There's an accident and a B movie waiting to happen.

Didn't Ilbren already do that on Aeon Flux? Oh, wait, this is for real....

Don't bother mama while she's watching her sci fi horror stories.

*From an old PS thread. Props to the artist.

Ryan said the project aimed to reduce the need to send troops into hazardous situations.

"That the driving force behind this, it's about saving lives," he said

Umm, we can already do that. It's called long range artillery and guided missles. And that new mobile laser has been successfully tested against artillery and missles. Recon I can see, but this is pointless

"ok... ok what we're going to do is we're going to make this island right... and on this island we're going to have DINOSAURS right... nothing could go wrong!"

or maybe a sphere underwater... or a man who goes insane because of a brain implant... or crazy monkeys... or japanese corruption...

whoops.... Drunken_Empath already picked up on the chrichton connection.

and, i didnt RTFA.

Woo hoo!!! I can't wait for our SkyNet overlords!

That AP "Photo" looks suspiciously like an AP "Rendering".

*rolls eyes*

I think the writer needs to go back to school.

He can't seem to grasp the difference between paragraphs and sentences.

It's really annoying.

I am constantly amazing at how the internet has brought about a severe drop in the quality of journalism.

Heh heh...what could possibly go wrong?

"That the driving force behind this, it's about saving lives," he said

Cool... but I thought military weaponry was about killing people and breaking their stuff...

I think it's remarkable that so many minds that could create great things invent new ways to kill each other.
What was it that the scientists said, the top minds in the world, after they developed the nuclear weapon....oh, right..."Mr. President, I've got blood on my hands...." Some things will never change.

I for one welcome our new...oh, screw it, I can't be that cliche'd this early in the morning. It's just wrong...

The reason why some scientists tend to create things that destroy rather than help the world is because of funding. You go tell your government that you can create something that can destroy an entire country, they will give you all the money you need, otherwise you will have to go beg around for grant money.

For those who can't see the original article, there's a story about the story here (pops)

In other news, whoo hoo first link approved.

They don't read much, I guess.

"That the driving force behind this, it's about saving lives," he said.

I think the driving force is that some PeaHeaD needs funding, but has a hard time making his project sound useful.

"And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads."

Revelation 9:3-4

/uh oh spaghettios

So, how can they adapt to changing situations, and yet not become self-aware or decide to do something else? I'm guessing some kind of super-complex mathematics are involved.

I wonder if the new anti-air defenses will be firehoses.

Zergling rush!!

Nice SG1 ref there, wish I'd thought of it

Announcing Cyberdyne Systems Model 101?

Dear god please.

STEP 1 : Build robots with that work together in a swarm.

STEP 2 : Sell technology to the highest bidder.

Everything is about money. Why would someone program robots to work as a swarm. Swarms don't just work together to achive tasks, they work together to survive. I believe swarms do two things, build and destroy. I think they should land some of those robots on Mars or something, but of course they probably want to blow some shiat up.

Ryan laughs off the prospect he could be creating a Frankenstein's monster and says fears about artificial intelligence are overstated.

"If you look at state-of-the-art artificial intelligence in the world's leading research lab, it cannot do what any two-year-old can do," he said.

Having seen two-year-olds in action, this is hardly reassuring...

adm_crunch - love that show, but must've missed that episode. At any rate, people keep mentioning Prey and the grey goo scenario - the problem in all those situations is self-replicating, self-upgrading machines, which effectively are mechanical life. Nobody's trying to make anything that will self-replicate. Could you imagine any machine that could do that anyways? Imagine fitting an entire Ford manufacturing plant inside a Ford.

I blame George W Bush

Ryan laughs off the prospect he could be creating a Frankenstein's monster and says fears about artificial intelligence are overstated.

"Ooh, the heavens will condemn us for what we have wrought this day."

"Yes, but morality's lease has run out, and science has been given the keys to the apartment!"

Let's just face it, the human race is screwed. What with asshats suing after they throw their retarded kids off bridges, scientists who never seem to read popular fiction, electoral colleges putting the popular vote loser in office, no more workplace overtime, etc., etc., etc.; there's no hope. We're going to self-destruct one way or another.

Fifth surrenders.

/vague?

Sorry StrikitRich, I didn't see your Weeners.
Nice ref, btw :)

ManifestDestiny: my thoughts EXACTLY.

~dreamer

PS: I think that would make a GREAT movie if they didn't let Crichton write the screenplay.

Pxtl
adm_crunch - love that show, but must've missed that episode. At any rate, people keep mentioning Prey and the grey goo scenario - the problem in all those situations is self-replicating, self-upgrading machines, which effectively are mechanical life. Nobody's trying to make anything that will self-replicate. Could you imagine any machine that could do that anyways? Imagine fitting an entire Ford manufacturing plant inside a Ford.

They don't have to. All the bots have to do is manufacture one part of themselves (plans stored inside) and connect it to the other parts that the other bots have created. If the bot that makes the leg parts is destroyed, then another bot takes over making legs or whatever. The idea is that one would create a copy out of itself by manufacturing the bits of itself out of available raw materials (bits of cars, home computers, plastic, plumbing) or melt down the materials to reshape them to fit the purpose. The 2 bots that then further increase supply foraging and manufacturing speed by splitting up part creation. By the time 16 to 32 bots are made, then the entire supply and manufacturing chain will be complete and the only limitations are raw materials, available energy sources, and time available). If the bots improvise for suitable substitute parts when required, then the production phase can be sped up dramatically. The simplier the parts, the quicker the part creation. That, of course, depends on the flexibility of the programming and whether the motivation is to "Kill all humans" or just "Make more toys to make me rich" or "Tidy up the mess and keep our cities defended and prosperous without overstepping the bounds of your programming".

I could swear they pulled this article straight from the blurb on the back cover of "Prey".

Hates reading / Loved Prey