Ben Bova SETI Article

On Tue, 23 Dec 2003, ComputerDoctor wrote:

Are you saying that humans are going to invent nanobots that think for
themselves?

As soon a brain cells can think for themselves.

- when we don't even know ourselves how we think,

of if

or how to write programs without bugs in,

A feature is a bug which has become accepted.

let alone how to write programs that re-program themselves?

That has been considered bad form for so long most people have
forgotten it was an early programming trick to deal with only 1k of program
space in a big machine.

Who is going to test that the nanobots' programs don't have bugs in?

Prison inmates?

Even if all this was possible before the oil runs out,
will the thinking nanobots think it is a good idea to (boldly) go and
inherit the universe?

Not knowing how they will function, it may be their prime directive.
If they have some weird objective like eliminating cancer and organic life
on earth goes away they may choose to look for cancers to eliminate.

If they meet other nanobots along the way, will they both decide to join
forces or try to exterminate each other?

Automata wars have been around for some time but not very popular
these days.

If they have any vestige of US culture left in them at that stage, I know
what I would put my money on.

How could they possibly have any human culture?

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2003 11 16: The Pope condemns Israel's apartheid wall.
2003 12 16: The Pope praises Mel Gibson's The Passion.
2003 12 18: Israel's Mossad warns of an Arab attack on the Vatican.
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