[DemonRaven]

https://www.inverse.com/article/9398-this-robot-arm-can-build-its-own-robots-and-redesign-them-to-be-better

Welp, the machines have gone and reproduced. Dr. Fumiya Iida of the University of Cambridge has developed a robot that can design smaller, moving robots and improve on those designs in their future generations. On the matter of whether or not this creation will usher in the robot apocalypse, Iida and team write, with a degree of certainty somewhere shy of absolute: “We believe not.”

Today the scientists published a blog post outlining their research into mother-and-child robotics. The project saw the development of a robotic arm that can assemble in various arrangements small cubes with motors inside, creating “children” robots that can scoot around an environment. The “mother” robot autonomously learns which cube configurations perform best at getting around, then builds further generations of robots by incorporating that information to improve on its designs.

Well they just crossed one of the lines that defines life. The ability to reproduce.

[Art]

Doesn't make it alive...just intelligent!

[8pla.net]

What about industrial robots at autonomous automotive manufacturers?

[Art]

Those are just mindless machines performing the same patterned task day after day.

<University of Cambridge has developed a robot that can design smaller, moving robots and improve on those designs in their future generations.>

These robots are vastly different than those "auto-bots" (knew you'd like that word!)

[DemonRaven]

However, some initial agreement is possible. Living things tend to be complex and highly organized. They have the ability to take in energy from the environment and transform it for growth and reproduction. Organisms tend toward homeostasis: an equilibrium of parameters that define their internal environment. Living creatures respond, and their stimulation fosters a reaction-like motion, recoil, and in advanced forms, learning. Life is reproductive, as some kind of copying is needed for evolution to take hold through a population's mutation and natural selection. To grow and develop, living creatures need foremost to be consumers, since growth includes changing biomass, creating new individuals, and the shedding of waste.

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/life's_working_definition.html

I did  not say it was alive I said it crossed one of the lines of life.

[Art]

Semantics...

What will likely happen one day in our not-so-distant-future, will be the development of human-like androids that so closely resemble humans in practically all ways that they might indeed meet the qualifications of being classified as being "alive".

We have the technology and it has been demonstrated, to replace practically every human part with an artificial, working counterpart. It seems to naturally bear the following: Why not build a "synthetic" working (operating) human with these "parts"? Hmmm....Insert song from Wizard of Oz here< if I only had a brain....>

Their existence will require a new set of laws, standards / guidelines, ethics, morals, etc. in order for us to adopt them and they us. It will be interesting times...just not in my time.

[DemonRaven]

What would end up happening is that we would turn them into slaves. Slaves have a history of not staying that way. So be careful what you wish for.