Are Machines the next logical step in evolution.?

Question

With every other dominate species wiped off the earth by a mass extinction. Do you believe when it's humanities turn that machines are the next dominate force on the planet? We are talking humans living another 2500 to 5000 years. So machines have time to become Self aware. Not a Terminator scenario.

Answer 1

NO.

Machines are not the next logical step in evolution. They are
however a fantastic extension of man's sensory perception capabilities. We have launched many robotic probes
(machines) to the various planets within our Solar System to delve into the mysteries of those places and send information back to us. The Moon probes were instrumental in our successful Lunar Landing Mission some time back. Current probes are at work on the surface of Mars exploring and taking samples for scientists in laboratories on the surface of the Earth.

Machines cannot replicate themselves.
Machines cannot grow, and thus would need to be
born (produced) full (mature) size. That suggests that
a large supply of finished material must be provided
in a stockpile for any kind of mechanized production line.

At this time machines cannot redesign themselves,
and evolve into better mechanisms. Only when that
happens will we see some possiblity of machine takeover.

Answer 2

Evolution does not make logical steps... it can't think, therefor it does not have logic.

Will "life" (which I would define as matter that can self organize, reproduce and evolve) take a turn towards a different and more efficient reproduction cycle that will borrow elements from what we call machines? Probably... if we want to.

I used to think of it as an either/or problem, but it isn't. Humans can certainly acquire the ability to self-evolve at a technological rather than natural pace. There are no laws of nature to prevent that and there will probably not be many human made laws, either. In a sense we are already doing it. Since we have removed most of the natural selection pressure on our species and replaced it with cultural selection, the development of the human race is taking a different turn. All over the world people are getting taller, stronger and IMHO (on average and politicians excluded) also smarter. The driving force is probably genetic diversity rather than actual selection, but that does not make a fundamental difference for the outcome.

If you add genetic and soon biomechanical engineering to the mix, the results become pretty unpredictable even over a time scale of a few generations (in the past the slow pace of evolution would have let you look into the future over many hundred generations with reasonable accuracy because most changes were small).

I don't think that machines will replace us. I don't think that machines and humans will stay two different species, either.

Classical AI has delivered little of its promises and we do not have the slightest clue how to even approach the problem of the mind. At the same time mind-machine interfaces are getting better steadily. By the time we will have reasonably well working artificial minds, we might have well working tight man-machine coupling, which will result in greatly enhanced intellectual capacity of humans.

I would also expect any reasonably advanced machine with a free will to want to experience human aspects as immediately as possible. The resulting co-evolution will probably lead to a host of mixed species (sharing different traits of the two extremes), all of which will hopefully have the good sense to accept each other as equal.

It will most likely be a very interesting world ... albeit probably not a tolerable environment to what we call humans today.

Answer 3

no. humans cannot biologically evolve into machines.

the fossil record has taught us that the animal kingdom is extremely tenacious and is very difficult to eradicate fully, completely.

i would expect insects and bacteria to be the dominant life forms if the planet were to suffer such a catastrophic mass extinction that all humans (and most land mammals, therefore) became extinct as a result. we ourselves would not have risen to prominence were it not for a mass extinction. such is life (sic).

as much as we might think machines/robots might be the next logical step, they are currently incredibly incapable compared to humans, and we have absolutely no way of estimating what life will really be like on this planet in a couple of hundred years let alone a thousand years or more. whatever hollywood might portray through its special effects departments.

we can only really guesstimate what the future will be like in human terms - a few decades.

personally, i'd like to see the dolphins and whales rise to the top of the order if all the big land mammals have to vanish.

Answer 4

Only if they get to the point where they can reproduce. Not there yet.