[Tyler]

Cyborgs Solve the Manned vs Robotic Space Debate
     

For years, scientists as well as the general population have argued about
manned space flight versus robotic exploration. Robots are cheaper goes
the argument from one side. But since the goal is survival of the human
race through colonization of other planets, what's the point of sending
robots if human can't follow, counter the other side. The accepted
wisdom these days seems to be that robots go first and
humans follow when the budget allows. A new article
from Space.com puts some interesting spins on the idea, quoting Agent
Smith from the Matrix: "never send a human to do a machine's job". The
article also notes that most current robot space probes are being sent
on what amounts to suicide missions; something we might want to take
into account when we consider the possibility of conscious robots in the
future. None other than Ray Kurzweil has suggested a solution that
combines the best of both methods: humans and machines should merge into
space
faring cyborgs.
   

http://robots.net/article/2515.html