Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
Thousands Flee Bomb Attacks by U.S. Drones
April 6th, 2009Via: Times: AMERICAN drone attacks on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan are causing a massive humanitarian emergency, Pakistani officials claimed after a new attack yesterday killed 13 people. The dead and injured included foreign militants, but women and children were also killed when two missiles hit a house in the village of Data Khel, […]
Robot Uses Biological Brain
March 29th, 2009Via: Seed Magazine: Kevin Warwick’s new robot behaves like a child. “Sometimes it does what you want it to, and sometimes it doesn’t,” he says. And while it may seem strange for a professor of cybernetics to be concerning himself with such an unreliable machine, Warwick’s creation has something that even today’s most sophisticated robots […]
Imbecile Nearly Drives His BMW Off Cliff Because GPS Told Him To
March 25th, 2009Turn left, Dave. Via: Mirror: Horrified Robert Jones ended up with a careless driving charge after his satnav left his BMW perched on the edge of a cliff. Robert, 43, followed the device’s instructions as he headed for a friend’s house – even when it began taking him up a steep, rocky footpath. He finally […]
Obama May Widen Drone War Over Pakistan
March 18th, 2009Via: Wired: Six times in the last two months, the new administration has used unmanned aircraft to strike at Taliban camps in the largely-ungoverned tribal wildlands on Pakistan. That could be just the start, however. New York Times reports that President Obama’s national security team is considering an expansion the target set, to include the […]
Pentagon Dirigible Would Stay Aloft for Ten Years; Constantly Monitor Activity on the Ground
March 13th, 2009Don’t miss the part about the energy source. You’ll love this: The dirigible will be filled with helium and powered by an innovative system that uses solar panels to recharge hydrogen fuel cells. Military officials said those underlying technologies — plus a very lightweight hull — were critical to making the project work. “The things […]
Remote-Controlled Planes Could Spy on British Homes
February 24th, 2009Via: Telegraph: Police could soon use unmanned spyplanes like those used to track enemy troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for surveillance operations on British homes. The Home Office has suggested that the remote-controlled drones could be used to help police gather evidence and track criminals without putting officers at risk. The miniature aircraft could be […]
Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon’s Secret World
February 12th, 2009UPDATE: Contest Results The target was a picture of my ancient, tattered Audio Technica headphones sitting on the concrete floor. There were no direct hits, but 9 of 13 submissions had something to do with round things. For days, it looked like Evil Chopsticks was going to be the closest one, since he or she […]
The Army’s Remote-Controlled Beetle
February 4th, 2009The Singularity is here somewhere… It’ll be great. Really. Via: MIT Technology Review: A giant flower beetle with implanted electrodes and a radio receiver on its back can be wirelessly controlled, according to research presented this week. Scientists at the University of California developed a tiny rig that receives control signals from a nearby computer. […]
Pentagon Wants “Virtual Renditions” of Deployed Personnel to Interact with Their Children
January 8th, 2009“My real daddy died in Iraq, but daddy_lite v3.7.2 lives in my cell phone now. The kind man from the Army also gave mommy a backup disk in case we need to re-install daddy on any of our computers or mobile devices. Mommy cries a lot, but daddy seems happy inside the screen.” Via: Department […]
Pentagon Hires British Scientist to Help Build Robot Soldiers that ‘Won’t Commit War Crimes’
December 1st, 2008Via: Telegraph: The American military is planning to build robot soldiers that will not be able to commit war crimes like their human comrades in arms. The US Army and Navy have both hired experts in the ethics of building machines to prevent the creation of an amoral Terminator-style killing machine that murders indiscriminately. By […]
