• Question: one day would it be possible for robots to take over the world? Whats your favourite thing about being a scientist? At what age did you want to become a scientist?

    Asked by anon-186306 to Verity, Trystan, Raquel, Danny, Catherine, Andy on 11 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Danny Ward

      Danny Ward answered on 11 Nov 2018:


      Robots are getting more and more advanced, artificial intelligence get more impressive each year. Will they over take the world? I highly doubt it. They will take over in the sense that they will be popular and people will be using gadgets and technology more in their daily lives to help with things. I don’t believe they would “take over the world” in an evil sense though. Technology just isn’t that far advanced, they lack the mental flexibility that humans have to do such things and also humans have had to design these robots so they know exactly what they are capable of and what they are not 🤖.
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      I decided that a research scientist was a good job for me during my A-levels and throughout university. It was a gradual process, I learnt over a long time that this was the job for me.
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      My favourite thing about being a scientist is learning new things each day. Science is always changing. Scientists are finding out new things everyday so there is always something new to learn about the world and how things work!

    • Photo: Raquel Medialdea Carrera

      Raquel Medialdea Carrera answered on 11 Nov 2018:


      No, I don’t think that robots will take over the world. In the last few decades, scientist and experts in robotics have managed to develop incredible technology, however, I think that robots taking the world is something that, fortunately, we will only see in the cinema! 🙂 On the other side, I think that one day, it will be possible that robots are everywhere in the world and help humans, animals and plants to make a better world! 🎓

      One of my favourite things about being a scientist is knowing that I am helping to discover things and to develop useful treatments or diagnostics that will improve the health of people.

      I decided to become a scientist when I was 19 and I was studying at University. 🎓

    • Photo: Trystan Leng

      Trystan Leng answered on 12 Nov 2018:


      I hope robots won’t take over the world! The fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning have advanced really quickly in recent years though, meaning AI can do many things, like classification, as good or better than humans! However, these AI are specialists, they are only good at one thing, so I don’t think we need to worry about them taking over!

      My favourite thing about being a scientist is that I get to learn new things every day, and contribute to research that has the potential to help people.

      I didn’t think about becoming a scientist until after my undergraduate degree, so not until I was about 21!

    • Photo: Verity Hill

      Verity Hill answered on 12 Nov 2018:


      I mean I hope not, have you seen Westworld? It doesn’t go well for humans. We are making increasingly clever robots, but at the moment they’re still a long way off mimicking humans sufficiently – they don’t have millions of years of evolution making them good at surviving!

      I love talking to other scientists – either my friends at work, or others at conferences where we meet to discuss our research. I also really enjoy doing work that might one day make a difference to people!

      I wanted to study science at university when I was 16. It was only when I was in the final year of my undergraduate degree that I decided I wanted to do a PhD!

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