Authors: V K Wadhawan
Publish Date: 2007/07/31
Volume: 12, Issue: 7, Pages: 61-78
Abstract
Robots are a subset of “smart structures” — engineered constructs that can “think” and adapt to the environment Robots can work even in environments not conducive to humans eg areas with high levels of nuclear radiation Intelligent robots will find a large range of applications in defence and nuclear industries as also other scientific technological and commercial applications Robotics is therefore a strategically important field of research The question is How smart or intelligent can the robots become The answer is that perhaps there is no readilyconceivable upper limit In fact there is a strong section of opinion that within the present century itself robots will overtake humans in practically all aspects of mental and physical capability and they will then evolve further at a rapid rate with or without our help Expert opinion is bound to be divided when we look too far into the future Some scientists think that there is nothing much that we can do to control or prevent the inevitable and fast evolution of machine intelligenceV K Wadhawan is a Raja Ramanna Fellow at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Mumbai He is the author of a book on ferroic materials Gordon Breach 2000 and another one on smart structures Oxford University Press 2007 He is also the Regional Editor for Asia for the journal PHASE TRANSITIONS Taylor Francis
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