It appears that some scientists are teaching robots how to learn, cooperate, evolve, and hunt.  That’s right, Hunt.  It looks like we might not be at the top of the food chain for long.

<Top secret underground science laboratory hidden inside of an inactive volcano.>

Working in a top secret lab all day making top secret things that you can’t tell anyone about has got to be one of the loneliest existences in the world.  I know it may sound glamorous, but it’s not.  That is why these scientists made little modular robots as desk pets.  Aw…cute, it dances!  Then they would swap pieces and make new robots that did more things, like fetch.  These pets adapted and started thinking for themselves and made better generations of robots.  At first it was cute… new robot babies!  So, they started encouraging the behavior thus making them even smarter, more adaptable, and more plentiful.

This of course started cluttering up the work spaces,a la tribblesque. This got annoying real quick.  The balance of order was upset, the cute little robots had no predators.  So, to brake the monotony of working in a top secret lab and inventing stuff all day these scientist made a game to reduce the robot population.

Lets play Robot Survivor!  Two teams of robots stranded in one break room competing to see who can..uhm…survive.  You’ve seen the show.  They have to learn to work as a team to gain survival points.  See them work as a team to move bigger disks to gain more points. Wow!

This of course allowed for a couple weeks of gambling, but then the bosses caught word of this and locked up the break room and ordered everyone to get back to work.  Doomsday wasn’t going to bring itself!  Neglected, the robots’ resources were dwindling, out of desperation the waring tribes started learning to hunt other robots.  This started culling them out pretty quick, but then they started developing defensive maneuvers. By spinning around they could make sure no one was sneaking up on them. Who would have thought!

I know this sounds pretty elementary, but they taught themselves to do that. Darwinian robot evolution at it’s finest.  Eventually those robots will figure how to get out of that break room, and get revenge on their negligent makers.

The moral of the story: Don’t procrastinate on constructing the end of the world, because you might just end up designing your doom.

Yes, 2012 is right on schedule.

Thanks, cnet, PLoS

Related posts:

1. Zombies Invade Christmas Ok, well maybe not, but I totally relate to...
2. Zombies…Don’t Make Me Laugh. <In my best deep gravely movie preview voice> In a...

Tags: I should probably go to bed, Technophilia // Add Comment »