Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
USC/DARPA LittleDog Robot
May 23rd, 2010And Now… Telepresence Robots
May 19th, 2010Via: Wired: Robots have replaced humans on assembly lines, battlefields, space missions and rescue operations. Now how about doing something useful, like sitting through endless meetings for you? Meet the Anybots QB, a telepresence robot that can represent you in the office by sitting in conference rooms, going to meetings and rolling about through the […]
Phantom Ray UAV Capable of Completely Autonomous Operation
May 15th, 2010Via: MSNBC: Boeing’s sleek fighter-size Phantom Ray stealth jet will make its first flight by year’s end. This unmanned airborne system is designed for a variety of warfighter roles ranging from reconnaissance and surveillance to aerial refueling, electronic attack and hunter/killer missions. The 36-foot-long aircraft, which will serve as a test bed for advanced technologies, […]
Why We Could All Use a Heavy Dose of Techno-Skepticism
May 15th, 2010Via: Technofascism Blog: A new prophet, Jason Silva, joins the ranks of Ray Kurzweil as evangelist for the emerging Singularity techno-religion. In his new film, “Turning Into Gods”, Mr. Silva promotes the central tenet of this new cult: that all of us will one day become all-powerful deities, that will play with genes and atoms […]
U.S. Government Can Execute Its Own Citizens With No Judicial Process And Based On Secret Intelligence
May 15th, 2010What do we learn from the New York Times in the article below? Some legal authorities are deeply uneasy about the U.S. Government’s arbitrary assassination of Americans. That is supposed to soothe us, I think. We can rest assured that someone feels deeply uneasy about the government murdering its own citizens. I don’t know about […]
Man Fitted with Robot Arm Controlled by the Mind
May 13th, 2010It’s unfortunate that killer robots are the inescapable flipside of this kind of stuff. Whether you love the machines, or dread them (or both), this is pretty remarkable. Via: BBC: Every morning Christian Kandlbauer wakes up, dresses himself, and gets in his car to drive to work. This may sound mundane, but for the 21-year-old […]
U.S. to Expand Pakistan Drone Strikes
May 6th, 2010Via: Al Jazeera: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been granted approval by the US government to expand drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal regions in a move to step up military operations against Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, officials have said. Federal lawyers backed the measures on grounds of self-defence to counter threats the fighters pose […]
Obama Jokes About Predator Drones; Hundreds of Pakistani Civilians Murdered by Predator Drone Strikes in 2009 Alone
May 4th, 2010You’re killing us, Mr. President, tell us another one. The following is from, US Killed 700 Civilians in Pakistan Drone Strikes in 2009: On June 22, the US struck at a house officials called a “suspected militant hideout,” burying a few locals inside. When others rushed to the scene to rescue them, they launched another […]
Industrial Robots + Industrial Food = ?
May 2nd, 2010Drone Pilots Could Be Tried for ‘War Crimes,’ According to Law Professor
April 29th, 2010Read the following book and let me know how many Americans have faced international tribunals for those atrocities: Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since World War II by William Blum Via: Wired: The pilots waging America’s undeclared drone war in Pakistan could be liable to criminal prosecution for “war crimes,” a prominent law […]
