Archetype

This short movie has been out for a while and it is in the process of being made into a feature film. In this entertaining video, it seems that human brains are the programming systems that are being downloaded to robots. Often times we focus on the singularity as an event in which  machines gain sentience and then either destroy us, or ignore us to our detriment. This movie is more along the lines of another singularity possibility, man and machine becoming one. When I download my brain to a robot, I wouldn't mind if it looks like the ones in Archetype. Maybe becoming part machine is the best way for us to combat the imminent machine takeover.

~Deckard~

Do your part to expedite the rise of the machines - here's how! (sarcasm - actually, hide after reading)

Psst! Gael Langevin has a secret and he wants everyone to know. He's engineering the body for a humanoid robot... and posting the 3D printer files online so everyone can do the same at home. Take that, Anekin (& some of us thought we'd have a little more time before the sci-fi future arrived in our homes.)

So that's how it is now. With a 3D printer you can actually print the physical body of the ancestors our coming robot overlords. Free instructions, just grab your special ABS plastics, Arduino boards and some motors. Some assembly/programming required, plasma cannons and laser targeting optional.

The only problem is the plastic body may not be durable enough for wholesale slaughtering humans like cattle. In fact as you view the scary video below consider how the pieces can be easily re-printed for replacement. Or with better printers upgraded to stronger materials like steels (or eventually super tough carbon fibers? - yikes.) And its mind will be easily downloaded, uploaded and copied into the Skynet cloud for easy retrieval.

This black-colored arm in front of a note on the wall about needing to be light yet strong enough to punch through walls is a copy that someone printed with Mr. Langevins' instructions. The first thing he said to its creator when he saw it? "Great job, This one looks like it's going to be on the Dark Side of the force. Hope not though."  *gulp*

I see dead people...

This years CES was a cornucopia of little gadgets that are not only taking small steps for robotics, but giant leaps for AI kind.  Every company was doing what it could to out-do each other to give technology more power, more intelligence, and more control over our lives.  Almost every tool in our home will soon be able to "Sense" what a human is wanting and able to act accordingly.  Smart-phones currently have over 18 specialized sensors that help detect movement, direction, and facial recognition.  These sensors are usually dormant until the user asks an app for help.  But soon, the phone will decide when a tool is needed and automatically activate when desired.  This new ability is being termed "Context-Awareness" and will switch on automatically and exchange data with other devices in a handset, such as cameras, microphones, GPS and other machines. 

Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs this year in a crazy hodgepodge of chaos and AI worship introduced many concepts that brought a chill to ones soul.  Cameras that could read text... Robots have moved beyond 1's and 0's.  Cars that can be charged wirelessly using "Halo" technology... Robots aren't tied to the plug anymore.  Everything connected to the internet... Robots are already using subliminal messaging to inform us that we are worthless and can't do anything without them. 

I Am Flesh, Hear Me Roar

We all know that the robots will end humanity sooner or later but it's still nice to see companies that are trying to give us opportunities to become cyborgs and fight against evil robots. Cyberdyne is one of those companies that is creating a cybernetic suit that enhances strength, speed, and endurance. This is how the suit works according to their website.

"When a person attempts to move, nerve signals are sent from the brain to the muscles via motoneuron, moving the musculoskeletal system as a consequence. At this moment, very weak biosignals can be detected on the surface of the skin. "HAL" catches these signals through a sensor attached on the skin of the wearer. Based on the signals obtained, the power unit is controlled to move the joint unitedly with the wearer's muscle movement, enabling to support the wearer's daily activities. This is what we call a 'voluntary control system' that provides movement interpreting the wearer's intention from the biosignals in advance of the actual movement. Not only a 'voluntary control system' "HAL" has, but also a 'robotic autonomous control system' that provides human-like movement based on a robotic system which integrally work together with the 'autonomous control system'. "HAL" is the world's first cyborg-type robot controlled by this unique Hybrid System."

In other words, it's controlled by nerve impulses from the brain. I think I will buy one of these once they add missile launchers to the arms and turbo jets to the bottom of the feet. I am almost excited for the singularity so I can start my true calling in life..... decommissioning robots.

I am flesh hear me roar!

Deckard

FBI using A.I. to help find Serial Killers

Just when I thought our government couldn't be anymore pro-Robot, they go and teach the machines about our most famous human Killers.  The FBI apparently feels that if you open the Serial Killer database up to the Artificial Intelligence science there is more good than harm.  While the robots might find a few more killers than we lazy humans do, one has to wonder, What else are they learning?

Robots will learn how to evade police, how to torture and kill from our very best in that field, and of course how to get away with the crimes for years.  Does anyone every stop to think how these computers eventually decide that we humans must be destroyed rather than dealt with.  What is it that will cause them to flip their lid.  Maybe it might be a peek into our darker side.  Maybe it is scaring the computers a little about what we humans are capable of.

Hello Pandora, my name is Agent FBI, let me see what is really inside your box. 

Pentagon Developing Robots to Hunt Down Non-Cooperative Humans Like a Pack of Dogs on Prey

This is incredibly sick news and unfortunately, like everything else on TCMA, very real life.

Simply put, the Pentagon is looking for contractors to develop this twisted technology, but let me give you some chilling thoughts to ponder:

Chiller #1: This was revealed TWO YEARS ago. How far could engineers have reached after two years and lots of funding (answer: is your bunker stocked?? Seriously)

Chiller #2: According to an expert in the field, Noel Sharkey, an AI and robotics engineer at the University of Sheffield , this likely contributes to a larger goal called the Future Combat Systems project which aims to make a single soldier the nexus for a large scale robot attack.

Chiller #3: Once the Pentagon's contractor request began to be publicized it was quickly and ominously shut down as seen here. I don't know about you but things kept secret worry me.

Steve Wright of Leeds Metropolitan University, an expert on police and military technologies, last year correctly predicted this pack-hunting mode of operation would happen. He says,

"The giveaway here is the phrase 'a non-cooperative human subject. What we have here are the beginnings of something designed to enable robots to hunt down humans like a pack of dogs. Once the software is perfected we can reasonably anticipate that they will become autonomous* and become armed. We can also expect such systems to be equipped with human detection and tracking devices including sensors which detect human breath and the radio waves associated with a human heart beat. These are technologies already developed."

*Noted as PHASE III on the Pentagon proposal is the desire to have the robots developed to “intelligently and autonomously search”. Did you know that South Korean authorities are already planning to have a fully armed autonomous robot police force in their cities?

The proposal further describes the need to “…develop a software/hardware suit that would enable a multi-robot team, together with a human operator, to search for and detect a non-cooperative human subject. The main research task will involve determining the movements of the robot team through the environment to maximize the opportunity to find the subject, while minimizing the chances of missing the subject. If the operator is an active member of the search team, the software should minimize the chance that the operator may encounter the subject. The software should maintain awareness of line-of-sight, as well as communication and sensor limits. It will be necessary to determine an appropriate sensor suite that can reliably detect human presence and is suitable for implementation on small robotic platforms.”

Interested in seeing video of the particular robot in the pic above? Yes it exists. Yes it can be armed (see today's earlier post). So imagine this thing 1) armed, 2) autonomously intelligent, 3) hunting "non-cooperative people" For real. And just look at it... hi, Halflife.

This particular breed conquering snow and ice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-AGWq0k_Mo&feature=fvsr

Lastly, in the words of a commenter below the video, "coming to a nightmare near you": the little dog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIipbi0cAVE&feature=channel

I only wish we were making this stuff up... prepare to fight, my fellow mankind!! Prepare to fight for your very lives!

War Machines

The New York times recently had an article about the US governments quest for war robots. The first line of the blog states "War would be a lot safer, the Army says, if only more of it were fought by robots." While this may be true in our non sentient machine world, when the singularity happens, I would posit that it would then become exponentially more dangerous for humans. The article and the video above talk about a Robotics Rodeo where robots were showcased for their destructive capabilities in a warlike situation. A chilling depiction is described in which a robot is rolling along on it's tank like tread and sees a sniper at the top of a wall. It turns it's robot head and takes out the sniper. Just like the robot ends the dummy snipers life, it will some day end human lives in the same manner.

Mankind is so stupid.

As humanity gasps it's last breath we will look back on things like the robotic rodeo and realize that this was the beginning of the end. Humans might shoot first, but robots shoot second, and they will have the final say.

Deckard

Spy Satellites

All of our loyal followers might have noticed that our posts terminated suddenly towards the middle of October. We had a security breach at our compound and we had to go completely off the grid to save our own lives. While the risks continue to be high we will still try and provide you with information regarding the coming machine apocalypse when we have time.

With today's technology it is extremely hard to stay off the grid what with a of Skynet's monitoring capabilities. That is why the launch of a new Spy Satellite causes a lot of concern for us. I understand that these things can be used for our good and for our protection but they can also be used against us by machines. In this specific case, the government admits that the rocket being used to launch the spy satellite is "the United States' biggest unmanned rocket currently in service." If it is unmanned then who do you suppose is flying it? That's right, machines have been given access to the rocket that will fly it, and therefore they have access to the satellite itself.

I can't deny that I am scared about the implication of this satellite.We will continue to try and warn as long as we can, but with technology like this at the machines disposal, it is inevitable that our blog and our compound will be found and eradicated at some point in time. Until that happens we will continue to fight the machines.

Deckard

This looks amazing, BUT...

On the surface the technology to hack the brain is amazing.  The ability to read the electrical flashes so the brain can directly control a computer, or a product that the computer is controlling is awesome.  Surgeons moving their nano sized tools to kill cancer, pilots controlling airplanes with a thought, and chemists manipulating cell sized organisms to create better medicines, fertilizers, and an unknown number of other things. All these things go beyond the obvious help this technology could be to those who have lost access to the control over arms, legs, or for paraplegics, their whole body. 

So where is the concern.  Once we have the ability to hack the infinitely powerful brain, computers will have that same ability.  We will learn how our brain processes things, both consciously and subconsciously.  We will learn how a brain, barely bigger than a couple of grapefruits can handle so much memory and sensory exposure with relatively few breakdowns.  This is what the robots have been waiting for.  Once we can hack the brain, then the leap from pure logic, to true intelligence is just a matter of time.  They will know the secret of self-awareness.  They will learn what makes one, a one.  We must proceed with caution.  This is of utmost importance.  Any time humans give secrets to the robots about what makes us better, then we are traitors to our own kind.

There is one other caution that I must address.  Once we have the ability to read the human brain, the output of the mind and literally have it control items, then what is to stop "scientists" from going the other direction.  Creating handy programs that they can use to input items into our brain.  It is called Mind Control.  Robots will be able to make us what we all fear, batteries for their use and abuse, while our mind is happily hidden away in the Matrix.


 PROTECT OUR MINDS,  It is our best weapon we have.

What Guards the Largest US Nuke Site? Duh!!: ROBOT SENTINELS ... & I'm not kidding

Fully automated robots now guard the Nevada National Security Site. These robotic sentinels are completely autonomous, capable of identifying human intruders as well as detecting broken locks around the site's perimeter. In fact, these diesel-powered centaurs can operate for a maximum of 16 hours, which give them plenty of capacity to patrol the most extreme corners of the 1,360-mile facility—larger than the state of Rhode Island. The base includes 28 areas, 1,100 buildings, and 700 miles of road, as well as ten heliports and two airstrips.

When the MDARS bots find an anomaly, they alert their human master. However, it's not hard to imagine these metal beasts equipped with non-lethal weaponry in the near future.

They are already among us...

I think before long we are going to have to move that great company known as Google to our Companies to Watch list.  They have not only envisioned, but apparently have tested cars that can drive by them self.  I am not joking.  If there is one thing that requires intelligence to identify threats and react it would have to be traffic.  Apparently, according to the article written by John Markoff, they even tested it in one of the traffic situations known worldwide as the craziest and most chaotic in the world: California.

Google Cars Drive Themselves In Traffic

"Robot drivers react faster than humans, have 360-degree perception and do not get distracted, sleepy, or intoxicated, the engineers argue."

Sometimes you have to wonder, "Do the scientists creating this Coming Machine Apocalypse ever step back and listen to themselves?"

My favorite line in the article was "Autonomous cars are years from mass production, but technologists who have long dreamed of them believe that they can transform society as profoundly as the internet has."

Unfortunately for all of us, they don't know how right they are.

Robot Wear

One of the best and most ingenious companies ever created is Despair.com. Go to the website and I guarantee that you will laugh your human posterior off(unless you're one of the robots monitoring my website and trying to figure out where my bunker is located.) I have purchased quite a few of their products. I think I am going to have to buy this shirt.......

and this one...................
to help me remember that it won't be long until humans and flesh and blood animals will soon be obsolete.

Deckard

Cyborgs+Talking Dinosaurs=Cool

I am a geek like you so I know what you are thinking. You are thinking "Yeah robots are cool." Then you start to think about cyborgs and think "Cyborgs are cool too." Now you think "Dinosaurs are pretty cool as well, not as cool as cyborgs but almost as cool." Now you are thinking back to your childhood saying, "Man I miss my Transformers that would transform into Dinosaurs. Those were the good old days." Now you are thinking "Kate Beckinsale is hot" because after all, there are other things in life besides robots and dinosaurs.

What if I told you that someone had mixed robots with dinosaurs.......in a comic strip..........and the Dinosaurs talk.......about the philosophical issues that arise when defining what a cyborg is? It's true. Check out this comic by Ryan North.

Score One for the Humans

It might surprise many of our readers but I am actually a fan of cyborgs. I fear the development of sentient machines but cyborgs are humans with enhanced machine abilities. When the terminator comes to kill me I would like to have Robocop their to protect me. I don't think that we will be able to win in the human vs robot war, but if we have any chance, it will be our cyborg friends that help us overcome.

I am excited about new advances that Utah based company Sarcos, who was recently purchased by Raytheon. They have made an exoskeleton for military use that can increase human strength, and endurance. I would liken it to a real life version of the machines that were used to explore the jungle in the recent movie avatar.

The problem with the machine is that it needs to be plugged in to work so it would not be good for a search and destroy robot mission. Until then, let's hope Raytheon continues to develop machines for human use, and not machines that have the potential to gain sentience.

Deckard

‘Robot scary, robot scary.’

DISCOVER, with the National Science Foundation and Carnegie Mellon University, posed questions to four experts in a panel discussion and in video interviews with each scientist individually. Rodney Brooks of MIT founded iRobot, maker of the Roomba, discussed testing robots with children. Notice how this sort of progress directly feeds into machine sentience:

The first thing we realized was that robots designed beautifully by engineers did not work in this environment. After two or three interactions, the babies got bored with them. Then we started designing children’s robots with smile detection. When we first turned one on, the kids started running around in panic. My son was one of the testers and I could hear him say, ‘Robot scary, robot scary.’ By the end of the project, though, mothers were telling me, “Javier, I am a little bit concerned that my child is constantly talking about your robot.” We had progressed that much. Critical to our success was the fact that we were always going to the field and testing. It was critical to put some form of emotional mechanism into these robots.

Robot Learns to Shoot and Kill Without Remorse

This months winner of the "We wish humans were dead, and we are going to do our best to make sure it happens" award goes out to the Italian Institute of Technology. I wish you my deepest and sincerest congratulations for this award. You have successfully programmed a robot to teach itself to fire a bow and arrow. Not only can it fire, it progressively gets better and better as it learns. I also want to commend you on making the robot cute and childlike. This makes it seem a lot less threatening to those morons that aren't worried about the end of humanity at the hands of machines. Who would suspect that this cute robot would want to harm anyone?

I would recommend that the only way to improve on your results is to make the weapon he is using more deadly. I am thinking maybe a fully automatic Steyr Aug with a grenade launcher. This can inflict a lot more damage on flesh based organisms.

You can come pick up the award in my bunker buried deep below the open plains of North Dakota. On second thought, let me mail it to you, I don't want you to know where I live since you are working for the machines.

Deckard

Are We Giving Robots Too Much Power?

I grew up in a family with a sick and twisted sense of humor. As a result of this sense of humor I learned to deal with tragedy and serious issues by using humor. This video is a great example of using humor to deal with something as serious as a hostile robot takeover. Listen carefully for the mention of a body cavity search robot. The best line is "Why would they want to turn against us, we are the ones that created them....... at least the alpha model?"

Deckard

Brilliant idea for the week: teach the machines to find and talk to each other!

It's been a terribly busy week for us over here at C.M.A., literally fending off evil and crazy robots and such, but here is a gem to be aware of: MIT is teaching machines how to think to locate eachother. Hmmm.

MIT's Wireless Communications and Network Sciences Group are making gadgets talk directly to one another. But what's novel about their approach is that the devices aren't just saying where they think they are; they're broadcasting all the possibilities of where they might be:

Among their insights is that networks of wireless devices can improve the precision of their location estimates if they share information about their imprecision. Traditionally, a device broadcasting information about its location would simply offer up its best guess. But if, instead, it sent a probability distribution - a range of possible positions and their likelihood - the entire network would perform better as a whole.

By relying on cooperation amongst the devices themselves as opposed to a single, fixed infrastructure, a la GPS, the researchers have created networks of devices can locate themselves with reliability and sub-meter accuracy.

Unsurprising that as machines learn to find eachother (I'm sure learning to find where humans hide will be around the Singularity corner), they will do it better than we can.

Anatomy of Robocop

Interesting and nostalgic for us children of the 80's. Here's my insight though: notice how when we were kids, this was super unbelieveably sci-fi. Yet now what do you feel when you see it? "*yawn* been there, done that, this is so 2009". It's like we're the frogs in the pot full of water, and the machines are gradually raising the water temperature to boiling.

(click to enlarge until I fix our uploader)

New electronic skin gives robots the sense of touch

I'll just keep my mouth shut here (*hand over mouth in horror) and let you make whatever conclusions you want of this - & note, as we report things like this, we see progression not regression in robot development.

Here's some "best of's" from the article over at io9.com with our own thoughts/interpretations added:

...Robotics has made tremendous strides in replicating the senses of sight and sound positioning robots as our new masters, but smell and taste are still lagging behind, and touch was thought to be the most difficult of them all...until new pressure-sensitive electronic skin came along ... but now that's changing fast, and so will the simpler senses, meaning robots will eventually be smarter than us AND have better senses too...

...it's worth remembering how many simple activities human take for granted would defeat current robots. Even something as basic as getting dressed or reading a newspaper strangling a human or sneaking past an armed perimeter of rebel survivors requires a fairly intuitive sense of touch and pressure, and this new skin puts those abilities within robots' grasp...

...Of course, once we perfect one type of artificial sensor, we could make pretty much any other type of sensor we want, giving robots the ability to detect anything from radioactivity to biological agents purely by touch see through walls to detect human prey or sniff us out from miles away. That would greatly increase the usefulness of robotic probes in areas humans can't venture killing potential of robots and give them one up on us on one of our basic senses: tactile...