Comments on: Dawn of the corpse-eating robots?
A military contractor in Maryland is working on an Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot--EATR--that will, according to a report, eat corpses.
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Chris Matyszczyk brings a fresh and irreverent perspective to the tech world in his CNET blog, Technically Incorrect. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.
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Ey if its the enemy thats their countries problem. Im sure they could be programmed not to forage on soldiers in American,British, Canadian, etc uniforms.
"Terrorists aren't people."
I actually agree with said statement.
This is, of course, in reference to the war on terrorism, not wars in general, then it becomes a good reason to care, but terrorists can't be reasoned with, especially when it comes to people who have been brought up to believe suicidal bombing is good.
While it is hypocritical to kill people who intend to cause harm to others, it is still an acceptable cause. They won't change unless we change laws to allow reprogramming, and the chances of that happening on the scale it would require are so close to 0 they would be considered the same.
The Japanese once thought suicide bombing was good, so apperently a even whole nation racist ultranationalists who believe that they are guided by the will of god can in fact have increadible turnarounds. Second, most of the people we are fighting currently are called *terrorists* by the US, and though I don't support them, terrorism is not a clear cut, black and white label. So no, I don't think it would be right to have robots feed on the bodies of enemy resistance fighters
@ webmastercorey
"Terrorists aren't people."
I actually agree with said statement.
This is, of course, in reference to the war on terrorism, not wars in general, then it becomes a good reason to care, but terrorists can't be reasoned with, especially when it comes to people who have been brought up to believe suicidal bombing is good.
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Funny.... seeing as how we were ALLIES with Osama Bin Laden at one time, our government seems to disagree with you!
The fact is that terrorists are coming from the problem of religion on this planet. It's time to get rid of religion (which pushes dogma/lies on people as the truth) and simply go to science and the value of EVERY SINGLE PERSON ON THIS PLANET as our guiding light, and start punishing those people who would try to dictate to other people what they do with their own lives (unless they are physically harming someone else without that person's permission) or in their private lives, i.e. sex lives.
Brehhah also brings up a salient point: most 'terrorists' today have VERY scary parallels to the Founding Fathers of the United States when you look at them, so the term 'terrorism' isn't too clear cut and I would go so far as to say it is MEANINGLESS.
That's an inaccurate and somewhat racist comment. I don't see a problem with a suicidal attack during wartime. After all, a charge up a hill toward a machinegun nest while under fire could be considered a suicidal attack. It all depends on which side you're on, and of course the victors write the history books. Pearl Harbor was crappy. However, we knew about it and let it happen. Plus, we were embargoing Japan to curb their nationalist expansion, so from their point of view they had no alternative. It was conflict -- there isn't always a right or wrong, just sides.
@Lerianis3
I completely agree that the Founding Fathers of this country were considered terrorists by the British. And as the saying goes, where the government fears the people there is liberty and where the people fear the government there is tyranny. The danger of the "war on terror" is that it invites the thought police to go crazy. Law enforcement has always been about dealing with crimes after the fact. Otherwise how do you know the crime would've actually been committed? Thinking about committing a crime and actually doing it are two different things entirely! Until the act is perpetrated, there's time for redemption. Apparently the government wants to control what people think, hence the push for mandatory public schooling and censorship of people who disagree with their agenda.
As for robots feeding on corpses -- how will they tell that the bodies are really dead? From an ethical standpoint, this is bogus. But who cares about ethics anymore, eh? Apparently not us.
;-)
Skynet exists for real. Robots are being trained in eating dead things. Other robots have already been trained in killing living things.
We're doomed.
There are some pretty neat designs already that uses a laser to vaporise air, creating a vacuum which will suck in more air. (this was actually used in a prototype by a company doing space propulsion research, not sure who it was again)
The heat generated could be used to power it, using many of the methods used to convert it to electrical. (or even directly to kinetic, depending on the way it is built, i could think of a kinetic method, simple design too)
Also, leeching off ambient radiation seems to be picking up recently, couldn't hurt to build it in, would it? Every little bit helps.
Might as well throw solar in there too.
Dead bodies are certainly not going to keep robots going for any decent length of time, especially not now considering how inefficient our robots are.
Biology is a good 7-10 decades ahead of what we can do at the moment, in terms of efficiency.
70-100 years sounds low, but considering how the past century gave us pretty much all we have today, the next one is certainly going to explode in terms of what we will gain.
In before singularity nonsense, i know you were thinking it, yes, you out there.
I AM IN YOUR HEAD EATING YOUR BRAINCELLS.
Personally, though, I find the robot's design to sustain itself by ingesting dead, possibly decaying, muscle and fat tissue from brutally dispatched members of our human race just about 61.2% as disgusting as the Democratic party's apparent strategy to sustain itself, as well as our bloated bureaucracy, by sucking the life force out of LIVING people and the yet to be born generations to come.
Mr. Dee this is cNet, not CNN, so please feel free to keep your rediculous political commentary to yourself.
The world is coming to an end. Skynet is real. Robots can already kill living people and now we're training them to devour the dead. To top things off, I found something I can agree with Mr. Dee on.
;-)
LOL
But fun too.
Soylent Green OMG They Are eating people.
Replicators - Stargate SG 1 Better get that gate ready we may all have to leave real soon.
Insecticons - transformers that are insects better keep a big can of robo-raid handy.
Seriously folks we now have the ability to break down the humnan body into elemental components combine those components into new items. So lets say it is designed to be a roving sniper rifle it eats a few dead opossums it coverts the bones into bullet filler material and selects it next target.
This tech coudl also keep our highways cleaner too.
I just think they need to think about what can be made out of a seemly harmless tool and what weapons it can be turned into.
This is one part of a perfect assassin tool, no body, no evidence.
D~W
We're doomed.
Or, it could be "eating" plants it can find, transform them into biomass and, maybe, biogas, which it then uses as fuel.
Or, just to play along: it could have an algorithm which, depending on the criticality to keep on going, might or might not "transform" into energy dead plants, live plants, dead animals, live animals, dead people, live people etc., in this order. It might even "eat" other robots and, if it had a fusion reactor of some sort, transform their metal and composits into pure energy. And don't get me started on nanobots...
When it comes to robots, we usually want to create something that fills a need, which is either a need that is not being done, or is being done inefficiently. As far as I know, there are many living organisms that can accomplish eating just fine. Maybe if this was just an auxillary power system for a robot that does something else... but I really don't like the idea of making robots more autonomous.
Technologies:http://blogs.dieselpowermag.com/6560148/compression-ratio/cyclone-sets-the-record-straight-on-human-eating-robots/index.html
This is a great technology that I hope to install on my diesel. I hope people don't get scared away .
- by codyjames60 August 13, 2009 2:38 PM PDT
- I can see it now...robotic border patrol agents powered by illegal aliens.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(38 Comments)Cool.