Hyper Evolution: Rise of the Robots

Evolutionary biologist Dr Ben Garrod and electronics engineer Professor Danielle George investigate whether robots will ever become our friends, if we should trust them with our lives, and if one day they will even become conscious. The programme uncovers the roots of an essential ingredient of any relationship - the art of conversation. Ben visits the first attempt to make a robotic brain - a 1940s tortoise born in Bristol - with a rudimentary awareness of its surroundings, before meeting its most advanced descendant - the driverless car. Finally, we meet robots who aren't simply pre-programmed with facts about the world, they learn about it for themselves. The one-metre-high iCub not only looks like a child, but he learns like one. As robots continue to evolve, Ben and Danielle consider the unsettling question of what it would mean if robots developed consciousness.