8. I find it interesting that the stories we read on this topic are of a mild fear-mongering sort, i.e., the robots will force US to serve THEM nonsense. I think the future will be more a case of the first truly sentient artificial being suing to have his rights protected under the same laws that govern human behavior. (Of course, this assumes that in America, at least, we will have restored our own Constitutional guarantees by that time, doesn't it??)

OK, Techradar, now that you've forced me to endure this mind-numbing "registration" process only to make a SINGLE comment (which took more time than the comment itself), you can now UN-register me, as I'm never coming back - it's entirely the fault of the registration process.

7. Spare me. I can find almost no evidence of this "gaining ground" outside of a few crackpot science sites, and the authors of that paper themselves. That's a red flag for a start. In addition, I can find ever more precise repetitions of the MM experiment, the result of which (or lack of one, rather) is one of the cornerstones of modern physics.

Why am I even wasting my time on this?

6. Michelson–Morley conducted an experiment which was INTERPRETED as disproving the aether.

There are other potential interpretations of MM, which have indeed gained ground in recent years. Here's one paper for example: http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0311576

Discoveries such as virtual particles and zero-point energy have forced modern scientists to acknowledge that there must indeed be some sort of unseen energy transfer medium. Of course you can't call it "aether", that would be taboo. Instead, we see phrases like "quantum medium" being tossed around, but it's the same thing.

5. By the way, the aether doesn't exist. Michelson–Morley sorted that one out over 100 years ago.

4. Proximaking - that's the weirdest post I've seen on the site in ages. Bravo, sir!

Takes some talent to link Intel, Tesla, cosmology, Big Oil and quasars.

3. The idea of robots being more intelligent may or may not be correct but one thing is sure Tesla's ideas about free "energy from the aether" are getting more and more backing every day, he didn't know where the power came from. The latest ideas from Shell UK, yes Shell UK, is that such units as Tesla used in his car that was a figment of his imagination (actually a real Pierce Arrow) derive their power from quasars that no longer exist and that the working parts of those quasars were no larger than grapes and yet could put out more power than trillions of suns. Blue and Pink quasars can be linked to. Google Sinclair Boffin Shell and hit "I'm feeling lucky". Only a zero dimensional (time free also) electro-magnetic-spin conceptual reality explains the results they have been getting. Is this the real reason Shell, BP and the Russian oligarchies (as of yesterday) are getting out of wind, wave and oil as fast as they can? Can we really tap into quasar power with a few (12?) oscilators, a few bits of wire and a dc motor? Surely not, .... "You can be sure of Shell".

2. #1 -> I imagine people said that about cars, too. "Machines which can travel faster than humans, *built* by humans? Hah, right. Pull the other one."

1. ...robots with better reasoning than humans...built by humans? Mmmm....