Navy robot lab porn
Photographer Dave Bullock visited the Navy's SPAWAR site in San Diego (man, I used to drive by the building every day when I lived and worked in that town!). Wired News has published a gallery of pics with a brief account:
The Navy's MDARS-E is an armed robot that can track anything that moves. Told that I was the target, the unmanned vehicle trained its guns on me and ordered, "Stay where you are," in an intimidating robot voice. And yes, it was frightening.Link. (via Dave's twitter stream)
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So close to Navy Porn Robot Lab, and yet so far.
not much threat to any enemy that can afford a .50 caliber rifle. I suppose it would make a good mall cop.
Yeah, that's an Army robot.
Go Army beat Navy!
I'd buy THAT for a dollar!
AHHHH THE GOVERNMENT HAS THEIR HANDS ON THAT ONE ROBOT THAT ROBOCOP FOUGHT!!! (also nuclear weapons)
This is soo cool!
I just can't wait until these things are patroling the beaches here.
What fun.
Hey, it's ED209's grandpa!
This my friends, is why we have the right to bear arms. Our founding fathers didn't want citizens to be hopelessly outgunned against a possibly hostile future government. Not that a gun would do much good against this thing anyways.
Yeah, so for anyone who hasn't seen Robocop and thus doesn't get these jokes, enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0kWgcIlWn0
I can't *define* Navy robot lab porn, but I know it when I see it.
Please tell me it sounded like a Dalek;
"STAY-WHERE-YOU-ARE. DO-NOT-MOVE!"
Ha! #4 gets it, nice one
Well, Tak, the average army soldier isn't much of a match for a .50 cal rifle slug either. Better the robot than one of them. Can probably fix a broken robot for 20 grand. Fixing broken people is harder and more expensive.
The US military fired something like 500,000 rounds for every enemy killed in Vietnam. That's probably why wars, I mean international peacekeeping missions, consist almost entirely of bombing now.
wait till they field them. After a couple of months of battle use, all their weaknesses will be universally known.
But you have to admit that there is NO better way to win hearts and minds than to release armed robots who speak English in bizarre mechanical voices into foreign countries and let them roam the streets!
Also, I bet these robots will NEVER cause any problems with friendly fire, or any civilian casualties! Because they are just THAT well-programmed!
Ah, progress. A wonderful thing.
But you have to admit that there is NO better way to win hearts and minds than to release armed robots who speak English in bizarre mechanical voices into foreign countries and let them roam the streets!
Also, I bet these robots will NEVER cause any problems with friendly fire, or any civilian casualties! Because they are just THAT well-programmed!
Ah, progress. A wonderful thing.
But can it go up stairs?
Takuan @15: From page 6 of the article
Well, the same is true of any weapon system; the first-time deployment brings wondrous results (except when it doesn't) as the enemy doesn't know how to cope with it, but then they figure out its weaknesses and it's no longer quite so effective. Shrug. What do you want from porn, an accurate representation of reality?
Terrorists will no longer have to risk life and limb. They only need to hack one of these ...
reminds me of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOjyUNUekkw
But do they run Windows Vista Deadliest Edition?
I expected juicier photos, but still neat.
I dunno, I think it looks kind of goofy. Plus the Tim Horton's colour scheme makes him look like a source of coffee to me. I keep wanting to give it my order, yeah, that'll be two double doubles and a donut please.
He looks way more like the friendly little guy from Short Circuit than ED209.
maybe it will be used against unarmed civilian populations
kinda looks like the Fromm Tower Droids used by Tig and Sise Fromm in the old "Droids" television series....
http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2008/02/01/droid-army-approaching/
I've always thought that the way to beat terrorists would be to out-money them. When they can make successful attacks with AK-47s, simple explosives and bombs cheap enough that Iran doesn't mind handing them out, they'll keep launching attacks against infidels, which to them is "everyone except us".
When the only attack that's reliable is a depleted uranium tipped missile because we're fighting with adamantium armored super droids, war becomes too expensive for them to engage in and they'll find something better to do, like maybe rediscover their lost heritage and turn the middle east into the heart of civilization it once was.
When the only attack that's reliable is a depleted uranium tipped missile because we're fighting with adamantium armored super droids, war becomes too expensive for them to engage in and they'll find something better to do...
Pakistan will be open soon for all your nuclear shopping needs.
outspending the Soviets into penury worked because they wanted exactly what you wanted. Religious fanatics brainwashed from childhood into seeing the world as a spiritual toilet that only death escapes don't want what you want.
This robot could be useful as a roving security guard or for intimidating the unarmed, but it is not a serious implement of war.
Yeah - single, bulky robots don't scare me so much - the vulnerabilities are substantial, and you just have to take out one to inflict huge financial losses on your opponent.
When the US (or other major power's) military starts implementing armed robot swarms, as is the latest hot topic in AI research, then I'll start getting scared.
Scary. All it takes is a dodgy movement-recognition heuristic and I TOLD YOU NOT TO MOVE, HUMAN! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG
Such poor story editing. For shame! Calling it a Navy robot when it so clearly has a U.S.Army sticker (and a large one, at that) mounted prominently on the front.
MDARS-E Countermeasures Manual:
1. Dig a hole along likely path of vehicle.
2. Cover hole with dirt or vegetation.
3. Watch vehicle fall in hole.
4. Drop some big rocks on it.
Boulders rolled en masse from hilltops would probably help thin the ranks of a swarm of these things, should they become a problem. If you live in the Plains, just dig more holes.
You know, it seems to me that the last line of defense against potential war crimes or official atrocities is the individual soldier on the front line, who if ordered to massacre unarmed civilians or commit a similar criminal act can still decide to refuse. Not so with a robot. Whoever controls a robot army will suffer no insubordination, PTSD issues, or damning testimony from troops blowing the whistle on corruption or coverups (we're sorry, the robot's memory was, um, accidentally erased after the unfortunate incident).
Conversely, anyone relying on such an army is extremely vulnerable to logistical disruptions that cripple high technology-based equipment (and therefore an army relying on it) much quicker than more resilient and time-tested low-tech approaches such as a human soldier with a rifle.
And I wonder how much body armor the money used to develop this toy could've bought for troops who are currently deployed on battlefields?
see the previous thread re: automated missile defense system in Israel
From this one pic, there doesn't seem to be any hardware for righting itself if, say, it became lying on its side.
Hey, they look like the little brothers of those giant tracked robots in the Terminator movies!
what are the fields of fire? Can it shoot itself? Can you climb the turret and smash the cameras? Does it have electric shock defense? Is there an auto-destruct explosive in it? How about having it carry a bomb home?
#3, #33, etc.
SPAWAR is a Navy program that researches and evaluates various robots from various sources. MDARS is/was an Army program.
I don't think MDARS has any particular point, other than as an experiment in what's possible. The machine itself is complex and extraordinarily expensive. You wouldn't go into any kind of large scale production of the current MDARS design as is.