Science & Technology
New project explores risk of robot uprising
By
T.K. RandallNovember 28, 2012 ·
24 comments
Image Credit: Shadow Robot Company
Researchers are trying to determine the risk of us being wiped out by our own technological creations.
Based at the University of Cambridge, the "Centre for the Study of Existential Risk" seeks to analyze how much of an extinction risk our own technology poses to mankind. The project will explore fields such as artificial intelligence, an area that is synonymous with apocalypse scenarios in movies such as The Terminator and The Matrix. Are we really at risk of being wiped out by intelligent machines that see humans as a threat ?
"The seriousness of these risks is difficult to assess, but that in itself seems a cause for concern, given how much is at stake," says the project's mission statement. "[W]e hope to make it a little more certain that we humans will be around to celebrate the University's own millennium, now less than two centuries hence."[!gad]Based at the University of Cambridge, the "Centre for the Study of Existential Risk" seeks to analyze how much of an extinction risk our own technology poses to mankind. The project will explore fields such as artificial intelligence, an area that is synonymous with apocalypse scenarios in movies such as The Terminator and The Matrix. Are we really at risk of being wiped out by intelligent machines that see humans as a threat ?
"The seriousness of these risks is difficult to assess, but that in itself seems a cause for concern, given how much is at stake," says the project's mission statement. "[W]e hope to make it a little more certain that we humans will be around to celebrate the University's own millennium, now less than two centuries hence."
A University of Cambridge research project is preparing to investigate whether technology has the power to destroy humankind.
Source:
Wired |
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