[extropy-chat] pest-devouring automaton

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Samantha Atkins <sjatkins at mac.com> wrote:
> Oh man, carnivorous robots.  What a concept.  Now
> our "mind children" 
> can potentially compete for food, eh?   At least
> that is how the 
> paranoid may see it.
> 
> Wouldn't a nice little fleck of some radioactive
> isotope be maybe a 
> touch more preferable than instilling hunting
> patterns (presumably) and 
> the ability to digest biological creatures?

As has been pointed out, these robots don't hunt -
and besides, their food sources aren't quite the same
as ours.

But putting those aside for the moment...if they did
evolve to "compete" with us for food, then most likely
what would happen is the same thing that's happened as
more and more humans have "competed" for food over
time: new sources of food and new technology drive
supply up to meet the demand, resulting in lower costs
for any given person to acquire the food they need,
and better quality food.  Some of the effort to
establish that will likely be supplied by the new
"competitors", whose primary motivation - being fed -
doesn't actually demand that all competitors suffer.
(In fact, the smarter ones will likely realize that
having many many food sources out there means that
much more of a chance that its own ration of food will
be available to it - even if it also means that
everyone else can also eat.)