[H-GEN] RepRapping in Brisbane!

[Robert Brockway]

On Fri, 28 Mar 2008, Arjen Lentz wrote:

> Homo sapiens self-replicates and causes no end of trouble to itself and its 
> surroundings.

Hi Arjen.  An excellent point.  There are now more than 6.5 billion 
humans.  The human population is projected to peak around 9-10 billion 
(depending on who is doing the estimate).  This is a scary number.

> In my view, not necessarily more than any other self-replicating entity that 
> already exists.

I expect some future self replicating robot to be more significantly 
efficient than all self replicating entities that have come before.  As 
such they may well outclass the current dominant species.  One could argue 
it is evolution in action :)

> Considering our own situation, I have no doubt that there will be problems.
> As for civilisation, that's a very relative concept. How civilised are we, 
> really (but that's a whole other can of worms we shouldn't start on here)

I considered whether I was going to use the word civilisation or another 
word.  I was actually trying to be non-sensationalist.  I should simply 
have said what I meant:

If robots which can self replicate by consuming their surroundings can be 
built then the long term survival of the human species is under serious 
threat.  The potential for exponential growth of their population 
following a single failure of population containment leads me to conclude 
that a human disaster (and possible extinction) would be an inevitable 
consequence of building such machines.

Cheers,

Rob

-- 
"With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine..."
 	-- RFC 1925 "The Twelve Networking Truths"