Looks like we are deep in the process of creating "Grey Goo"

[Meredith]

http://technology.newscientist.com/artic...etic-swarm.html


These machines show in the this article remind me of the little replicator bots from Stargate SG1. They have no moving parts but together as a whole can move around. Scarrrry stuff.

 

[philbob]

yay replicators

 

[MIB]

T-1000 anyone?

 

[Johnny Rico]

Oh that's friggin' brilliant! I guess the Air Force hasn't watched a show based on their own branch of the military.

 

[FordSVT]

Re: Looks like we are deep in the process of creating "Grey

They're small electromagnets that cling to one another, not self-replicating nano-machines. I'm not saying that an aspect of this technology might not eventually make its way into "real" nano-bots, but we're still a long way away from SRNT.

Tiny robots do not equal "Grey Goo", these are more like Lego blocks. Nano and pico and eventually even femto robot technology is based around the idea that self-propelled, self-replicating robots could be used to manipulate the environment (literally individual atoms or even smaller particles) around them. That's "grey goo". What this article describes is quite different and is focused on how the robots can interact with one another. And they're very primitive and comparatively huge, even in the form they say they'll be at within the next year or two.

Sorry, not trying to put a damper on the science, which is pretty cool and could be very useful, or the OP.

 

[Lindley]

Re: Looks like we are deep in the process of creating "Grey

I took my undergrad AI class from this guy about four years ago. He mentioned this project then.

I considered lending him some DVDs, but didn't. Have I doomed the world?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Re: Looks like we are deep in the process of creating "Grey

I was deep in the process of creating Grey Goo once.

'Course, it was when I was trying to make pudding from scratch.

 

[romulus]

Re: Looks like we are deep in the process of creating "Grey

No offence but what the hell is grey goo?

 

[Hoser]

Re: Looks like we are deep in the process of creating "Grey

End of the world scenario.

Self replicating nanites somehow go wonky and consume the planet in their drive to replicate, making it all one large mass of gray goo.

 

[romulus]

Re: Looks like we are deep in the process of creating "Grey

ok

From a sci-fi book?

 

[FordSVT]

Re: Looks like we are deep in the process of creating "Grey

romulus said:
ok

From a sci-fi book?

Many, but it's also a potential threat roboticists and AI researchers acknowledge. If you didn't put a limit on their growth and they were allowed to spread, they could theoretically consume the entire planet. Of course, since they're programmed by people, you would put a limit on them. "Bad" people, however, might not. They could program them to attempt to consume a city or a country or even individual people and objects. Much like anti-virus programmers today, an entire industry (probably government backed due to national security interests) would have to be built up around creating "super-nanites" that could do everything from stop and dismantle directed attacks to actively patrolling the atmosphere searching for emergent threats. The potential for the technology, combined with AI, represents the biggest technological leap we've ever experienced. Once you can manipulate the world at a sub-atomic level, most anything in the realm of physics becomes possible for you.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Looks like we are deep in the process of creating "Grey

^^Except self-replicating robots overrunning the whole world is unlikely, since there would be limits to the circumstances under which they could replicate themselves. Also, a lot of the early speculations about the miraculous powers of nanotechnology have been toned down as more research has revealed the physical obstacles and difficulties involved. Not that there aren't potential risks, but they're probably much less extreme than the "grey goo swallowing the world" scenario.

Anyway, that's all beside the point, because the devices that are the subject of this news story are not self-replicating, just self-organizing. The best SF analogy is not "grey goo," but "utility fog" -- microscopic robots that can assemble into any desired shape, complete with functional moving parts, upon command.

 

[FordSVT]

Re: Looks like we are deep in the process of creating "Grey

Christopher said:
^^Except self-replicating robots overrunning the whole world is unlikely, since there would be limits to the circumstances under which they could replicate themselves. Also, a lot of the early speculations about the miraculous powers of nanotechnology have been toned down as more research has revealed the physical obstacles and difficulties involved. Not that there aren't potential risks, but they're probably much less extreme than the "grey goo swallowing the world" scenario.

I agree, but given the right technology one might attempt it. But of course the world wouldn't sit idly by and just let it happen. But you could definitely do some damage if you wanted to, if if it was just localized. But I agree that the "world-ending out of control goo" scenario is highly improbable.

Anyway, that's all beside the point, because the devices that are the subject of this news story are not self-replicating, just self-organizing. The best SF analogy is not "grey goo," but "utility fog" -- microscopic robots that can assemble into any desired shape, complete with functional moving parts, upon command.

I was going to mention utility fog and "angel nets" but I thought I'd rambled long enough.

 

[Meredith]

Re: Looks like we are deep in the process of creating "Grey

FordSVT said:

Christopher said:
^^Except self-replicating robots overrunning the whole world is unlikely, since there would be limits to the circumstances under which they could replicate themselves. Also, a lot of the early speculations about the miraculous powers of nanotechnology have been toned down as more research has revealed the physical obstacles and difficulties involved. Not that there aren't potential risks, but they're probably much less extreme than the "grey goo swallowing the world" scenario.

I agree, but given the right technology one might attempt it. But of course the world wouldn't sit idly by and just let it happen. But you could definitely do some damage if you wanted to, if if it was just localized. But I agree that the "world-ending out of control goo" scenario is highly improbable.

Anyway, that's all beside the point, because the devices that are the subject of this news story are not self-replicating, just self-organizing. The best SF analogy is not "grey goo," but "utility fog" -- microscopic robots that can assemble into any desired shape, complete with functional moving parts, upon command.

I was going to mention utility fog and "angel nets" but I thought I'd rambled long enough.

I really would like my own personal Angel net.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Looks like we are deep in the process of creating "Grey

Where does the term "angel net" come from? I don't have any luck searching for it on Wikipedia or Google. And is it different in any way from a utility fog?

(Then there was the time when Kermit got a job working for the power company -- he was a utility frog.)

 

[FordSVT]

Re: Looks like we are deep in the process of creating "Grey

Sorry, it's a phrase I've latched onto that I learned from a post-Singularity sci-fi story set in the Orion's Arm universe which is a kind of sci-fi resource. If you've never run across it there's some very interesting reading to be had that get the juices flowing.

http://www.orionsarm.com/

http://www.orionsarm.com/civ/angelnet.html

The "Angelnet" is an AI-controlled worldwide utility fog that can do anything from recycling and maintaining infrastructure to stopping a person from accidentally falling off a balcony to creating needed objects and even repair sickness and injury. They can even monitor and stop crime. It's basically the ultimate extension of the utility fog concept.

It's a very uncomfortable notion for many people that a technology could become so all-pervasive, but it's definitely a technological possibility, and people's attitudes about technology and society changes a lot over time, so who knows?

Re: OA, I've spent hours there. Very interesting fiction and technological and societal ideas. It is just fiction, but they really do try to pay close attention to the hard science behind their postulations more than most.