Artificial life 'could be created within five years'

[Board Game Geek]

Suppose we reach a point where we have capable AI and human-shaped forms (bio-robots, if you like).

Then we clone all these obedient bio-slaves to do our work for us.

Clean the streets, run the power stations, make products in factories, etc.

Suppose the AI evolves enough so that there is not a single facet of life where these machines cannot function.

Ignoring the "Rise of the Machines" doomsday scenario, my question is this.

What would humans do ?

If we replace ourselves with automatons to do our jobs, then what becomes of us ?

How do we earn money ?

Is money even needed anymore ?

If not, then would that mean we could have anything we wanted ?

Surely there must be a limit ?

Is it feasible for every member of the UK to have a RR Phaeton ?

Is there enough resource to provide this ?

I'm thinking that we may free ourselves from the slavery of work, only to replace it with the despair of worthlessness.

Forum members, what's your thoughts ?

[minestrone]

We just have to create a 'work chip' and implant it into the brains of 3 million folk in this country.

[thunderlizard]

It will be no match for Genuine Death.

[PRC1964]

Will vegetarians be able to eat it?

And will it taste like chicken?

[thelace]

Wasn't this on Tomorrows World 20 years ago?

[d000hg]

Yeah yeah.

Everyting is always 5 years away. Like nuclear fusion, cure for cancer and trains that can run on time.

For once, we are in total agreement.

[TimberWolf]

Pot meet kettle!

Please go on.

[oracleslave]

There's plenty ofartificial life on this forum already. look at all the sock puppets.

Pot meet kettle!

[sasguru]

There's plenty ofartificial life on this forum already. look at all the sock puppets.

[NotAllThere]

Does that mean the creationists are right - it really doesn't take billions of years for life to evolve. Just five years in a test tube?

[EternalOptimist]

Blooming heck.
Prince Charles will go ballistic over this one.

[DimPrawn]

Yeah yeah.

Everyting is always 5 years away. Like nuclear fusion, cure for cancer and trains that can run on time.

[BrilloPad]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sciencean...ive-years.html

Artificial life 'could be created within five years'
Artificial life could be created "within five years", researchers from the USA have claimed.

Laboratories across the world are closing in on a "second genesis" - an achievement that would be one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of all time.

Prof David Deamer, from California University, said although building a new lifeform from scratch is a daunting task he is confident it can happen in five to 10 years.

He said: "The momentum is building - we're knocking at the door."

A synthetic, made-to-order living system could produce everything from new drugs to biofuels and greenhouse gas absorbers.

Opponents of the controversial research claim the technology could lead to machines becoming "almost human".

But there would be no safety issues for a long time as any initial organisms would be very primitive and need large-scale life support in the lab, reports New Scientist.

The finishing line could be in sight after geneticists Professor George Church and Dr Michael Jewett, of Harvard Medical School, told a synthetic biology conference in Hong Kong that they had synthetically created part of a cell, called a ribosome.

The breakthrough offers hope that they could create an entire cell; something Prof Church believes would be a relatively minor challenge.

He said: "There's nothing you'd expect to go wrong - the way we expected things to go wrong with the assembly."

However, according to Dr Anthony Forster, of Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, who is also creating a synthetic living cell in a test tube with Prof Church, "until you actually try this you won't know".

"Having said that we know cells can do it so we should be able to do it sooner or later."