Scientists are Creating Machines That Can Evolve on Their Own

I couldn't quote more than this because it was from the dentist's office and Smithsonian doesn't allow more than this online unless you subscribe to the magazine. I found the article interesting and wanted to share it with you. However, neither I nor my wife because of the Christmas rush around our house know exactly where our copy of it is. So, likely to read more you might have to either buy a copy of the December Smithsonian or wait until it is January 2014 online or something. I can't seem to leave any comment at the end of this like I do sometimes so let me also say this. The author talks about crowd sourcing people with 3D printers to make more of these self evolving micro robots. The idea is to use the ones that evolve and put legs on them and see what those that evolve to the next level do. On a theoretical level this all sounds very interesting but on a real everyday level it is a little scary. But, understanding this is the world we now live in might be helpful to all each of us surviving what is coming now in the next 25 to 30 years.

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Beware. Scientists are Creating Machines That Can Evolve on Their Own

Or to put it a nicer way, researchers have found a way for robots to grow on their own

  

• By Will Knight
• Smithsonian magazine, December 2013, Subscribe

 

Teaching a simulated robot to walk is significantly easier if it starts with a simple body plan and grows limbs as it learns. (Source: Josh Bongard)

Forget what you see in movies. Most robots sit in a factory somewhere doing dull, repetitive work. Even if their software does dream of a more interesting job, their physical form remains fixed from the day they’re assembled to the moment they’re junked.
But it doesn’t have to be that way, say pioneers of “evo devo robo”—evolutionary developmental robotics, which applies principles of natural selection and biological development to machine design.

end quote from: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ideas-innovations/Beware-Scientists-are-Creating-Machines-That-Can-Evolve-on-Their-Own-231145101.html