can robots take over the world?

And in robot news....

Hans Moravec, pioneer in mobile robot research and founder of Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute claims robots are going to take over as the dominant life force on earth. He makes some crazy arsed claims that currently robots have the brain capacity of ants but that by 2040 they will be as intelligent as humans. Check out the interview here.

So... what would this all mean? If we can teach them to do all the jobs we don't want to do (or are too lazy to do), Moravec claims we'll be like slave owners living lives of comfort, health, and boundless plenty and it will all lead to developing life on other planets... ok, is this all sounding like a cross between a techno bible and the musings of a man who likes to smoke some really special stuff indeed or could this be the life of our future generations?

Fast Company printed an interesting reflecting on the issue of Artificial Intelligence last week claiming it is rediculous to consider robots taking over the world just yet. Their perspective is clean cut - Why would we be giving autonomy to computerized systems that lack anything other than simplistic algorithms for decision-making? They use the military and the sharemarket to showcase their interesting perspective.

I also spoke to the smartest techy guy I know (ahem) about Moravec's claims for the year 2040 and he thinks this highly implausible time frame given one of the smartest thing robots are doing today is automating pizza production for Pizza outlets...

But now...here's a feel good story at the end...given Japan has the greatest number of robots, it doesn't sound too far fetched they are now appearing in fashion parades there: