Having tanked up on cyberology from the Kurzweil pump, I have been rather brought up this afternoon by the Shanahan observation that, given that we still do not really know what makes the very small worm known as C. Elegans work, despite having known quite a lot about all of it its 300 odd neurons for some time now, maybe we should not get too worried just yet about anyone making sentient & malevolent robots which are going to take over from people, people with their tens of billions of neurons.
For those really interested, there is the Society of Nematologists who usually have an annual jamboree in the summer.
Or failing that, one can browse at http://www.openworm.org/, an organisation devoted to the construction of a virtual worm. Construction which includes a lot of impressive online materials - but I am not quite sure whether I have understood them aright, that they are building a computer program which I can load onto my laptop and which will behave like and look like a real worm. At whatever magnification I might choose?
And when you have done with them, there is http://wormatlas.org/.
The wonders of google!
PS: full name, caenorhabditis elegans. A member of the rhabditidae family.
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