Journal #8306
Posted 10 years ago2013-12-19 08:39:33 UTC
Posting so I can say "I told you" when it happens.
First you have this:
Google has acquired the engineering company that developed Cheetah, the world's fastest-running robot and other animal-based mobile research machines.
Boston Dynamics, which contracts for the US military, is the eighth robotics company snapped up by Google this year.
[...]
Google has said it would honour the existing military contracts with Darpa.
Then you have this:
Instead of every robot building up its own idiosyncratic catalogue of how to deal with the objects and situations it encounters, Rapyuta would be the place they ask for help when confronted with a novel situation, place or thing.
In addition, the web-based service is able to do complicated computation on behalf of a robot - for example if it needs to work out how to navigate a room, fold an item of clothing or understand human speech.
Throw in a bit of this, which Google has been doing with everyone's Android phones for years already:
Computers have been such a prominent, dazzling force in our lives for the past few decades that it’s easy to forget that subsequent generations might not even consider them to be technology. Today, screens draw constant attention to themselves and these high-visibility machines are a demanding, delightful pit into which we pour our waking hours. Yet we are on the cusp of the moment when computing finally slips beneath our awareness – and this development will bring both dangers and benefits.
[...]
Our relationships with computers, in this context, may come to feel more like companionship than sitting down to “use” a device: a lifelong conversation with systems that know many things about us more intimately than most mere people.
[...]
Such invisibility begs several questions. If our computers provide such firm answers, but keep their workings and presence below our awareness, will we be too quick to trust the information that they provide – or too willing to take their models of the world for the real thing? As motorists already know to their cost, even a sat-nav’s suggestions can be hopelessly wrong.
[...]
Yet as computers slip ever further beneath our awareness, it is important that we continue to ask certain questions. What should an unseen machine be permitted to hear and see of our own, and others’, lives? Can we trust what they tell us? And how do we switch them off?
And while we're at it, look at this:
Meet Atlas, a humanoid robot capable of crossing rough terrain and maintaining its balance on one leg even when hit from the side.
[...]
And WildCat, the four-legged robot that can gallop untethered at up to 16mph (26km/h).
[...]
"We do not know what military purpose it will serve but certainly it is a step towards a high-speed ground robot that could be weaponised to hunt and kill."
If this isn't Skynet going beta, I don't know what is.
First you have this:
Google has acquired the engineering company that developed Cheetah, the world's fastest-running robot and other animal-based mobile research machines.
Boston Dynamics, which contracts for the US military, is the eighth robotics company snapped up by Google this year.
[...]
Google has said it would honour the existing military contracts with Darpa.
Then you have this:
Instead of every robot building up its own idiosyncratic catalogue of how to deal with the objects and situations it encounters, Rapyuta would be the place they ask for help when confronted with a novel situation, place or thing.
In addition, the web-based service is able to do complicated computation on behalf of a robot - for example if it needs to work out how to navigate a room, fold an item of clothing or understand human speech.
Throw in a bit of this, which Google has been doing with everyone's Android phones for years already:
Computers have been such a prominent, dazzling force in our lives for the past few decades that it’s easy to forget that subsequent generations might not even consider them to be technology. Today, screens draw constant attention to themselves and these high-visibility machines are a demanding, delightful pit into which we pour our waking hours. Yet we are on the cusp of the moment when computing finally slips beneath our awareness – and this development will bring both dangers and benefits.
[...]
Our relationships with computers, in this context, may come to feel more like companionship than sitting down to “use” a device: a lifelong conversation with systems that know many things about us more intimately than most mere people.
[...]
Such invisibility begs several questions. If our computers provide such firm answers, but keep their workings and presence below our awareness, will we be too quick to trust the information that they provide – or too willing to take their models of the world for the real thing? As motorists already know to their cost, even a sat-nav’s suggestions can be hopelessly wrong.
[...]
Yet as computers slip ever further beneath our awareness, it is important that we continue to ask certain questions. What should an unseen machine be permitted to hear and see of our own, and others’, lives? Can we trust what they tell us? And how do we switch them off?
And while we're at it, look at this:
Meet Atlas, a humanoid robot capable of crossing rough terrain and maintaining its balance on one leg even when hit from the side.
[...]
And WildCat, the four-legged robot that can gallop untethered at up to 16mph (26km/h).
[...]
"We do not know what military purpose it will serve but certainly it is a step towards a high-speed ground robot that could be weaponised to hunt and kill."
If this isn't Skynet going beta, I don't know what is.
18 Comments
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I'm just hoping really that I can get an Asimov style robot butler before I die of old age, and Boston Dynamics seemed like it was one of the best companies in that regard. Robots were beginning to look much more realistic than flying cars and jetpacks.
Google could probably build a Metal Gear right now.
Nah, it won't stick.
Speaking of which...
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/173108-researchers-crack-the-worlds-toughest-encryption-by-listening-to-the-tiny-sounds-made-by-your-computers-cpu
...fuck.
Also, they'll have a hard time in space.
I bet they'll try sequencing the DNA from one's fart.
It's a techno-horror about microsoft/google-type company's basically sentient program, that has access to military weapons like predator drones, and many other nasty things =)
If you haven't read it you should pick it up right now. (Big thanks to Tetsu0 for recommending it!)