Easy Cyber Knowledge Ch.5 : Robotics AI And BioTech

Easy Cyber Knowledge by Alfred Rolington

Chapter 5.  Robotics, AI , Biotechnology and more.....    

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The current technological developmental is happening far faster than previous industrial revolutions. It began as a form of Information Technology but it is now developing and employing a range of emerging electronic technologies. 
 
These technologies include 3D commercial production, data driven vehicles, robotic, bio-technology, AI and there is a blurring of physical, digital and biological elements to create a new techno-reality. 
 
In business, the use of Artificial Intelligence, cloud computing, machine learning, predictive analytics, and business intelligence tools, applications now creating new methods to conduct, operate and manage the business. The rise of cloud computing, cloud storage, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine learning is the example, that we will be soon on the node that connects our body and capture the data of human activities in real-time.
 
Invention and development of Technology have changed our life positively and negatively. The new technologies and inventions are results of our curiosity, creativity, and problem-solving techniques.
 
What else we will do on this earth if we’re not improving our self every day.  But it’s important that technological development should be environmental and human-friendly. Technology is a flower for life, not a productivity killer. We’re looking like a robotic human and it’s the biggest example of how technology has changed our lives positively and negatively. Of course, this is also changing and bringing new types of criminal activity. 
Robotics
 
Overview
 
Robots Everywhere
Before long it’s likely that the world’s population will include billions of people and billions of robots, with the latter doing almost all of the heavy, routine labour. 
People will work on improving the software for the robots and the IT industry will be home to companies developing programs for robots just like they now develop apps for users to download and install.
 
Mechanical People
To a certain extent the boundaries between robots and humans will become blurred. Transplants will start using electronically controlled artificial organs and prosthesis will be a routine surgical procedure. 
Nano-Robots will travel deep into the body to deliver drugs to diseased cells or perform micro-surgery. Specially installed sensors will monitor people’s health and transmit their findings into a cloud-based storage that can be accessed by the local doctor.  All of which should lead to a considerable increase in life expectancies.
 
History of Robotics
The history of robotics has its origins in the ancient cultures around the globe. Inventors and engineers in China, Egypt and Greece all attempted to build self-operating animal and human looking machines. Among the first verifiable automation is a humanoid drawn by Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) in about 1495. Leonardo's notebooks, rediscovered in the 1950s, contain detailed drawings of a mechanical knight in armour which was able to sit up, wave its arms and move its head and jaw. 
 
Leonardo is said to have displayed the machine at a celebration hosted by Ludovico Sforza at the court of Milan in 1495. The robot knight could stand, sit, raise its visor and independently manoeuver its arms, and had an anatomically correct jaw. 
The entire robotic system was operated by a series of pulleys and cables. Since the discovery of the sketchbook, the robot has been built on Leonardo's design, and was found to be fully functional. In 1533, Johannes Müller von Konigsberg created an automaton eagle and fly made of iron; both could fly. John Dee is also known for creating a wooden beetle, capable of flying. 
 
The 17th century thinker Rene Descartes believed that animals and humans were biological machines. On his last trip to Norway, he took with him a mechanical doll that looked like his dead daughter Francine. In the 18th century the master toy maker Jaques de Vaucanson built for Louis XV an automated duck with hundreds of moving parts, which could eat and drink. 
Vaucanson subsequently built humanoid automatons, a drummer and fife player were noted for their anatomical similarity to real human beings. 
 
Vaucanson's creation inspired European watchmakers to manufacture mechanical automata and it became fashionable among the European aristocracy to collect sophisticated mechanical devices for entertainment.[29] In 1747 Julien Offray de La Mettrie anonymously published L'homme machine (Man a Machine), in which he called Vaucanson a "new Prometheus" and mused "the human body is a watch, a large watch constructed with such skill and ingenuity".[31]
 
In the 1770s the Swiss Pierre Jaquet-Droz created moving automata that looked like children, which delighted Mary Shelly, who went on to write Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus. The ultimate attempt at automation was The Turk by Wolfgang von Kempelen, a sophisticated machine that could play chess against a human opponent and toured Europe. The modern concept began to be developed with the onset of the Industrial Revolutions, which allowed the use of complex mechanics, and the subsequent introduction of electricity. This made it possible to power machines with small compact motors. 
 
In the early 20th century, the notion of a humanoid machine was developed. Today, one can envisage human-sized robots with the capacity for near-human thoughts and movement.
 
The first uses of modern robots were in factories as industrial robots, simple fixed machines capable of manufacturing tasks which allowed production with less need for human assistance. Digitally controlled industrial robots and robots using artificial intelligence have been built since the 2000s. When the machine was brought to the new world, it prompted Edgar Allan Poe to pen an essay, in which he concluded that it was impossible for mechanical devices to reason or think.[29]
 
The Japanese craftsman Hisashige Tanaka, known as "Japan's Edison", created an array of extremely complex mechanical toys, some of which could serve tea, fire arrows drawn from a quiver, or even paint a Japanese kanji character. The landmark text Karakuri Zui (Illustrated Machinery) was published in 1796.[32]
 
In 1898 Nikola Tesla demonstrated a prototype remote-controlled submarine at Madison Square Garden as "an automaton which left to itself, will act as through possessed of reason and without any willful control from the outside." He defended his invention against critical reporters arguing that his automata is not, a "wireless torpedo" but, instead a "mechanical men, which will do the laborious work of the human race."  Tesla also wrote that he believed it possible to someday build an intelligent, autonomous humanoid robot. Tesla's ideas were not taken seriously until well into the twentieth century. In fact, the robotics industry as we know it emerged only around the mid-twentieth century. 
 
The term "robot" comes from a Czechoslovakian word for "work" used in the 1921 play by Karel Capek called R.U.R. ("Rossum's Universal Robots") to describe an army of manufactured industrial slaves. Since then, we have come to think of robots as the mechanical men or "androids" of modern science fiction. In reality, technical manuscripts from as early as 300-400 BC reveal that human beings have been trying to build automated machines or "automata" for centuries.
 
The development of modern robotics was precipitated by the advent of steam power and electricity during the Industrial Revolution. A growing market for consumer products drove engineers to devise ways of producing automatic machines to speed up production, do tasks that humans could not do, and to replace humans in dangerous situations. In 1893 Canadian professor George Moore produced "Steam Man," a prototype for a humanoid robot made of steel and powered by a 0.5 horse-power steam engine. Essentially a gas boiler housed in what looked like a mechanical suit of armor, it could walk independently at a rate of 9 miles per hour (14.5 kmph) and pull light loads. 
 
Once research and development teams began to work in earnest, however, robots were integrated into manufacturing and gradually adapted to the military, aeronautics and space, medical, and entertainment industries.
 
The definition of a robot is a machine that is capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. Robots can be guided by an external control device or the control may be electronically embedded within it. 
 
Robots may be built to look similar to humans, but most robots are just machines designed to perform a task without any particular design as to how they look. From the time of ancient civilizations there have been many accounts of user-configurable automated devices resembling animals and humans, designed primarily as entertainment. As mechanical techniques developed through the Industrial Age, there appeared more practical applications such as automated machines, wireless and remote-control.
 
Many sources attest to the popularity of automatons in ancient and Medieval times. Ancient Greeks and Romans developed simple automatons for use as tools, toys, and as part of religious ceremonies. Predating modern robots in industry, the Greek God Hephaestus was supposed to have built automatons to work for him in a workshop. Unfortunately, none of the early automatons are extant. 
 
Victorian Robots
The Industrial Revolution and the increased focus on mathematics, engineering and science in England in the Victorian age added to the momentum towards actual robotics. Charles Babbage (1791-1871) worked to develop the foundations of computer science in the early-to-mid nineteenth century, his most successful projects being the difference engine and the analytical engine. Although never completed due to lack of funds, these two machines laid out the basics for mechanical calculations. And others such as Ada Lovelace recognised the future possibility of computers creating images or playing music. 
 
Automata continued to provide entertainment during the 19th century, but coterminous with this period was the development of steam-powered machines and engines that helped to make manufacturing much more efficient and quick. Factories began to employ machines to either increase work-loads or precision in the production of many products.
 
Robots spread to Japan, South Korea and many parts of Europe over the last half century, to the extent that projections for the 2011 population of industrial robots are around 1.2 million. Additionally, robots have found a place in other spheres, as toys and entertainment, military weapons, search and rescue assistants, and many other jobs. 
 
Essentially, as programming and technology improve, robots find their way into many jobs that in the past have been too dangerous, dull or impossible for humans to achieve. Indeed, robots are being launched into space to complete the next stages of extraterrestrial and extrasolar research.
 
Robotics was originally a section of engineering that involves the conception, design, manufacture, and operation of robot machines and more recently electronics, AI, nanotechnology, biotechnology and other areas of computer science have been engaged with robotics. 
 
The field of robotics has greatly advanced with several new general technological achievements. One is the rise of big data, which offers more opportunity to build programming capability into robotic systems. Another is the use of new kinds of sensors and connected devices to monitor environmental aspects like temperature, air pressure, light, motion and more. All of this serves robotics and the generation of more complex and sophisticated robots for many uses, including manufacturing, health and safety, and human assistance.
 
The field of robotics also intersects with issues around artificial intelligence. Since robots are physically discrete units, they are perceived to have their own intelligence, albeit one limited by their programming and capabilities. This idea has generated new debates over traditional science fiction theories, such as Asimov's three laws of robotics, which address the interaction of humans with robots in some mechanized future.
 
A different kind of robotic arm configuration was used in NASA's Viking mission to Mars during 1975-76. The Viking landers, designed by the Martin Marietta Corporation, had to be designed with the extreme environmental conditions of Mars in mind. 
Instead of the heavy, jointed industrial arm, the Viking arms were made of two light, ribbon-like extenders rolled onto a drum. The two halves unfurled and connected, creating a tube to scoop samples from the planet's surface. Although the arm control mechanism had some bugs in it, operators on Earth were able to guide the robot through a repair procedure, making researchers optimistic about aerospace tele-robotics, human control of robots from a remote location.
 
The desire to have machines that could follow commands or operate by themselves through many complex operations required special programming and controls for the machines. 
 
Some researchers came to believe that the best way to control what machines did for people was to find some artificial means to simulate the way that humans thought, remembered, and responded to their environments. Thus the study of artificial intelligence (AI) grew up alongside robotics engineering.Although Facebook Inc. doesn’t sell robots, its researchers use them a lot and the company said its machines are getting a lot smarter, a lot faster.
 
Inside a small lab at Facebook's Menlo Park, California, headquarters, a black-and-red robotic arm moves back and forth but struggles to land its gripper in a spot researchers want it to hit. First, the arm moves too far to the right. Then, it goes too far to the left. The arm, which researchers call Pluto, acts like a baby figuring out how to move its joints for the first time. Though the arm doesn't move to the correct spot at first, the artificial intelligence powering it encourages behaviour that helps the robot learn more about itself and its environment. The robot gets a "reward", think of it as a digital thumbs-up in the software, whenever it takes actions that'll help it reach its goal. Facebook scientists found the AI learned faster when exploration was encouraged. 
 
Now the time it takes to teach a robotic arm how to grasp objects to tens of tries, rather than hundreds or thousands.
Advancements in robotics can lead to improvements in other forms of machine-learning, smartening the software Facebook has begun to use to spot harmful or unfavorable behavior of users on the social network.
 
The company has been under ever increasing pressure to use AI to police extremist violence, hate speech and misinformation on its platform. The company has said it is making progress, but that systems that can reliably block such content without human intervention are still years away.
 
Many contemporary AI methods are extremely data hungry, requiring thousands or even millions of labeled examples to learn from, or, thousands or millions of attempts in a simulated environment to equal or exceed human performance. Facebook began working on robots in the past year because it forced researchers to think creatively about how to make machine-learning more efficient, 
 
The Future of Robotics 
As with technology in general, corporate and industrial developers and independent inventors alike have enthusiastically adapted robotics to the entertainment and public relations industries. Corporations like Sony are beginning to market robotic pets that look and behave like cats or dogs, for people with allergies, or those who don't have the time to take care of a real pet. Since the 1980s novelty robots have appeared at trade shows, conference openings, and in safety programs at grammar schools.
 
Robotic technology has been integrated into in every facet of our lives, from manufacturing to military strategies, medicine, and other public and private service industries including environmental cleanup, space and underwater exploration, and entertainment. The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics during the last quarter of the twentieth century has resulted in predictions that androids, autonomous humanoid robots, will be a part of our everyday lives before the end of the twenty-first century.
 
In the future, robots with artificial intelligence will help make life easier for all of us – doing our dull, dirty, difficult jobs, and tackling tasks we simply couldn’t do ourselves.
 
One of the key areas where we’ll look to robots will be extreme environments where it’s dangerous or impossible for humans to go.  Several projects recently received funding from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund as part of the government’s £93 million programme for robotics and AI in extreme environments. The programme aims to develop robotic solutions in industries such as off-shore and nuclear energy, space and deep mining, to increase productivity and open up new cross-disciplinary opportunities. As part of this programme Innovate UK is funding £51m of collaborative R&D and demonstrator projects.
 
One of the projects includes a look at the technical feasibility of manufacturing in space by enabling the in-orbit manufacture of replacement parts and tools for aircraft; meanwhile robots under ice focuses on the use of autonomous submarines to determine ice hazard risks for shipping and energy installations in the arctic.
 
Another project will integrate the use of drones for inspection of offshore wind farms with the use of autonomous surface vessels, creating a system which will automatically deploy and recover the inspection drones.
 
AI Development
AI forms a part of this programme, not because of the current hype around the technology, but simply that some of the latest developments in machine learning are so well suited to robotic challenges in unstructured environments. Like many current machine learning techniques, the algorithms were actually first proposed and used on a smaller-scale, decades ago. 
 
The reason for the recent surge in their performance and use is threefold:
 
• There are much larger data-sets now that engineers use to train algorithms
• Cheap access to the hardware of powerful computers.   
• Open access to specific coding and thereby engineers now don’t need to re-invent the wheel every time they approach a new problem
 
So what? In robotics, this is an important capability which can reduce direct or remote human involvement in hazardous environments. A robot capable of identifying objects in images, from an onboard camera, in real time, can perceive more about its surroundings.
 
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. These processes include learning and reasoning from experience and self-correction. Virtual personal assistants, such as Apple's Siri, are a form of weak AI. Strong AI, also known as artificial general intelligence, is an AI system with generalized human cognitive abilities. When presented with an unfamiliar task, a strong AI system is able to find a solution without human intervention and this can be part of the robotic system. 
 
While AI tools present a range of new functionality for businesses, the use of artificial intelligence raises ethical questions. 
 
This is because deep learning algorithms, which underpin many of the most advanced AI tools, are only as smart as the data they are given in training. Because a human chooses what data is used for training an AI program, the potential for human bias is inherent and must be monitored closely. Some industry experts believe that the term artificial intelligence is too closely linked to popular culture, causing the general public to have unrealistic fears about artificial intelligence and improbable expectations about how it will change the workplace and life in general. 
 
Researchers and marketers think augmented rather than artificial Intelligence has a more neutral connotation, will help people understand that AI will simply improve products and services and not replace the humans that use them.
 
AI Opinions
Artificial Intelligence (AI). Two words, which together conjure up an extraordinarily wide range of meanings, and with them, opinions and emotions. Ask one person, and their view is that AI is an existential threat to humanity; potentially taking all our jobs or even turning against us like the sci-fi like visions of killer robots. Ask another, and you might be met with an eye roll, that the entire subject can be dismissed as simply algorithms, and anything more is just hype.
 
Both extreme viewpoints have their truths and their fallacies. In reality, the machine learning techniques that make the modern AI magic tricks happen are progressing at an exciting rate, transforming some industries, but simultaneously the various AI apocalypse scenarios are a comforting distance away. 
 
Prof. Andrew Ng, a prominent AI and machine learning academic has said tha "Worrying about sentient AI is like worrying about overpopulation on Mars." 
 
AI equipped machines will also play a big part in the future of agriculture, reducing food production costs and improving land use. With an estimated 60% more food needed by 2050, the UK government is investing £90m to transform food production. This will include funding for demonstrator projects that show how innovative agri-tech ideas can be applied in the real world.
In projects funded by Innovate UK, researchers have already created an autonomous strawberry picker that does the job twice as fast as humans, and an entire barley crop has been planted, tended and harvested by robots.
 
In future, robots or drones will precisely remove weeds or target them with pesticide, helping reduce chemical use by up to 90%, while tiny sensors could monitor crop growth and alert farmers to problems, or let them know the best time to harvest.
Getting food to consumers will be greener, cheaper and easier, thanks to driverless vehicles. Autonomous delivery systems to the home will make on-demand deliveries much more economically viable.  And because people will only order what they need, when they need it, food waste and the excess packaging associated with bulk buying in supermarkets will be drastically reduced.
 
Driverless cars are already making the headlines, with government-led investment exceeding £239m (including company investment and grants) to fund driverless car projects across the UK.
 
In the future, our energy will be generated almost entirely from low-cost, renewable resources, built and maintained in remote locations by robotic systems.
 
Unmanned ships will construct wind turbines while small drones monitor the installation from every angle, taking measurements and feeding the information back to engineers who will be coordinating the process from a control centre.
Autonomous scouts will work in teams, exploring the earth to harvest energy, finding sources of renewable energy and natural resources, as well as monitoring bio-diversity and climate.
 
Robots are already being used to monitor the safety of oil and gas pipelines: smart pigs carry out internal, in-service pipeline inspection, while research by the University of Aberdeen recommends the use of aerial drones to monitor large and difficult to reach areas, helping overcome issues of restricted access.
 
Robots could even clean up waste, too – such as plastics from our oceans, and other pollutants. A team at the University of Bristol has already invented a row-bot that can convert dirty water into electricity to power its own movement.
Scientists predict that the row-bot could help clean up contaminants such as oil spills, as well as harmful algal blooms. They may also help eradicate waterborne diseases – the world’s number one killer of children under 5 years old.
 
Working Together
Robotics and AI look set to change many things for the better. But with robots taking over so many of the tasks that were traditionally done by humans, it’s natural to wonder whether they will also be stealing our jobs. It’s probably more helpful to think in terms of the transformative effect of technology. From the invention of the printing press to the advent of the combustion engine, technology has enabled all the key stages of human progress, and the so-called fourth industrial revolution will be no different.
 
So while some jobs may gradually disappear, this won’t happen overnight, and there will be opportunities for new career choices that we probably can’t even imagine now, provided we continuously evolve our STEM education curriculum at a pace that ensures the skills demanded in industry can be met by the future workforce.
 
When humans and AI powered systems work together they are most effective, the symbiosis of people and machines, using human imagination, creativity and personality, but combined with the precision, strength, reliability and automation of robotic systems, will see humans fully empowered to take on the tasks we do best.
 
Technologies that simplify the control of robots from anywhere will allow many more physical jobs to be carried out remotely, so that people can work much more flexibly and in more comfortable conditions.
 
So in future, while we’ll see some jobs replaced entirely by machines, most will be augmented by them to make our jobs safer, more flexible and more interesting. This is good news for everyone, the increased productivity of a workforce where human and machine skills are combined will help grow economies, and opportunities, worldwide. 
 
The Future of Biotechnology
Biotechnology is a huge part of our everyday lives, from the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the medicine we use to keep us healthy and even the fuel we use to take us around. Biotech already plays, and will continue to play, an invaluable role in meeting our needs. No other industry is better placed to enhance quality of life and respond to society’s ‘Grand Challenges’ of tackling an ageing and ever increasing population, healthcare and affordability, resource efficiency, food security, climate change and energy shortages.
 
From new drugs that address our medical needs and fight epidemics and rare diseases, to industrial processes that use renewable energy and crops that are able to grow in harsh climatic conditions and ensure safe and affordable food, biotech will pay economic, social and environmental dividends.
 
For biotech to truly reach its full potential, the industry requires sound policy decisions that support innovation and risk–taking as well as a public that is well informed about how biotech is creating a healthier, greener, more productive and more sustainable economy.
 
The biotech industry is worth trillions of pounds and provides millions jobs and the goal now is to build on this momentum.
Within healthcare biotech is already benefiting more than 350 million patients around the world through the use of biotech medicine to treat and prevent every day and chronic illnesses. It is estimated to account for more than 20% of all marketed medicines and it is estimated that by 2015, 50% of all medicines will come from biotech.
 
Industrial biotech is helping to fight global warming as an alternative and safer form of global energy instead of diminishing and volatile fossil fuels. It has led to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions with the aim to reduce a 2.5 billion tonnes of C02 equivalent per year by 2030. 
 
Agricultural biotech helps reduce fuel use and C02 emissions whilst producing food containing fewer toxins. It also offers new, improved and adapted agricultural crops to reduce poverty and can increase food security for a growing global population.
 
Biotech is one of the one of the most exciting sectors at the moment. No other sector has the same promise of extraordinary rewards for investors as biotech stocks, to say nothing of the patients who will benefit from the new drugs and treatments that are developed. With such a broad spectrum of companies and roles within the sector from manufacturing to development to regulatory to commercial release, if you are looking for a long term career then you can’t go far wrong with a move into or developing your career within biotech. 
 
 
Biotechnology’s Future
Biotechnology is a huge part of our everyday lives, from the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the medicine we use to keep us healthy and even the fuel we use to take us around. Biotech already plays, and will continue to play, an invaluable role in meeting our needs. No other industry is better placed to enhance quality of life and respond to society’s ‘Grand Challenges’ of tackling an ageing and ever increasing population, healthcare and affordability, resource efficiency, food security, climate change and energy shortages.
 
From new drugs that address our medical needs and fight epidemics and rare diseases, to industrial processes that use renewable energy and crops that are able to grow in harsh climatic conditions and ensure safe and affordable food, biotech will pay economic, social and environmental dividends. 
 
For bio-tech to truly reach its full potential, the industry requires sound policy decisions that support innovation and risk–taking as well as a public that is well informed about how biotech is creating a healthier, greener, more productive and more sustainable economy.
 
The biotech industry today  is worth trillions of pounds and it will provide millions jobs and the goal now is to build on this momentum.
 
Within healthcare biotech is already benefiting more than 350 million patients around the world through the use of biotech medicine to treat and prevent every day and chronic illnesses. It is estimated to account for more than 20% of all marketed medicines and it is estimated that by 2015, 50% of all medicines will come from biotech.
 
Industrial biotech is helping to fight global warming as an alternative and safer form of global energy instead of diminishing and volatile fossil fuels. It has led to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions with the aim to reduce a 2.5 billion tonnes of C02 equivalent per year by 2030. It offers
 
Agricultural biotech helps reduce fuel use and C02 emissions whilst producing food containing fewer toxins. It also offers new, improved and adapted agricultural crops to reduce poverty and can increase food security for a growing global population.
Biotech is one of the one of the most exciting sectors at the moment. No other sector has the same promise of extraordinary rewards for investors as biotech stocks, to say nothing of the patients who will benefit from the new drugs and treatments that are developed.
 
With such a broad spectrum of companies and roles within the sector from manufacturing to development to regulatory to commercial release, if you are looking for a long term career then you can’t go far wrong with a move into or developing your career within biotech.
 
The future of biotechnology is strong. We envision a day when breakthrough drugs lead to a world without cancer, or AIDS or Alzheimer’s, a world where there is sustainable development that will tackle energy, food and environmental needs without compromising the Earth’s resources or its future.
 
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology, or, as it is sometimes called, molecular manufacturing, is a branch of engineering that deals with the design and manufacture of extremely small electronic circuits and mechanical devices built at the molecular level of matter. Nanotechnology also holds promise in the quest for ever-more-powerful computers and communications devices. But the most fascinating (and potentially dangerous) applications are in medical science. So-called nano-robots might serve as programmable antibodies. 
 
As disease-causing bacteria and viruses mutate in their endless attempts to get around medical treatments, nano-robots could be reprogrammed to selectively seek out and destroy them. Other nano-robots might be programmed to single out and kill cancer cells.
 
Two concepts associated with nano-technology are positional assembly and self-replication. Positional assembly deals with the mechanics of moving molecular pieces into their proper relational places and keeping them there. Molecular robots are devices that do the positional assembly. Self-replication deals with the problem of multiplying the positional arrangements in some automatic way, both in building the manufacturing device and in building the manufactured product.
 
Finally - what is malware and can we stop it?
Malware is an abbreviated form of “malicious software.” This is software that is specifically designed to gain access to or damage a computer, usually without the knowledge of the owner. There are various types of malware, including spyware, ransomware, viruses, worms, Trojan horses, adware, or any type of malicious code that infiltrates a computer.
Generally, software is considered malware based on the intent of the creator rather than its actual features. 
 
Malware creation is on the rise due to money that can be made through organised Internet crime. 
 
Originally malware was created for experiments and pranks, but eventually it was used for vandalism and destruction of targeted machines. Today, much of malware is created to make a profit from forced advertising (adware), stealing sensitive information (spyware), spreading email spam or child pornography (zombie computers), or extorting money (ransomware).
Various factors can make computers more vulnerable to malware attacks, including defects in the operating system (OS) design, all of the computers on a network running the same OS, giving users too many permissions, or just because a computer runs on a particular operating system, such as Windows, for example.
 
The best protection from malware, whether ransomware, bots, browser hijackers, or other malicious software, continues to be the usual, preventive advice: be careful about what email attachments you open, be cautious when surfing by staying away from suspicious websites, and install and maintain an updated, quality antivirus program.
 
Reference:
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Norton:       Klient Solutech:    Informatiomn-Management:     
 
Techtarget:    Techtarget:     Techtarget
 
Wikipedia:   Robotics          Robot History   
 
Thomasnet:       Innovate UK:        Innovate UK
 
Encyclopedia.com      CNet:         Techopedia:
 
Webopedia:       CKScience
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