History Illustration: Oystermouth Castle

This month’s illustration from Alina, The White Lady of Oystermouth is a dark and brooding Oystermouth Castle, symbolic of the tempestuous times that the Lordship of Gower went through.

Alina lost everything in the barons rebellion and ended up in the Tower of London. Not only that, but she was given into the care of Hugh Despenser the Elder, the father of the king’s favourite. He gave her a hard time and she had to give him the only inheritance remaining to her: the Sussex estates, including Bramber, that she had from her father. Her son John was permitted to inherit the Mowbray estates.

Research: When Robots Exceed Humans

Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku p.101

When we finally hit the fateful day when robots are smarter than us, not only will we no longer be the most intelligent being on earth, but our creations may make copies of themselves that are even smarter than they are. This army of self-replicating robots will then create endless future generations of robots, each one smarter than the previous one. Since robots can theoretically produce ever-smarter generations of robots in a very short period of time, eventually this process will explode exponentially, until they begin to devour the resources of this planet in their insatiable quest to become ever more intelligent.

This idea, carried to extreme, is called the ‘Singularity.’ Once Earth is consumed, robots will find a better, faster way to reach the stars and gradually consume them also.

What do you think? Will computers take over the universe some day? When? Soon? Will humanity be safe in their care?

Enemies?