Could computers and robots become conscious — if so, what happens then?
The advancements we’ve made in computer science and robotics, two young disciplines, are impressive. Moore’s Law is a good example of how quickly things can change. Gordon Moore observed in 1965 that the number of transistors that could fit on a silicon chip an inch (2.54 centimeters) in diameter doubled every year. That’s a logarithmic growth pattern. While computer scientists would adjust the observation by lengthening the amount of time it takes before we can cram more transistors onto a chip, we’ve still shrunk transistors down to the nanoscale. In robotics, engineers have created machines with multiple points of articulation. Some robots have an array of sensors that can gather information about the environment, allowing the robot to maneuver through a simple obstacle course. Honda’s ASIMO robot can
