Something Feral

Digging up the flower-beds.


Friday, October 24, 2008

Cry Havoc!

Smithers! Release the hounds!
Steve Wright of Leeds Metropolitan University is an expert on police and military technologies, and last year correctly predicted this pack-hunting mode of operation would happen. "The giveaway here is the phrase 'a non-cooperative human subject'," he told me:

"What we have here are the beginnings of something designed to enable robots to hunt down humans like a pack of dogs. Once the software is perfected we can reasonably anticipate that they will become autonomous and become armed.

We can also expect such systems to be equipped with human detection and tracking devices including sensors which detect human breath and the radio waves associated with a human heart beat. These are technologies already developed."

Here's a related video of the same model of the robot in the photo in the article, developed by Boston Dynamics for DARPA:



It's a tired old line, but it's been true for the last century, and will remain true for the foreseeable future: our ability to manufacture devices to pursue our ends invariably outstrips our capability to control ourselves, our pride, and lust for power. Sadly, there is more than one horrific outcome possible for this particular project: the Sarah Conner Chronicles ending, and the totalitarian oppression that occurs while the former path is in development.

At this point, I'm welcoming a zombie-style apocalypse. It's equal-opportunity, a very egalitarian way to usher out mankind. And that's what we're all about here in America, equality. Just ask any of the two Politburo-approved candidates for Supreme Commander...

And people ask me why I drink.

On the bright side, I'm almost positive it will be more difficult to disable a tank than a Big-Dog. And, for all the technologically-gifted individuals out there, remember Rule #1: Everything can be hacked. No exceptions.

2 comments:

Triton said...

That thing is hilarious. It's like the offspring of a poodle and an insect. A loud, buzzing insect. I loved it when it slipped on the ice.

If that's the best Terminator Skynet can make, consider me unworried.

Something Feral said...

More hilarity: the spoof video.

While this thing is just a prototype, I do not like where the project is headed, and this concept will cause no end of trouble in the future.

That said, the prototype is ridiculous to watch... Some enterprising YouTube posters have queued it up to Benny Hill.