Self-replicating robots: the end is near

Marking what is surely the official launch of the robotic conquest of Earth, whizz kids (or aliens? Hmmm) at Cornell University have created small robots that can build copies of themselves, demonstrating that simple, mechanical self-reproduction is not unique to biology. Each robot consists of several 4-inch cubes with identical machinery, software, and electromagnets. Sure, they tried to prevent it, but living amongst us now are machines (read "children") who duplicate by bending over and putting their top cube on the table; bend again, pick up another cube and put it on the first, then repeat until the robot has created a four-module replica in 2.5 minutes. The development team hopes their design principles could make long-term, self-repairing robots that could mend themselves in hazardous situations and space flights. Yeah, right. Oh, and did we mention they transfer data "through their faces?"  Please bookmark this link for reference in the year 2029.

[Thanks, Brian and Jason]

[Asher @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Federal ID cards, Super Volcanoes, subdermal chips, G W Bush and now this!!! It's like a buffet line at the end of time. Get a muffin, all you can eat shrimp, sprinkles on your soft serve ice cream and to wrap it all up: choose the demise of the human race.

[Brandon @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

The clip at MSNBC is unavailable, ne1 else know where to watch it?

[Matthew Goeden @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

My question is "how do you make a horrible Horror/Sci-fi movie out of this technology?" Kinda like the blob, but with robots so small that they flow like a blob.

Or, maybe it would be like "The Birds" but instead with replicated robot rabbits.

[wolssiloa @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

OMG, we're gonna get taken over by TOFU

[Stephen @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

The clip worked for me... imagine a bin of those blocks assembling themselves... freaky!

[porcupine @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

i'm very skeptical of this "self-replicating" claim. each robot is made up of four "sub-robots". the only thing they have demonstrated is that those things can be programmed to connect and disconnect these sub-robots. i guess it is self-replicating if these sub-robots are laying around all over the place just waiting to be picked up.

[tweaq @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

yeah, i thought they were actually build themselves from parts. they're just connecting each other.

[Brandon @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

http://www.mae.cornell.edu/ccsl/research/selfrep/video/4x4ht4a.wmv

[zachary @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Haven't these people seen enough sci-fi movies to know to stop this right now and destroy all of it?

[iPodTodd @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Can it clean my toilet?!

[The dude @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

I'm scared...

[narco @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

The picture does this no justice -- you have to see the video. Amazing stuff -- it gives me goose-bumps. The only thing I couldn't get over is the fact that they look like they were made with left-overs from old sex toys. An ex-girlfriend of mine showed me one that moves almost the same as these "robots," so I guess this technology isn't anything new.

Fishes,
narco.

[Peter @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

I for one welcome our new robot leaders.

[t0dd @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Cool stuff - For more info check the article at new scientist: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18624997.100&feedId=online-news_rss20

[Eric @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

One step closer to immortality. Who wants to live forever? Um... how about me?

[Nate @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

We are totally screwed!! ...that is, if the world is filled with pre-made robot parts set at exactly the right position so they can assemble themselves....

This gets a big Whatever from me.

Is it cool? Sure. But these are FAR from self-replicating. I do really like the rubix cube effect and the neat magnetic connections... but overkill to call it self-replicating. Heck, it's almost overkill to call it self-assembling. Now, if you merged this thing with a Roomba and somehow made it so it could construct parts out of bottlecaps and paperclips... *then* I would be scared.

[embassy sweetz @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

well to all u skeptics...it all has ta start somewhere..1st " self-replicating" tufu robiz cubes...next...T1000....

[Finishing.Law.School @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

those things sort of look like wontons or something like that - anyone know if you can eat them??

[Pseudo99 @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

New game coming soon to your PSP!!!

[SeraphimX @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

I've seen this stuff like a month ago.. impressive for sure, but it's NOT self-replicating!! I don't see those blocks take raw materials and then CREATING some more of those blocks.. this thing is "merely" self-BUILDING.. (not that it's not cool to watch though, but come on people, know how to describe your bot!)

[jochen de wijs @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

pittyful reactions just the same way people reacted to the birth of the car. which turned out to be the biggest mechanical friend of all time

remember that all of nature can reproduce and none of it is a threat for "human kind" interily the opposite actually.

this wil be the brink of a new revolution together with artificial intelligence this will outproduce the needs of the world population including the poor country's food demand etc. rendering kapitalism ineffective and thus a new system will emerge (what system? that is to be seen just yet)

[TheZodiac @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

This is stupid. SPED UP BY A SPEED OF 4. Give me a break. Its a program - there is nothing "self replicating" about it. BIG JUNK. But, I sure so wish it was the end of the world. :)

[theSAWzall @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

A recuring enemy in Stargate SG-1 is the replicators, an alien "species" of small robots that build more of themselves to concur.

If we could get Roombas to do this, there wouldn't be a dirty floor or sidewalk in the whole world...or universe!

[chris @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

well, i for one welcome our new tofu overlords...

[Obscura @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Is that Jalapeno-Jack? Looks more like a cheese bot to me.

[OddManOut @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

"this wil be the brink of a new revolution together with artificial intelligence this will outproduce the needs of the world population including the poor country's food demand etc. rendering kapitalism ineffective and thus a new system will emerge (**what system?** that is to be seen just yet)"

I think 'Morpheus' covered that already...

'The Matrix is a *system*, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.'

:)

[TAZ427 @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Does this hold up to the term replicate?

Replicate means to Duplicate which means to make an exact copy of the original.

Is a disassembled and reassembled item a replica of itself when it's made up of itself?

Would then a transporter actually be a replicator? Well I'd say a transporter is a replicator if it actually existed because its matter to energy then back to matter so it's not the original matter but an exact copy of the original matter.

Anyway this fits the term replicate even less than a manufacturing robot which is programmed to take the already manufactured parts and assembles them to make an exact copy of itself.

TAZ

[Lynn @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Did you not read "Prey" by Michael Chrichton??? What are you crazy????

[Not_important @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Sorry but this is a joke.
Its just a simple machine with autonomous parts programmed to complete a cycle when 4 pieces are attached, and then move on.
Don't put any parts near it, and it will just stop. Fry one of it's circuits and it will stop. Make something simmilar out of few molecules with no programmed transistors involved, and i'll be impressed. Because it would involve squeezing intelligence (that of self replicating ) into a molecular level, which means engineering on a scale we don't comprehent. Which means understanding matter and what lies under it and what makes it move. Which means understanding the universe and how it works and how it came into existence in the first place.

Realy guys... Life is not that simple. Your level of thinking about life, surely is.

[Douglas Reay @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

This is significant.

Not because it is a complete solution to self replication plus resource scavenging. It isn't.

Because it is a class break. A piece of the puzzle.

Think of it as a machine, made up of lego bricks, that can pick other bricks up out of a storage tub and stick them together to assemble new machines, either the same as itself or fashioned after a blueprint you download to it.

Now do you see the potential?

If there were a way (eg nanotechnology) to create the bricks, this would allow you to bootstrap up to building large scale objects. It simplifies the problem, by splitting it into stages and giving the keys to solving one of those stages.

For hints on further stages, see the robotic assembly techniques discussed for the Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid project based in Tokyo.

[Nader Alrawahi @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

I certainly agree with Douglas Reay, I always wonder about these people who like to be skeptical for any scientific discovery. If robotics manufactures, for example, intend to build millions of these on a nanoscale technology and they are built in with RF, wireless, connection to communicate with any computer, like Sony Aibo, and using a program such as a mechanical CAD, then those pieces will form any type of robot in a matter of minutes. Outstanding Discovery! Two Thumps Up to Cornell Engineering.