengence is still many years away, he said potentially 30 years or more, and even then, humans will still have to be there to make sure that they do not fail, or break down when you need them the most.

I think it will be a lot sooner than 30 years!!!!!






http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-Hologra...ard-20314.shtml

"It looks like something you'd only see in a SF movie, but this little device is quite real, and could represent the future of one of the most important elements of any computer: the keyboard. Thus, i.Tech Virtual Keyboard is quite shocking because it has a very unique feature: it doesn't exist (namely, you cannot touch it), because it's a hologram.

i.Tech Virtual Keyboard is a Bluetooth-enabled device that can be connected to almost any computing system (laptops, PCs, PDAs, Pocket PCs or smartphones, the only requirement being that they must be Bluetooth-enabled), and which projects, via infrared, a holographic keyboard on any flat opaque surface. By means of a special detection technology, the device records the keys “pressed” by the user's fingers (more precisely, the presence of the fingers in the area onto which a certain key has been projected) and sends the data towards the unit it's connected to."









http://www.aip.org/dbis/stories/2006/15162.html

May 1, 2006

New hologram technology is producing some of the most accurate and realistic 3D images ever made, making them potentially useful for new applications from car design to city planning. The new holograms are computer-generated views produced from 2D digital images. Engineers say holograms will soon be animated, too.



http://youtube.com/watch?v=XOSx7v87JCA

Touchscreen Computer Display Floats in Mid-Air

http://www.cyberkineticsinc.com/content/index.jsp

"Cyberkinetics' Andara™ Oscillating Field Stimulator (OFS) Device technology platform is being developed to regenerate neural fibers that form functional connections that restore tactile sensation and movement for those with spinal cord injuries and, ultimately, a wide range of central nervous system injuries, diseases and conditions. For those with chronic injuries, Cyberkinetics is developing the Andara™ OFS PLUS that combines the use of the device with the simultaneous application of drug therapy to ultimately enable the treatment of those with injuries that are months to years old."






"The mind-to-movement system that allows a quadriplegic man to control a computer using only his thoughts is a scientific milestone. It was reached, in large part, through the smarts and sweat of Brown students.

The system, developed in the laboratory of John Donoghue, turns movement commands from the brain into action on a computer screen. Matthew Nagle, a 25-year-old taking part in a clinical trial of the system, called BrainGate, has opened e-mail, switched TV channels, turned on lights. He even moved a robotic hand from his wheelchair.

This marks the first time that neural movement signals have been recorded and decoded in a human with spinal cord injury. The system is also the first to allow a human to control his surrounding environment using his mind. This feat wouldn't have been possible without the work of Brown undergraduate and graduate students."

http://www.brown.edu/Administration/George...9/29GSJ05c.html

Create a program that is designed to self evolve and learn as opposed to programming a personality. As for the 30 year estimate this is based on computer technology itself powerful enough to house the software. As of Tuesday the first step toward this will be hopefully made reality when D-Wave in BC unveils the first 16 qubit Quantum computer capable of 64,000 calculations simultaneously in quantum space. Infact there are already computer 10 time more powerful then the human brain although they aren't designed for this purpose. The quantum computer is said to not be invented for use for at least another 20 years yet a company with strong backing is unveiling theirs this Tuesday.

Huge leaps and bounds are being made in regards to software and hardware and I think the 30 year prediction is hardly accurate asmost predictions of this nature ussually happen sooner and sometimes later then expected. There are simply to many variables that can't be accounted for when making predictions of this nature.

A computer can only do what its programmed to do... as such if we were able to make an AI so advanced as to give the robot some kind of faux existance there would be safeguards in place to prevent such a event from happening. Although if youve ever watched chobits, I wouldnt mind a self aware robot such as that .

From birth people do not always think abuot consequences. The child will jump from a tree, play on train lines... Adults will perceive risk, but counteract and believe that there will always be answers. In aiming for a goal, consequences do not always come into it.

the movie is called wargames and stars matthew broderick and ally sheedy. its one of my favorites

It's ok we will have nothing to fear if all the terminators are programmed by microsoft half the time they will crash.

.....

http://www.iqnewsnet.com/displaysubl.asp?cat=M&year=2004

The magnetoelastic sensor technology used for security tags on merchandise in stores can also be exploited to make very cheap passive underskin sensors to measure the blood sugar level of diabetic patients. The magnetoelastic material is coated with a polymer that responds to changes in acidity and with a second coating of glucose oxidase. The glucose oxidase reacts with blood glucose to produce an acid that causes the polymer to swell, changing the frequency of the sensor when it is excited by a magnetic field. According to the researchers, the technology also shows promise for monitoring environmental toxins and bioterrorism agents such as ricin. [S][M]
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Japanese researchers have developed electronic skin to give robots a sense of touch. It consists of a sheet of rubbery polymer, impregnated with flakes of electrically conducting graphite. The electrical resistance of the sheet changes when it is squeezed, and this change is detected by an array of transistors beneath the rubber to sense pressure and its location. The researchers are hoping to also give the skin sensitivity to temperature and humidity. Other possible applications are for pressure mats and seat covers, for example to distinguish individuals by their footfall, to monitor training, posture, pressure and alertness, and as home telehealthcare sensors. [S][A][B][D][H][M][U][V]
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Rapid prototyping machines have now become so sophisticated that it is possible to print devices with moving parts. Machines driven from CT scanners can produce a great range of parts for reconstructive surgery, such as teeth, bones and hip joints. The technology has now reached the stage where it is a realistic prospect to print whole body organs, building them up by arranging individual cells one layer at a time. [W][H][M][N][R][T]
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Researchers have proposed that silicon should be able to form into nanostructures similar to carbon buckyballs. They predict through modelling that several hundred silicon atoms can join to form a nanometre-sized icosahedral particle, a 20-sided polyhedron. Because they are more symmetrical than crystalline nanoparticles, the icosahedral nanoparticles should have more well defined quantum levels, behaving like artificial atom that could be the basis for better light sources and detectors. [N][M][O][S]
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Researchers at Cambridge University have grown unusual silicon carbide nanostructures in the form of nanoflowers, nanotrees and nanobouquets. Apart from their remarkable beauty, the structures may also have useful properties including being highly water repellent. [N][M]
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Research at Argonne National Laboratory has shown that films of the lead titanate remain ferroelectric down to a thickness of just 1.2 nanometres. This suggests that, contrary to previous findings, there is no fundamental limit to the thinness of crystals that can exhibit ferroelectricity. This could enable the memory density of ferroelectric nonvolatile memory (Fe-RAM) to be increased by at least a factor 100. At present Fe-RAM is limited to low density applications, such as smart cards. High-density Fe-RAM might be suitable for personal computers and handheld devices, and would also be faster than the FLASH memory used in digital cameras and memory sticks. [N][J][M][V]
StoryLink

An eco-friendly way of "growing" metal for circuitry or antennas has been developed by QinetiQ. The metal printing technique replaces conventional copper etching by using a special ink which attracts metals. It means antennas for tiny mobiles or radio frequency identification (RFID) tags can be made cheaply and quickly. [M][I][R][W]
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Silicon carbide MEMS templates 40 to 100 microns across can achieve temperatures of 1100 degrees, providing compact high temperature furnaces. Applications include oxygen and engine emission sensors, chemical vapour deposition chambers and micro-reactors. [M][J][P][S]