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| For far too long now science fiction has been seducing us with false promises of revolutionary new technologies that are always in the not-too-distant future, yet never quite seem to ride the conduit of our imagination in order to manifest in the present. Where’s my flying car, Doc Brown? My neighbor still drives his 1990 Plymouth Acclaim (ie, shitbox) to work–I don’t think he’ll be getting in on that upgrade. 2015 is fast approaching and we don’t even have viable bio diesel, never mind micro fusion reactors and anti-gravity skateboards. And Sony’s dancing robots don’t exactly make me fear the impending cybernetic apocalypse foretold in 1997 by The Terminator. “I’ll be back”? Until they’re big enough to carry laser rifles and punch through brick walls, no thanks, you can keep them.
And don’t even get my started on The Jetsons. |
Science fiction writers are too optimistic about our rate of technological advancement. Sure, we’ve created some pretty great crap over the last few decades. The microwave, first patented in 1945, is an achievement still lauded by college students and lazy bachelors the world over. And no one questions the multitude of ways in which the personal computer has changed our lives–laptops not only make it possible to do work in your local Starbucks, but to easily masturbate there too. But what about jetpacks, cybernetic enhancements, robot 
butlers, and the holodeck? Either scientists are slacking or there’s a serious overestimation of our capacity for progress. Having been repeatedly ensured that these gadgets are coming in the near future for decades, I think we’re entitled to them.
But at least we’re making real progress on some fronts. Realizing Frank Miller’s dystopic vision of the future just came one step closer on Thursday with the joint unveiling of the prototype T-34, the first real Robocop, by two Japanese companies. Unlike previous failures, this small robot is able to sense the movements of intruders and launch nets to snare to snare them, which I’m sure is just as effective as it is in cartoons. Japan, on behalf of nerds everywhere, I salute your effort. Next time give it a flamer thrower or something.
For now, we’ll just have to settle for this rolling, flapping, noisy piece of shit.
Of course, that doesn’t stop me from wanting it.
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| Posted in Commentary, News | |  |
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January 24th, 2009 at 2:14 am
You should look at What DARPA has been doing with MIT and CMU. They have some serious kill-bots. No they genneraly aren’t anthropamorphic, however they are able to autonomously patrol and fire-upon those not wanted in the area from land, sea, and air. By 2012 almost 1/3 of the Us military force will be totaly to semi-autonomous robots that do everything from pull the injured off the conflict zone to mow-down blocks of buildings with stinger missles.
One nast one I saw was a multi-tread bot that had a gyroscopic center. This can be remote controlled or put on autonomous mode, it has the dual mounted AA-12 Hammer system on it and can sustain at least one RPG attack. Not nearly the punk that is the Japanese robo-rent-a-cop.
Not to mention that you failed to mention anything about the huge leaps that have taken place in connecting machine parts, wiring, and circuitry to the brain and nervous system.
January 24th, 2009 at 8:31 am
That’s pretty amazing about the treaded robot that can withstand RPG fire–sounds kind of like a small unmanned tank.
I understand that there have been huge leaps the technology of machinery, computing, wiring, etc, all of which are necessary precursors, but practical, everyday use of these technologies is still a long ways off. While I know next to nothing about wiring and machine connectivity, being a graduate student in the field of neuroscience, I am somewhat familiar with the literature on neural networking and parallel distributive processing systems. Until we have a better understanding of how the nervous system works on a chemical and biological level our attempts at engineering an interface will remain crude hack-jobs at best.
I have an uncle who works as a ballistics engineer weapons development in the US Army so I’m familiar with the time line from conception and deployment. Even (relatively) simple things like special ops rifles with programmable ammunition can take over a decade before a prototype can find its way into the hands of a soldier. I think claiming that 1/3 of US forces being mechanized by 2012 is nowhere near accurate, as much as I would like it to be.
January 31st, 2009 at 7:40 am
pretty good, Added to my feed. Doing something very similar at this very moment.