http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zIuF5DcsbKU

Taking all bets!

Really though, this is one of the most realistic humanoid robots I've seen yet. What say ye people about yonder mechanical persons? ... I don't know why I felt like typing that in Faux-Old-English, but meh. >.>

Cyber Humans here we come...

Thus forthcoming, woulds't thine contraption be able to purvey in thine undertaking of jolly stickling?

it is interesting that people think robots will rise up, that robots will be the problem

humanoid, large robots are harmless... their numbers are miniscule. its the computer in your car, in your house, in your pocket, that you have to worry about

viruses approaching levels of complexity similar to living creatures are inevitable in a world where the average laptop has more computing power than the human brain, and any intelligent viruses created would inevitably be outfitted by their creators to access sensitive systems and take control of computers and robots, or to fight off other virus programs

What will be the future of the internet then? An alternate universe?

Plug and play into your brain!

it already is

right now it is simple, filled with simple programs and limited interfaces

once the technology improves, and we have direct connections wired to our brains, and faster computers, TRON will be the closest thing we have to an analogy for the real internet (many things are inconsistent, like the existence of 3d space in TRON, but it provides the best tool to assist human imagination in understanding what it would be like to operate in a virtual enviroment where the laws of physics are replaced with laws of information flow and computer algorithms)

"life" will have to be redefined... if viruses IRL, which only function when inside a host cell or body, can be considered alive, what defines computer viruses as "not alive"? they function within computers which operate like cells and are connected electronically, rather than spatially, they interact with their enviroment and they can be changed by their enviroment...

IRL viruses dont have cells, but they are considered alive...

the new meaning may have to be things that are "living" are things that reproduce themselves, and evolve

the rate of diversification may be much much lower online than IRL, but programs will evolve over time in the same way animals do, through accumulated errors in their base code as they copy themselves

why?

because they cannot operate outside cells?

humans cannot operate in space without spacesuits,

are we "not alive" since we rely on a host "suit" or a planet to live on with an atmosphere for our survival?

you need a defenition that makes logical sense without having to draw a line, a defenition with no exceptions.

i still think "the ability to replicate, and evolve over time" is what defines something as "living", since they are the things we associate most with life

Viruses have been proven to be one of the few organisms to be both dead and alive. They can exist as one or the other but not both states at once and only acquire "life" when infecting a host and using the hosts cells and structures to further it's own reproduction.