Rise of the Machines
Machines taking over the world-the Terminator, the Matrix, Cylons. The idea that humanity may at some point be out-smarted and either enslaved or annihilated by our own machines is not just a handy plot device for some really great movies (and a few bad ones), it’s actually serious question debated by scholars. It’s called The Singularity, and while some see it is a good thing, others do not.
A quick look around the current state of technology would suggest to me that the biggest threat we need to watch out for are still human, not robotic. Even though Stanley Kubrick assured us by now we’d have HAL 9000 , all we have to date is Roomba®, which does not yet appear ready to seize power. And if it did, you can just unplug it’s base station.
Even though I have seen some pretty scary specials on cable about some nasty military Remote Operated Vehicles, the fact remains at this stage is that no robot has yet been built that I am aware of that could build another copy of itself. So the only way we get an unstoppable army of robots attacking us is if WE build them ourselves. So if your new liquid metal Roomba model 1000 starts turning on people, you just stop making them. But that could change.
A few days ago, I posted about a home version of a CNC milling machine that you can program to carve anything you can design on the computer into a block of wood. Brilliant for home constructions projects. Now I hear that there is a team of engineers working to build a race of robots bent on destroying humanity… no, that’s not it. I mean they are designing a machine that can not only be used to fabricate parts for projects and manufacturing, but it can also make a copy of itself. The device is called RepRap, for Replicating Rapid-Prototyper. It works using 3-D printing technology, a new process of manufacturing where the printer lays down parts of a piece that is being fabricated one thin slice at a time. The intent of the project is that once you have one RepRap, the first thing you can use it for is to create all the pieces you need for second one… and so on, and so on, until all the Sarah Connors in the phone book start getting blown away.
Seriously, it’s not quite at that stage. The RepRap will be designed to make it’s own pieces, but they still have to be assembled by hand, or at least that will be the case until someone comes up with plans for a RepRap assembler robot that can be made with a RepRap, and then all I can say is you better be careful to turn the damn thing off when you leave the workshop for a long weekend.
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My own spinoff of the RepRap project, Tommelise, is focussed on the American parts environment and uses somewhat different technology and a different control strategy. It’s also an open source specification will let anybody with a few hand tools and primitive woodworking skills bootstrap themselves into 3D fabrication for about $150. Tommelise’s extruder is qualified for polycapralactone and is presently being qualified as well for both high density polypropylene (HDPE, the stuff your plastic cutting board is made of) and polypropylene (HPP, the stuff your coffee maker and plastic electric kettle is made of). You can keep an eye on the Tommelise project at…
http://3dReplicators.com
One of the next things I plan on doing after getting Tommelise going is to use it to build up a pick and place machine to put the parts together. A few minor changes in the geometry of Tommelise should allow me to get these two pieces of machinery to work together.
I am fascinated by this idea of machines that can make copies of themselves. My tongue-in-cheek comments about Terminators and the Matrix aside, this seems like it would a great technology for deep space exploration, just to give one example. No need to carry a full range of spares if you can fabricate any part you need.
And we need projects like RepRap now if we’re ever going to get a computer to make us a cup of tea…Earl Grey…hot, in the 25th century.
[…] First, after I wrote about the self-replicating machine called RepRap, I emailed the project team, and heard back from Adrian Bowyer, whose duties are such that they involve responding to people like me when we suggest that their device will eventually lead to humanity being enslaved by the Terminators and Skynet. Adrian says, “I have to say that all this stuff about our machines taking over from us is based more on an opium dream by Mary Shelly than anything either historical or scientific,” also adding that “we’ve always modified reproducing machines to help us fight our battles. But as soon as one showed even a hint of getting above its station it would be exterminated by the most ruthless and creative self-replicating machine that has ever existed. Â Right down to the last self-replicating memory chip…” Adrian makes excellent points, though I believe it is worth noting that IF we ever are enslaved by robot armies, the development of a self-replicating machine would probably be the first step. Just sayin’, that’s all. Igor, go empty the Roomba, will ya? […]