The Rise of the Machines Has Begun!

The driving force behind movies such as The Terminator, The Matrix, West-world and 1984, is that through our over reliance upon technology we become the architects of our own extinction and destruction. Since the dawn of the new millennium this has become increasingly appropriate to our modern times, with many households today being connected to the internet via our TV's, laptops, tablets and especially mobile phones. Outside of our homes we are monitored through CCTV, body-cams and satellites, the latter of which can be used to pinpoint our exact position at any time.

The birthplace of the machine revolution!

Even the world of robotics has advanced to slightly worrying levels. Take ASIMO (pictured below), a humanoid robot created by Japanese company Honda in 2000. Since his creation ASIMO has awed to world with his movement, navigation and recognition abilities, all of which it has learnt, mimicking the development of a child. Though the robot may have a cute outer appearance and child like voice, ASIMO's technology, abilities and experiences can simply be upgraded and uploaded into a newer more advanced model. But ASIMO is already old and obsolete, according to news from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York (Pictured above).

Going from this idyllic image...

Roboticist Team Leader Selmer Bringsjord at RPI tested three robots with a puzzle designed to test for self awareness. The 'wise men puzzle' poses that a fictional king is choosing a new advisor and gathers the three wisest people in the land. He promises the contest will be fair, then puts either a blue or white hat on each of their heads and tells them all that the first person to stand up and correctly deduce the colour of their own hat will become his new advisor. One of the robots answered the puzzle with the response “I don't know,” but upon hearing its own voice and understanding that it had not been silenced the robot changed its answer to “Sorry, I know now”.

... To this, could only be a matter of time!

This simple yet cryptic test works because the robot was able to identify itself as a separate entity to the other robots and associate the question with the situation that it is the new advisor, thus recognizing its own existence, ergo the robot is self aware. And you were all worried about a mobile phone app called Genisys!