"Another Step Closer to Judgement Day" Topic

Looks like battlefield robots will have another use for humans.

link

Awesome.

Hmmmm…so..if we take the technology on those robots that they use to find their fuel and then put them on Mars, think they'll sniff out any organics hiding under a rock?

-Eli

At first glance, this project is somewhat disturbing.

But then, nature has already done it with vultures, jackals, hyenas, dogs, etc.

Ah can just imagine bein' crippled on the battlefield and seein' one of those approaching ! ACckk

Didn't the robots in Screamers do something similar?

Hmm, its power plant is the precursor to a self fueling Mr. Fusion.

The Swedes have built railroad locomotives that run on dead cows so the technology isn't far fetched, I just wonder about it being small enough to be useful.

This fall, on SYFY…

Humans as fuel source. Well, at least our imminent demise will be unquestionably self-inflicted. There will be no place else to point the finger of blame when our own robots start eating us.

Good idea, especially since testing with AI's has shown their ability to break rules, in order to survive/win in test scenarios, at all costs.

They did a test awhile back on them, and apparently some in competition with others decided to tell their compatriots to eat poison, thereby reducing, or eliminating the competition.

Combine that with the ability to eat humans, and other animals, and "Houston, we have a problem!"……

Looks like the scientists failed the intelligence test.

No doubt, they are brilliant, but many apparently have no common sense. I knew a girl in high school like that – 4.0 grades consistently, but dumb as a doormat when it came to any common sense.

Reminds me of the scientists developing the atom and H-bombs, and other weapons too. Couldn't leave well enough alone. Had to see if it worked – never mind that it could wipe out the human race on the planet.

The PR for this one is going to be difficult. Earth-friendly, but clearly in the 'muah ha ha' category.

The meat-eating scenario is a fun sci-fi idea. I just hope no one mistakes that link for a real news story.

That story got one thing right -- the link to the company's actual report, which doesn't mention "horror" scenarios or "dead bodies." It talks about burning wood, algae, and possibly chicken fat along with other conventional fuels. And the ability to saw wood by itself could make a wood-burning machine more self-reliant.

Everything else was embellishment.

"Couldn't leave well enough alone. Had to see if it worked"

Several Post-Apocalypse books and short stories are based on this idea. Two that come to mind are Telempath by Spider Robinson (a retro-virus is developed that increases human olfactory capability by orders of magnitude; civilization collapsed), and a story about the aftermath, discovered by aliens, of the release of an intestinal bug that allowed humans to digest cellulose. In that one, we ate *everything*, and the aliens found an empty world populated only by what little life survived our self-feeding destruction.

Hmmmm…so..if we take the technology on those robots that they use to find their fuel and then put them on Mars, think they'll sniff out any organics hiding under a rock?

Eureka!!! We've discovered life on another planet!!!

Um…sir…the robot just ate it.

If the idea is to run on steam, the body burning engine might be an even better VSF idea. I could see Quar resorting to it if their civil war led to the sort of animosity that encourages the open use of atrocities against the other side.

Now they need to add another word to the robots' vocabulary: "Braaains!"

I for one welcome our new Autonomous meat-eating robotic overlords!

you beat me to it Warlock

I'm sure a corporate press release is not going to be as morbid as actually stating "it feeds on the bodies of dead soldiers". However, how much of a step between running off of chicken fat and running off of human fat is there?

Besides, how many chicken corpses do you find on a battlefield?

Another scary thought. Now the machines won't need an elaborate virtual reality world, ala The Matrix, to keep their human power sources alive.

It's not even Earth friendly, since once all the humans are eaten, they'll start in on other creatures.

Anyone working on developing the "fast-acting rust gun"?

This and other recent articles have got me thinking. Should we have Rise of the Machines Clock? You know, like that Nuclear War Clock, that every time another country gets The Bomb we grow one minute closer.

I recall in the latest version of Gamma World, the d20 version, they had some AI controlled vending machines that were running around loose. They were basically mobile nanite factories.

There were some vending machines that worked as recycling centers were they would break down organic and non-organic materials to their base state. Then rebuild them to produce the ingredients to soft drinks and pharmaceuticles (they had drug vending machines too). Some of these AI became worshiped by primitive post apocalyptic cultures becomeing the tribe's 'witch doctor'. Where they demanded certain ingredients and in return produced medicines for the tribe.

There was robotic street sweeper that ran around collecting organic matter like animal carcasses, grass clippings, and animal droppings. It would reprocess the proteins and make edible food out of all of it and then package it up and leave them for the homeless.

What was that Jeff Goldbloom line from Jurassic Park?

I know they did not design them to be able to eat the dead, but that's just an oogie byproduct of the technology they used.

-Eli

Top Gun Ace, thank you for that. Guess scientists such as myself should all kill oturselves in shame, eh?

Of course, we'll develop a way to take back some of those terrible things we've inflicted on you before we all go – like immunisations, computers, cell phones, clean drinking water, dental work . . . :(

CW,

Have heart, we all appreciate the things that are made with an obvious benefit to humanity. I'll accept that just about any scientific development has a darkside, but there are times when one does have to wonder if the limit of what is "right" or "prudent" is being tested.

We just hope that the scientific community also weighs these concerns and would prefer that it not get so caught up in the pure science of it that they lose track of good judgement.

BTW, thank you all for Tang, shrinky dinks, pop rocks, the twinkie and spray cheese. Those all have true scientific merit :).

-Eli

Don't diss Tang, now. If you were living in space and needed to make your recycled urine taste good, the scientists behind Tang would be among your gods.

I love Tang, man! Those were genuine kudos!

Some how I do not think that this is a good idea at all.

Since what happens when there is nothing but live organic material around.

You just might become dinner.

I didn't say all scientists are stupid, but you have to admit, this is one of the more dubious ideas, especially if/when the AI begins to develop thoughts and tactics on its own.

We can do without the A-bombs, H-bombs, and a lot of other WMD's.

Well, I have a solution. Instead of making them fully autonomous, how about if we tie them in to a central computer network? While the individual robots would certainly be "smart", they would be compelled to follow orders from a single, sapient A.I. at the center of the network. This A.I. could run everything on the network, including all weapons systems, and could control things in just about any part of the world using a both a dedicate satellite system and an ability to use other satellites and even autonomous aircraft. Hmmm… we could call it uh, hmmm… how about we call it "Skynet"? That would solve all the major objections to the project and I don't see how anything could go wrong.

YouTube link

Excellent idea.

They did the same thing on the spaceship in "2001, A Space Oddysey" too, without too much trouble.

Supposedly, the Skybus plane's that have gone down have a few issues too, e.g. the auto-pilot thinks it is smarter than the pilots themselves, which results in a tug of war for control of the planes occasionally, usually with disastrous results. Apparently, that is a "design feature" built in by the manufacturer.

Note – many "features" aren't all they are cracked up to be.

Two things first come to mind here,
"but I'm not dead yet" Monty Python
"Soylent Green is people!" picturing those garbage truck things scooping up all the food rioters.

I can see it now the that day at the lab " I got it! It came to me right after dinner I was helping the wife clearing the table and shoving the scraps in the old disposal and it hit me! Biomass fuels! It will solve our power problem we can use anything vegetation, dead animals even people! And we'll call it EATR!"

Good going guys "Skynet" is one more step closer.

Closer than you think.

Apparently, by 2020, or 2025, robots should be autonomous enough to engage enemy targets, should we decide to let them do so.

By 2030, they are supposed to have enough "brain power" to surpass humans.

Also, if that wasn't enough, the Japanese have taught them to replicate themselves, and they know how to lie, and cheat, so it looks like the human species may be in trouble sooner than the writers of Battlestar Galactica envisioned.

They've also developed a robot gecko, which can walk up walls and glass, just like the real ones, and then hang motionless, without expending any energy, just waiting for the right moment to pounce.

They are developing cyber bugs too:

link

If the bots resembled Tom Servo,Gypsy,and Crow…

And what a great technology for a car! Plus self powered hearses. Would eliminate the graveside service though. Granpa was used up driving to the plot. Self powered garbage trucks. Of course, you would not have as much garbage as you would be powering your own car. I am getting an idea for a game now!

Well, this is more than mildly disturbing

You might want to give "Wired for War" by Singer a read

On the plus side, come WWZ these little suckers would be very handy

"And what a great technology for a car! Plus self powered hearses. Would eliminate the graveside service though".

Combined, you can get a powered vehicle, and cremation at the same time, and charge money on the process too.

Cars . . . devices that directly kill around 50000 people a year in the US alone, have been indirectly responsible for the destruction of hundreds of thousands of hectares of arable land, the spread of STDs, millions of unwanted pregnancies, robberies and acts of violence and a huge drop in air quality. If only we scientists had not used those on the unsuspecting public, huh?

As for WMDs, I had the idea for a race of traders that unwittignly annhiliated intelligent speices like ours by selling them EXACTLY what they most wanted, not whta they needed. One race purchased a device taht prevented any kind of uncontrolled, violent nuclear reaction form occurring within their solar system, to prevent any kind of WMD ever being used. Within three days of switching it on, after the salesrace had departed, the purchasers all died. frozen and asphyxiated. A to the first person to explain why . . .

Since the sun is essentially a nuclear reactor…..

ooo…ooo….pick me…..I know….I know…..pick me…..because the sun is an uncontrolled violent nuclear reaction! Isn't that right Mister Professor? So do I get my cookie now?

I am for all the cool Technology we can get our little monkey hands on, to make our lives better, what gets me is the way it gets perverted by other unmoral people and it's not really that their unmoral it's just that they! Just haven't thought the whole thing through, they didn't think the "what ifs" they were the ones in the war zone themselves and turned a corner and one of these machines was chowing down one of their family members, buddies, or dear friend. I bet they would be thinking twice about what they created. bio fuel machine cool! Running on the bodies of my dead comrades not so cool. That is just another reason why "No body is left behind!" is one of our military mottos. ( and yes I know I'm going to get flak from this so that's why I say "shields up Mr. Sulu, stand by to return fire")

A friend of mine and I were discussing this and we came up with the sci-fi idea of coupling such a robot with powered armored troops. The robots could go out, collecting fuel to recharge power cells that they would bring back to the PA troopers.

This way, the range of PA troops could be greatly extended with only a minimum number of replacement fuel cells to be carried by the troops. PA troopers could hunker down and reserve power when a charge was needed, waiting for the robots to return with newly charged cells. The robot would mount-up, transfer the collected power to the PA and you are back in action.

-Eli