"The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day."

I'm no "End is Nigh" alarmist (quite frankly I would probably welcome the end of mankind), but two recent articles caught my attention & reminded me of a certain little flick that came out back in '91.
Enjoy.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103064/

ROBOT SCIENTIST BECOMES FIRST MACHINE TO DISCOVER NEW SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-04/babs-rsb032709.php

JAPAN CHILD ROBOT MIMICKS INFANT LEARNING
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.bbd53bd17a5713678ea8bea533d92910.1bc1&show_article=1

The following quotes come from one of those three pages:


"Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have created a Robot Scientist which the researchers believe is the first machine to have independently discovered new scientific knowledge. A robot named Adam is conducting its own scientific experiments. On its own, it discovered 12 new functions for genes."

"Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th."

"The creators of the Child-robot with Biomimetic Body (CB2) have announced that their 'bot is developing social skills by interacting with humans and watching their facial expressions, mimicking a mother/child relationship. Over the past two years, CB2 has taught itself how to walk with the aid of a human and in the next two years the goal is to have it speaking basic sentences, matching the intelligence of a two-year-old."

"My CPU is a neural net processor, a learning computer. The more contact I have with humans, the more I learn."

"This kind of learning will become even more important as we move further towards integrative and predictive biology in the era of Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web."

"Using artificial intelligence, Adam hypothesised that certain genes in baker's yeast code for specific enzymes which catalyse biochemical reactions in yeast. The robot then devised experiments to test these predictions, ran the experiments using laboratory robotics, interpreted the results and repeated the cycle."

"The scientists at Aberystwyth University and the University of Cambridge designed Adam to carry out each stage of the scientific process automatically without the need for further human intervention."

"Human decisions are removed from strategic defense."

"In coming decades, Asada expects science will come up with a "robo species" that has learning abilities somewhere between those of a human and other primate species such as the chimpanzee."

"I have detailed files on human anatomy."

"When manufacturing a robot, there comes a moment when light flickers in its eyes. That's when we know our work is done."

"The robot can record emotional expressions using eye-cameras, then memorise and match them with physical sensations, and cluster them on its circuit boards."

"It's not human -- but it is paying attention."