US robot builds copies of itself (BBC News)

[Up2Late]

(The Fools! Don't they know that this is how Teminator started):scared::sarcasm:

US robot builds copies of itself

Wednesday, 11 May, 2005, 20:17 GMT 21:17 UK

By Roland Pease
BBC science correspondent

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. These could repair themselves if parts fail, reconfigure themselves to better perform the task they have been set, or even to make extra helpers.

So far the robots, if they can be called that, consist of just three or four mobile cubes. Each unit comes with a small computer code carrying a blueprint for the layout of the robot, electrical contacts to let it communicate with its neighbours, and magnets to let them stick together.

By turning and moving, the cubes can pick up new units, decide where they belong, and stack them alongside each other to make new devices. In a little more than a minute, a simple three-cube robot can make a copy of itself.

(more at link above)

[Fire Walk With Me]

1. Von Neumann Machines.. Not exactly Terminator

[Huckebein the Raven]

2. Do they look like this ?

:P

[TheWatcher]

3. Maybe We Will Get Lucky

And Skynet will evolve out of this and become Self Aware so we can have Judgement Day.

Might be a better fate than what these thugs have planned for us.

[Up2Late]

4. No kidding

I'd almost welcome a robot war at this point.:evilfrown:

[leftofthedial]

5. Uh oh

[Up2Late]

6. Update: NPR has a radio story at their website (and some Video)

I know it's not Terminator, but it still looks kind of creepy.

Birds Do It, Bees Do It… Now Robots Do, Too:hide:

[entanglement]

7. Cool, it has some of the attributes of life

(making copies and self-repair), it would be even cooler if they could build in inheritability and mutability. I'd rather obey all-powerful robots than evil humans.