San Diego Museum of Man - Footsteps Through Time

Cloning

Robots

Nanotechnology

Gene Selection

Robots

Do as they are told
Today, robots are everywhere, from factories to toystores to Mars. Yet they are still limited machines designed to respond to a specific set of instructions in a particular environment. This does not work well in a world that is varied with new situations arising every day.

Will they think for themselves?
What if a machine could change its behaviors as its environment changed? Scientists are experimenting with "smart" machines that learn from their mistakes and change their own programs. They are even making machines that can build new machines to solve new problems. Is this a form of reproduction and evolution?

Pros & Cons

Robots help with tasks that are boring or dangerous for humans, but robots are still machines. Future robots may act more like real living things: growing, changing, and reproducing themselves.

-Should we make robots to help with tasks we do not want to do?
-Should we make robots that move, act, and think like real living things?
-If we can make robots that evolve-change and reproduce as their environment changes-should we?

Can you think of other issues? How do you think robots will impact the future of human evolution?