BOULDER, Colorado - Humans have been exploring outer space since April 1961 with the pioneering flight of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
Today, several nations are making new plans to launch human beings back to the moon, then onward to Mars and perhaps beyond. But will that pursuit be short-circuited by the fast-paced merger of artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced humanoid robots?
That proposition was broached during a Humans to Titan Summit, held here June 11-12, a first-time event attended by specialists seeking to send astronauts to Titan, Saturn's largest moon. It is an attractive, attention-getting place in space. Titan comes with a thick atmosphere and is a distinctive world of clouds, rain, rivers, lakes and seas of liquid hydrocarbons like methane and ethane. But will humans ever set foot on Titan, or will AI-powered advanced robots make the voyage instead?
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