George Zarkadakis, an artificial intelligence engineer, defined breeding in terms of autonomous robots aiming to produce superior offspring, whether through 3D printing or at the molecular level through their silicon and carbon make-up.

Professor Noel Sharkey from England’s Sheffield University pointed to the same concept as the “Wikipedia for Robots” – through a simple software swap, new intelligence could be created, as well as the likelihood of other upgrades like virus protection.

Other studies went even further to suggest that an emotional connection is already being made between humans and robots, which would enable actual breeding to take place among the two “species.”  Professor Kevin Warwick from the Institution of Engineering and Technology in an interview with MailOnline stated:

‘just about anything is possible’ and . . . there are already robots with biological brains that mix biological and technological parts.

‘This is not science fiction,’ he said.

He believes that robots capable of breeding with each other could be produced using current research and technologies but it will likely take 20 to 30 years before they could be used on Earth – and there are questions to be asked about whether this is a good idea.

[…]

research into creating cyborgs as a result of ‘breeding’ with robots, and creating robots that breed with each other, depends on social acceptance, Professor Warwick said.

‘Over the next 20 to 30 years the question will be on the table and we have to face ethical issues.’

Source

Outlandish and sensationalistic as it might seem, CNBC just posted an article which far outdid my own, entitled “Scientists make a robot that can have babies.”

Of course, they go on to explain that’s it’s not quite the type of birth to which humans might be accustomed. Nevertheless, it combines some of what is discussed above, and at least indicates that robots are continuing along the path of self-directed evolution.

Everyone who thinks robots are going to take over the world might be getting a lot more frightened: Scientists have created a machine that’s able to have babies. Sort of.

In an experiment designed to show how robots can learn and evolve, researchers in Cambridge and Zurich programmed a robot arm—or “mother”—with an algorithm to create a device made out of blocks containing motors—its “child”.

The blocks are assembled into a structure by the robot arm, and the motors are turned on. A camera detects how far the blocks are able to travel. The robot arm sees this, and then modifies the next “baby” to try to make it go further, learning from the mistakes and good traits of the last one.

This is all done without human intervention. The research was published in the journal PLOS One.

Despite CNBC’s downplaying the fears that many have about the evolution of killer robots, given the evidence of this type of autonomous evolution, to suggest that there is no worry whatsoever seems irresponsible. Our human minds have created dystopian scenarios in fiction – aka cautionary tales – but it appears that the robots could be on pace to learn their lessons faster than we have.

Nicholas West writes for TechSwarm and Activist Post

http://www.techswarm.com/2015/08/scientists-develop-robot-that-can-breed.html

Related…

“Rise of the Robots – Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future” – new book by Martin Ford

In a world of self-driving cars and big data, smart algorithms and Siri, we know that artificial intelligence is getting smarter every day. Though all these nifty devices and programs might make our lives easier, they’re also well on their way to making “good” jobs obsolete. A computer winning Jeopardy might seem like a trivial, if impressive, feat, but the same technology is making paralegals redundant as it undertakes electronic discovery, and is soon to do the same for radiologists. And that, no doubt, will only be the beginning.

In Silicon Valley the phrase “disruptive technology” is tossed around on a casual basis. No one doubts that technology has the power to devastate entire industries and upend various sectors of the job market. But Rise of the Robots asks a bigger question: can accelerating technology disrupt our entire economic system to the point where a fundamental restructuring is required? Companies like Facebook and YouTube may only need a handful of employees to achieve enormous valuations, but what will be the fate of those of us not lucky or smart enough to have gotten into the great shift from human labor to computation?

The more Pollyannaish, or just simply uninformed, might imagine that this industrial revolution will unfold like the last: even as some jobs are eliminated, more will be created to deal with the new devices of a new era. In Rise of the Robots, Martin Ford argues that is absolutely not the case. Increasingly, machines will be able to take care of themselves, and fewer jobs will be necessary. The effects of this transition could be shattering. Unless we begin to radically reassess the fundamentals of how our economy works, we could have both an enormous population of the unemployed-the truck drivers, warehouse workers, cooks, lawyers, doctors, teachers, programmers, and many, many more, whose labors have been rendered superfluous by automated and intelligent machines-and a general economy that, bereft of consumers, implodes under the weight of its own contradictions. We are at an inflection point-do we continue to listen to those who argue that nothing fundamental has changed, and take a bad bet on a miserable future, or do we begin to discuss what we must do to ensure all of us, and not just the few, benefit from the awesome power of artificial intelligence? The time to choose is now.

Rise of the Robots is a both an exploration of this new technology and a call to arms to address its implications. Written by a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur, this is an audiobook that cannot be dismissed as the ranting of a Luddite or an outsider. Ford has seen the future, and he knows that for some of us, the rise of the robots will be very frightening indeed.

http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Robots-Technology-Threat-Jobless/dp/1480574775