Artificial Intelligence, smart robots, thinking machines, how far can we go? What ethics are involved in the search for "creating life"? Is it really possible? We can surely make "smart" machines, we have designed ones to defeat chess champions, but can we make them "alive"? Can we truly create "A-LIFE"?
Artificial Intelligence, commonly termed AI, began during the second World War. Enemy codes poured in, and humans couldn't work fast enough to crack them all in time, and some were even too complex, so computers were created to recognize patterns, and "crack" the codes. Large lists of rules were inputted into a computer, and it followed them until a solution was found. The same method is used for today's "Big Blue", the computer that has defeated world chess champion Gary Kasparov.
Unfortunately, this method of "rule-following" allowed only for intelligence that had already been discovered by humans. This concept is a little difficult to understand, but it is simple to create a machine with thousands of rules able to defeat a chess champion, but much more complex to create a creature that can live, breed, and even die. Can we really do it? Actually, to some extent, yes. In Oxford, scientists have created a heart made of millions of "computer cells", which has taught doctors more than any living heart could. Biologists can study evolution from within "virtual worlds", and some computers even sport "adaptive" virus protection systems, which adapt to new threats.
But can it go the other way? What would happen if a virus "adapted" to the protection, as many real-life viruses adapt to the anti-biotics that fight them today. Can machines really evolve, and with the speed that computers seem to learn at, can they develop faster than us? This is a new kind of revolution, and some don't think that we are ready for it. There are definite ethical questions about A-LIFE, and many others as well.
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Artificial Intelligence, smart robots, thinking machines, how far can we go? What ethics are involved in the search for "creating life"? Is it really possible? We can surely make "smart" machines, we have designed ones to defeat chess champions, but can we make them "alive"? Can we truly create "A-LIFE"?
Artificial Intelligence, commonly termed AI, began during the second World War. Enemy codes poured in, and humans couldn't work fast enough to crack them all in time, and some were even too complex, so computers were created to recognize patterns, and "crack" the codes. Large lists of rules were inputted into a computer, and it followed them until a solution was found. The same method is used for today's "Big Blue", the computer that has defeated world chess champion Gary Kasparov. 
But can it go the other way? What would happen if a virus "adapted" to the protection, as many real-life viruses adapt to the anti-biotics that fight them today. Can machines really evolve, and with the speed that computers seem to learn at, can they develop faster than us? This is a new kind of revolution, and some don't think that we are ready for it. There are definite ethical questions about A-LIFE, and many others as well.