The creation of the first self-replicating living robot
The Dark Side Of Self-Aware Robots That Can Reproduce Themselves
Why should robots identify with you or share your values?
The creation of the first self-replicating living robot
Scientists from the University of Vermont, Tufts University, and Harvard University’s West Institute of Bioengineering have discovered a new form of biological reproduction and applied their findings to create the first self-replicating living robot. The same team that built the first living robot (“Xenobots” harvested from frog cells-reported in 2020) discovered that these computer-designed, hand-selected creatures can swim in their small plates, find individual cells, and Collect hundreds of cells.
After a few days, they will become new Xenobots with the same appearance and actions. Scientists say they have witnessed a type of replication not seen in organic robots made with frog cells in the laboratory before. [Sources: 0, 12]
Research by Saigin and colleagues (2012) also shows that robots can be used to study the human perception of movement. Robots have studied the biology of the human body schema (self-awareness of body position in space) and applied it to robots, which allowed robots to be aware of their body position (Hoffmann et al. [Sources: 1]
The researchers hope that one day, the heterogeneous robots described by the same team in an article published nearly two years ago can be programmed to perform useful functions, such as detecting human cancer cells or capturing harmful microplastics in the ocean. These new heterogeneous robots can then search for cells and create copies of themselves. [Sources: 0, 12]
The implications for regenerative medicine
The results of the new study were published on November 29, 2021, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Among other things, the results may have implications for regenerative medicine. It has been argued that this type of work could help empower robots and complement research in psychology and neuroscience by creating and testing artificial models. [Sources: 0, 1, 12]
Scientists and computer engineers have done much of the research in this area over the past 20 years, studying robot designs and testing them on humans. Researchers in the fields of cognitive sciences, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and robotics have examined the organization and functioning of a system (natural or artificial) capable of perceiving, acting, thinking, learning, and interacting, down to various levels of development (Morin, 2006). ). The question of whether robots can think has been of interest to people since the early days of computing. [Sources: 1, 2]
Can robots ever think?
Why is the question of whether robots can think of interest? Perhaps one reason may be because the AI project is about creating machines that are central to the way we humans see ourselves, that is, as sensitive, thinking, intelligent beings. Even so, most researchers say that truly knowledgeable machines — those that not only run programs but also have feelings and self-awareness — are still several decades away.
The reason for this is that researchers must create a generalized intelligence, a single machine with the above talents and the ability to learn more. Until now, the brain has been the only type of system that has these processes, and focusing on how they work will help us understand what will need to be replicated in robots in order for them to reach consciousness and potentially reach a high level of cognition. [Sources: 6, 7, 13]
The priority should be to focus on the real-world capabilities of robots
While some like to believe that robots and machines will become intelligent, conscious, and capable of understanding the human world in the future, others (including myself) choose to focus on their real-world capabilities instead. Moore notes that some will argue that computational artifacts (computers and robots) will never become full-fledged ethical agents if they lack conscience, willfulness, and free will.
He argues that this is technologically impossible for predictable artificial agents and those technological systems such as machine learning, evolutionary computing, and self-organization depend on rules set by humans. For example, Arkin (2009) argued that robots would be able to make more ethical decisions in the fog of war than humans. [Sources: 11]
Machine ethics versus human ethics
But if machines acquire the ability to self-reflect, this may require us to rethink the way we think of them. The basic idea of machine ethics is now reflected in real-world robotics, where it is not usually assumed that these machines are artificial moral agents in any significant sense (Winfield et al). The robot is linked to the myth that machines cannot be controlled by humans … [Sources: 5, 13, 15]
While artificial intelligence can be completely software, robots are moving physical machines. An autonomous robot is a machine that can operate and complete tasks on its own without constant human intervention. Since then, industrial robots have grown; they often work in safety cages away from people. [Sources: 1, 13]
Rethinking our understanding of what it means to be alive
Artificial consciousness (also called machine consciousness or synthetic consciousness) refers to an artificial non-biological machine that is aware of its own existence. When or if it is created, it will profoundly affect our understanding of what it means to be alive. [Sources: 16]
Philosopher Nick Bostrom argued that given our problems with understanding “consciousness”, we must accept the possibility that true self-conscious artificial consciousness may arise long before machines reach intelligence on the human level (or beyond).
The Dark Side Of Self-Aware Robots
The possibility is being explored that machines could surpass humans and become the dominant intelligent species on the planet, taking on human labor, rendering humans “pale, fleshy and silly” and ultimately driving humanity towards extinction. The end of the game suggests that at this stage the robots have developed the ability for a more human-like form of sexual reproduction. [Sources: 8, 16]
The levels of human consciousness that take place in the brain
One of the pitfalls for machines becoming self-conscious is that people’s minds are not well defined, making it difficult, if not impossible, for programmers to reproduce such a state in AI algorithms, the researchers said. In a study published in October 2017 in Science magazine, scientists have identified three levels of human consciousness based on calculations that take place in the brain.
Thus, machines will be classified by analogy at the cognitive level that can be achieved according to the types of cognition arising from awareness and self-referencing. As a subset of human capabilities, it is generally believed that computers, machines, and/or robots will eventually achieve or surpass human intelligence. [Sources: 4, 6]
Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are digital technologies that will have a significant impact on human development in the near future. Scientists have raised fundamental questions about what we should do with these systems, what the systems themselves should do, what risks they entail, and how we can control them.
Two areas in which there is a growing understanding of the extent to which robotics can directly affect human health and safety are (i) autonomous vehicles and (ii) robotic weapons. In particular, autonomous robotic weapons. [Sources: 11, 13]
The takeaway: Why should robots identify with you or share your values?
Of course, if robots are to be used in situations that involve humans, it is important to take steps so that they do not harm humans. Likewise, if we do not give advanced robots the gift of intelligence, the threat they can pose to humanity will be exacerbated because they will not see any particular reason to identify with us and value us. [Sources: 7, 11]
If the latter scenario should manifest, it would then seem that the story of Robot would become a sort of self-fulling prophecy of “the shadow of things to come”. Let us hope that such a dark future does not await humanity. It would be better if humans and robots can work together in some kind of mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship.
My thanks to @DrMehmetYildiz for permitting me to share this article with you in Illumination. I appreciate the sharing of your sentiments in the comments section as well. Thank you!
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Sources
[0]: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/11/211129155020.htm
[1]: https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-psych-010416-043958
[2]: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2018.00088/full
[3]: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/artificial-intelligence-future-scenarios-180968403/
[4]: https://www.livescience.com/62656-when-will-ai-be-conscious.html
[5]: https://futureoflife.org/background/benefits-risks-of-artificial-intelligence/
[6]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7805878/
[7]: https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/tech/what-rise-sentient-robots-will-mean-human-beings-ncna773146
[8]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_machines_in_fiction
[10]: https://towardsdatascience.com/artificial-consciousness-is-impossible-c1b2ab0bdc46
[11]: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-017-9425-5
[12]: https://www.npr.org/2021/12/01/1060027395/robots-xenobots-living-self-replicating-copy
[13]: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-ai/
[14]: https://www.computerworld.com/article/2970737/are-we-safe-from-self-aware-robots.html
[15]: https://science.howstuffworks.com/robot-computer-conscious.htm
