Intelligent Machines

The progressive incorporation of increasingly complex information architecture, microchips and software into a wide variety of machines - from computing devices to automobiles, robots, and industrial machinery has led to a proliferation of intelligent machines. The Center for Intelligent Machines (CIM) http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/, at McGill University, which was established in 1985, offers a concise definition of intelligent machines:
"Intelligent machines are capable of adapting their goal-oriented behaviour by sensing and interpreting their environment, making decisions and plans, and then carrying out those plans using physical actions"
The scope of CIM's research includes: ambulatory robotics, artificial perception, computation, visualization and realization, content-based image retrieval, control and decision support systems haptic interfaces - systems incorporating software and hardware components that concern the sense of touch - industrial automation, mobile robotics, motor vision, shape analysis, probabilistic inference techniques, robotic mechanical systems, and shared reality and intelligent environments.

The Internet

When considered as a whole - i.e. including its human, organizational, computational, networking and protocol components - the Internet itself can be understood as an intelligent machine, even a living machine. A key aspect of the intelligence of the Internet was the initial decision - originally made in the context of Cold War concerns of the need for a communications system that could survive if any of its nodes were destroyed. This led to the design - originally as Arpanet - of the Internet as a seamless interoperable network of networks that is defined by Internet Protocols that incorporate intelligent, consensus-based decision-making processes.

Convergence of biology & technology

A far-reaching perspective on intelligent machines is offered in a February 2004 feature article on Living Machines http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.02/machines_pr.html in Wired Magazine (Issue 12-02) addressing ways in which:
"Technology and biology are converging fast. The result will transform everything from engineering to art - and redefine life as we know it."
See also: living machines, industrial ecology.

External link

 

<< PreviousWord BrowserNext >>
river line
mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration
mean corpuscular hemoglobin
mean corpuscular volume
red blood cell distribution width
saint francis xavier university
ackley
bora laskin
ackworth
kingmaker
perisher blue
national parks in new south wales
chris hani
warrumbungles national park
coonabarabran
perfectly legal
hctor lavoe
warren, new south wales
macquarie river
coffin corner
adel
catalepsy
gwydir river
stjepan radic
adell
manilla, new south wales
psychogenic dwarfism
advance
john francis skjellerup
rheumatism
gordon, new south wales
lindfield, new south wales
psoriatic arthritis
ylivieska
coolah
agawam
ku ring gai council
st ives, new south wales
agder
grigg skjellerup
rlab
dunedoo
ocean avenue
unix system services