Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
Pentagon Teams Up with Apple, Boeing to Develop Wearable Tech
August 28th, 2015Via: Reuters: U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter awarded $75 million on Friday to help a consortium of high-tech firms and researchers develop electronic systems packed with sensors flexible enough to be worn by soldiers or molded onto the skin of a plane. Carter said funding for the Obama administration’s newest manufacturing institute would go to […]
New Boss on Construction Sites Is a Drone
August 27th, 2015Via: MIT Technology Review: For some construction workers, any thoughts of slacking off could soon seem rather quaint. The drones will almost certainly notice. The workers building a lavish new downtown stadium for the Sacramento Kings in California are being monitored by drones and software that can automatically flag slow progress. Once per day, several […]
North Dakota Police Can Now Use Drones with Less Than Lethal Weapons
August 26th, 2015Via: The Daily Beast: It is now legal for law enforcement in North Dakota to fly drones armed with everything from Tasers to tear gas thanks to a last-minute push by a pro-police lobbyist. With all the concern over the militarization of police in the past year, no one noticed that the state became the […]
Is a Cambrian Explosion Coming for Robotics?
August 20th, 2015“Gill A. Pratt will be stepping down next month from his position as a Program Manager of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Arlington, Virginia…” Via: American Economic Association (.pdf): About half a billion years ago, life on earth experienced a short period of very rapid diversification called the “Cambrian Explosion.” Many theories have […]
IBM: Digital Rat Brain
August 19th, 2015Via: Quartz: In August 2014, IBM announced that it had built a “brain-inspired” computer chip—essentially a computer that was wired like an organic brain, rather than a traditional computer. These chips are designed to work like neurons—the brain’s nerve cells. Wired reported on Aug. 17 that the team working on the brain chips recently hit […]
First Almost Fully-Formed Human Brain Grown in Lab, “For Military Research”
August 19th, 2015Via: Guardian: An almost fully-formed human brain has been grown in a lab for the first time, claim scientists from Ohio State University. The team behind the feat hope the brain could transform our understanding of neurological disease. Though not conscious the miniature brain, which resembles that of a five-week-old foetus, could potentially be useful […]
Pentagon Planning Sharp Increase in Drone Flights by 2019
August 17th, 2015Via: Reuters: The Pentagon is planning a sharp increase in daily drone flights over conflict zones around the globe in the next four years as it tries to meet the reconnaissance and air strike needs of combatant commanders, a spokesman said on Monday. Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a Defense Department spokesman, said the number of […]
Minimum-Wage Offensive Could Speed Arrival of Robot-Powered Restaurants
August 17th, 2015“Enjoy any higher minimum wages while you can because the Rise of the Machines grinds steadily onward, and the goal is to eliminate as many human workers from corporate payrolls as possible.” —Seattle Hikes Minimum Wage to $15 Per Hour Via: Washington Post: The avalanche of rising costs is why franchisers are aggressively looking for […]
Fab11: Making Robots
August 16th, 2015Via: YouTube:
Chinese Military Trains Students to Control Machines with Their Minds
August 12th, 2015The source article is in Chinese. So, Daily Mail warning. Via: Daily Mail: Forget joysticks and exoskeletons, the future of warfare could see robot armies controlled using just a commander’s mind. China has been training students at a military academy to use headsets that detect and interpret the brain activity of the wearer, allowing them […]
