Rise of the machines is nigh

[EHocking]

The announcement of an autonomous robot primarily for military purposes that refuels itself by "foraging – engaging in biologically-inspired, organism-like, energy-harvesting behavior which is the equivalent of eating. It can find, ingest, and extract energy from biomass in the environment (and other organically-based energy sources), as well as use conventional and alternative fuels..", has sparked the inevitable attempt at panic-inducing headlines of man-eating warbots.

The acronym EATR (Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot - I particularly like the Energetically part), probably didn't help the company's PR much and they have had to issue a press release declaring their warbot is a vegan.
"Cyclone Power Technologies Responds to Rumors about "Flesh Eating" Military Robot (http://www.robotictechnologyinc.com/images/upload/file/Cyclone%20Power%20Press%20Release%20EATR%20Rumors% 20Final%2016%20July%2009.pdf)".

This in response to internet and "regular" media attention along the lines of,

This is the first step to robot autonomy and the inevitable robot uprising (http://www.robotliving.com/2009/01/29/eatr-robot-hunts-for-food/).
EATR Robot Feeds On Dead Bodies (http://www.geekologie.com/2009/07/great_eatr_robot_feeds_on_dead.php)
Robot land-steamers to consume all life on Earth as fuel (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/09/eatr_beta/)
Welcome to Skynet (http://mattgoesgreen.com/2009/01/new-military-eatr-robot-will-find-harvest-and-ingest-biomass-to-power-itself-welcome-to-skynet/)
Military EATR Robot Could Feed On Dead Bodies On Battlefield (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,532492,00.html?test=latestnews)
EATR Robot Runs On Soylent Green (http://www.botjunkie.com/2009/02/02/eatr-robot-runs-on-soylent-green/)

[Molinaro]

http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=148228


There's a thread about that already.

[EHocking]

http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=148228


There's a thread about that already.My search skills have obviously deterioratied....:o

[Vorticity]

My search skills have obviously deterioratied....:o

You will be the first to be eaten.

[EHocking]

You will be the first to be eaten.Nah, I'm just waiting for my programmer to update my..... er, no, that's not it, um, in the meantime, Your clothes... give them to me, now. Damn! did it again.

++?????++ Out of Cheese Error. Redo From Start

[theprestige]

EHocking, for the purposes of discussion, please define "nigh".

Personally, I think we're much closer to being taken over by cyborg bears than we are to being taken over by EATR.

Consider this: Bears have already solved the knotty drive train and power plant problems that crude devices like Big Dog and EATR are just now beginning to work on. Bears already have sophisticated sensor arrays covering significant portions of the EM, audio, and chemical spectrum. They're already equipped with a pretty powerful on-board general purpose computer loaded with very capable signal-processing and decision-making software. In fact, bears have already integrated several different advanced robotics objectives into a single system far in advance of any artificial robotics subsystem prototype we currently have.

Given the right electronics implants, mood stabilizers, and behavior modifications, a bear would make a much better soldier than any human, and a much better killbot than any killbot we expect to build in the next fifty years.

While I don't think either is really "nigh", I do think the "rise of the cyborgs" is much nigher than the "rise of the machines.

[alexi_drago]

I prefer the man eating warbot to the vegan hippy bot, better at hiding it's tracks, better in desert and polar warfare and if it runs out of ammo it can just chew the face off the enemy.

[Chase_the_Bass]

EHocking, for the purposes of discussion, please define "nigh".

Personally, I think we're much closer to being taken over by cyborg bears than we are to being taken over by EATR.

Consider this: Bears have already solved the knotty drive train and power plant problems that crude devices like Big Dog and EATR are just now beginning to work on. Bears already have sophisticated sensor arrays covering significant portions of the EM, audio, and chemical spectrum. They're already equipped with a pretty powerful on-board general purpose computer loaded with very capable signal-processing and decision-making software. In fact, bears have already integrated several different advanced robotics objectives into a single system far in advance of any artificial robotics subsystem prototype we currently have.

Given the right electronics implants, mood stabilizers, and behavior modifications, a bear would make a much better soldier than any human, and a much better killbot than any killbot we expect to build in the next fifty years.

While I don't think either is really "nigh", I do think the "rise of the cyborgs" is much nigher than the "rise of the machines.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d136/darkambientthought/06-12-2009021839PM.jpg

[INRM]

A robot that can eat stuff even people and generate energy to run. Obviously a *wonderful* idea, and unsurprisingly, DARPA's behind it...


INRM

[Tumbleweed]

Yeah but its still on the carbon cycle emitting that nasty CO2 just like we do. Not to mention other messy decaying stuff unless it starts afire and combustion is complete. How about a nuclear powered one! Or split the water molocule using rust as the catalyst and harvest the hydrogen. Burn the hydrogen and use the water to create more rust and as long as you add more stuff to rust you are good to go indefinitely

[MikeSun5]

Since this thread has already happened, I'm going to derail it.

Does anybody else think that with some clever storytelling, you could link the Terminator movies with the Matrix movies? You'd only need one or two movies in between the last Terminator and the first Matrix to tie everything together. Someone call Michael Bay.

[Jimbo07]

Since this thread has already happened, I'm going to derail it.

Does anybody else think that with some clever storytelling, you could link the Terminator movies with the Matrix movies? You'd only need one or two movies in between the last Terminator and the first Matrix to tie everything together. Someone call Michael Bay.

Sorry. Already done by a single author in 1981...

... sort of...

;)

Lawsuit about the Matrix and Terminator (http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/matrix.asp)

[MikeSun5]

Sorry. Already done by a single author in 1981...

... sort of...

;)

Lawsuit about the Matrix and Terminator (http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/matrix.asp)

LAME! :mad: Here I was thinking I was all creative and clever, and some crazy lady beat me to it...

Oh well, back to the drawing board: :alc: