Some of you may recall

They'll be able to chase you down, too.

http://www.world.honda.com/HDTV/ASIMO/200412-run/index.html

..but kinda cool too..

I just stumbled upon this that you might find interesting and loosely related.

I remember that some years back some US agency (NASA?) had to rethink how they define "life" due to some scientists computer program.. anyone remember what that was and have a link?

It was where the little "organisms" would breed and mutate - purely generated by his software..

there was a documentary on TV last night about it. 3 simple rules and patterning?

But it could be, i saw something on Discovery a few months back i think. Lots of little colored balls on a screen all interacting with each other...

http://www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/

sorry :( cant see the big plugin and im just not certain..

One thing is for sure though, i dont think i've ever seen so many "innovations" or coming changes to how we live, market, do stuff, EVER. This year has been quite extraordinary i think...

kinda scary..

..but kinda cool too..

Like a moth to the flame.

they're manufacturing LED's for optical microchips inside bacteria now (I don't even pretend to understand how) and 'they' genuinely seem to reckon nanobot surgery will be viable within the next couple of years. I think there are periods in time when suddenly huge leaps are made and this is one of those times.

I remember when I was quite young watching a programme which explained why biped robots would never be able to run. When they did it last year it was just this HUGE thing for me.

Just watched I, Robot this weekend. Loosely related, and great movie if you haven't seen it.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3661

http://news.com.com/Army+to+deploy+robots+that+shoot/2100-7348_3-5473191.html?tag=nefd.top

Combine the two.

moving and scary (and I don't mean in a "horror" sense) at the same time. Almost as dark as Blade Runner...

P.S> Nick, just download the plugin and play the game of life. Not like you seem to have played it about 43 weeks ago, but the innocent computer version ;-) It DOES work on FF - eventually.

>>Robotics research today centres around embedding these devices with fuzzy logic skills using sensors that will allow them to perceive and respond.

This is why Robots are cool - can walk - and are scary just like the terminator.

"All is not black and white, but shades of gray" / quote from the Tao Te Ching, and related to Fuzzy Logic in many ways. Fuzzy State Machines are already being used in video games, to make the bad guys more real, and respond intelligently to players actions.

Given that fuzziness isn't a predefined set of rules, and it's also the reason robots can walk so well...how do you define the set of rules that says, in a fuzzy system, robots can't do X? You can't. Fun, but scary, indeed.

Obviously, Asimov's 3 laws of robotics were wishful thinking from the git-go. The first reaction by anyone will be to arm and use them as police and military replacements in hazardous duty. We already have millions of pre-trained (thanks to xbox et al) remote handlers, but the next move will be to automate that for routine or extraordinarily distant patrol functions. Trouble is, somewhere down the line that autonomously thinking robot is going to start giving deep thought to rule #3 and put a period where the comma now resides.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics