Tag Archives: technology

Running the Fool’s Game of the Future

23 Sunday Sep 2018

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While some of us are urging caution and restraint against the AI/robotic/computer onslaught of the 21st century, others urge a merger – much like Saruman urging Gandalf to join with Sauron.

Mental illness runs strong in the robo-techno-alliance of tomorrow:

Human beings will evolve. We haven’t always been human. We were sea creatures, then we were living in the trees, then we became human. Soon we will become something else. Technology is part of our lives and it will become part of our evolutionary journey, too.

…

My partner and I identify as cyborgs as we are no longer 100% human. We have new body parts that give us access to perceptions that are beyond usual human perception. It’s not about augmenting reality, or living in virtual reality; it’s more about revealing a reality that already exists.

I can see it now: separate bathrooms at Starbucks for those partners identifying as tree-living cybernetic sea creatures. All perfectly normal. Just like the Jetsons.

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Fly The Friendly Rails?

12 Thursday Jul 2018

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The concept of a “flying train” is floated in France.

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I like this (yes, Perrin likes some tech) because it’s an interesting multi-use and it could possibly prevent crash fatalities. The tube will likely be made from light composite. In the event of a certain crash, the tube fuselage could detach from the wing rig and parachute down safely. That’s my idea; don’t necessarily look for it.

Interesting.

At Last: A Flying ‘Car’ That Flies!

06 Wednesday Jun 2018

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Slowly. And it’s more of a (barely) flying kayak drone than a car. Anyway, you can certainly trust the Google guy who invented those murderous “autonomous” vehicles.

With a gentle touch on a sliding nob, Rachel used her hand to take off inside the Flyer from a dock on Lake Las Vegas, 25 miles from downtown. Using a simple Atari-esque joystick in her other hand, she began to carefully pilot the Flyer around, traveling between three and 10 feet above the lake. (Her speed was capped at 6 mph — experienced pilots can fly up to 20 mph).

As Rachel glided above the lake, Kitty Hawk’s mission control team monitored her flight from a small building nearby and provided guidance through speakers in her helmet. Five minutes later, Rachel returned to the dock, landing the Flyer like a pro.

She threw her arms up in celebration. We all cheered.

20 MPH, a 100 Mile range, and a video game controller. Call George Jetson. Tell him to leave the family behind (no passengers) and set aside plenty of extra time.

At least it kind of flies.

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Faster than a sickly snail, able to leap smaller sickly snails with a good running start. CNN.

Meet ‘Norman,’ MIT’s Pet Psycho

05 Tuesday Jun 2018

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From America’s and the World’s preeminent tech school comes a project bound to safely provide a happy, secure ending for all. Or, at least, an ending for some…

In one of the big musical numbers from The Life Of Brian, Eric Idle reminds us to “always look on the bright side of life.” Norman, a new artificial intelligence project from MIT, doesn’t know how to do that.

That’s because Norman is a psychopath, just like the Hitchcock character that inspired the research team to create him.

Like so many of these projects do, the MIT researchers started out by training Norman on freely available data found on the Web. Instead of looking at the usual family-friendly Google Images fare, however, they pointed Norman toward darker imagery. Specifically, the MIT crew stuck Norman in a creepy subreddit to do his initial training.

This is just what we need. I was telling the boys at the cigar club just the other day how badly the world needs a dark-minded, no-hearted, psychopathic killer robot running amok in Boston. Forget the duck boats and the Union Oyster House. Come see Norman! And die at his cold, mechanical hands!

Well, I imagine that, right now, he’s confined to a computer in a lab. The Dr. Frankensteins at DARPA surely have a bodily cure for that.

I can’t help but notice that he was trained in the dark arts using existing anti-social media, stock off them internets. How many other non-AI psychos are training there too? You, please stick to this highly respected web log; no Norman here…

Hey! Given his location and disposition, maybe his full name is Norman Kennedy.

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Kennedy/Skynet 2020.

When Ubers Fly…

08 Tuesday May 2018

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Here. We. Go. Again.

Uber announces a totally real flying car!

Uber has unveiled its “flying car” concept aircraft at its second annual Uber Elevate Summit, which showcases prototypes for its fleet of airborne taxis.

A “concept.” “Prototype.” Coming along in 2020. 2023. 2174. Never.

As my personal heuristic for this field involves “I’ll believe it when I fly it,” and Uber rides are notoriously driven by others, and this POS is an “autonomous” drone concept, then I will never really believe in it.

But you, Buck Rogers, you get that App warmed up…

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‘killer AI robot army that could destroy humanity, scientists fear’ NOTHING to See Here…

05 Thursday Apr 2018

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This all started when an ATM talked back to me. I’m not even sure anymore if this part of our “highly respected web log” is satire or a dire warning.

Anyway, BIG doins in South Korea:

A TOP South Korean university is secretly developing a killer Artificial Intelligence robot army that could destroy humanity, scientists fear.

KAIST university allegedly launched a new AI weapons lab in February, leading dozens of researchers to believe the products will “have the potential to be weapons of terror”.

A top university in South Korea is secretly developing a killer AI robot army, scientists have warned. Could it lead to a takeover in the style of Terminator, pictured?
Toby Walsh, a professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, organised the boycott with 49 other researchers.

He said in an open letter: “If developed, autonomous weapons will … permit war to be fought faster and at a scale great than ever before.

“They will have the potential to be weapons of terror.”

KAIST said it had “no intention to engage in development of lethal autonomous weapons systems and killer robots”.

“We have no intention to launch a killer AI weapons lab. We merely launched a killer AI weapons lab. Launched it in secret. Possibly resulting in the end of humanity. What the heck’s the problem?”

And you thought North Korea was trouble.

They’re going to hold another Geneva Convention to head this stuff off. Better call the Avengers, the Super Friends, and Captain Kangaroo too.

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“Da, dee, da… Now to give the humans a little poison gas… The Sun.

Worse than losing the First! Vegan Farsi channel.

It Mistook Her For Sarah Connor

20 Tuesday Mar 2018

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Rise of the killer AI machines.

Uber Bot Murders Arizona Woman in Street:

Uber Technologies Inc. halted autonomous vehicle tests after one of its cars struck and killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona, in what is likely the first pedestrian fatality involving the technology.

The 49-year-old woman, Elaine Herzberg, was crossing the road outside of a crosswalk when the Uber vehicle operating in autonomous mode under the supervision of a human safety driver struck her, according to the Tempe Police Department.

After the incident, which happened at 10 p.m. local time on Sunday, she was transferred to a nearby hospital, where she died from her injuries. “Uber is assisting and this is still an active investigation,” Liliana Duran, a Tempe police spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement.

Translation: The woman was crossing the street, constructively in a crosswalk. The murderous Uber Bot decided to terminate her by inflicting mass trauma. HAL overrode the human safety driver and proceeded at full speed. The woman died as a result of the attack. Robots: 1, Humans, 0.

First they crushed the feet of tiny toddlers. Then the shoved their way through doors. Now they’re running people down in the streets. The little exploding insect-bomb bots will visit the mall tomorrow.

It’s war.

*Critical Note: A knee-jerk reaction would be to call for a legal ban on robots. As nice as that sounds in theory we have to consider the nature of the slimy beasts who purvey legislation. They might sell it as a ban for the safety of the human race; rest assured it would do the opposite – creating a virtual open season on us. (Probably with a hidden tax increase too).

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Uber comes calling. YouTube/Orion.

Bolt Out of the Blue

13 Saturday Jan 2018

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This progresses faster than expected. GM begins canning the controls, not next decade, but next year.

Next year, General Motors Co. will no longer need an engineer in the front seat babysitting the robot brain that controls its self-driving Chevrolet Bolt. The steering wheel and pedals will be gone, giving total control to the machine.

When GM starts testing its autonomous electric sedan in San Francisco ride-sharing fleets, it’ll likely be the first production-ready car on the roads without the tools to let a human assume control. The announcement Friday is the first sign from a major carmaker that engineers have enough confidence in self-driving cars to let them truly go it alone.

“What’s really special about this is if you look back 20 years from now, it’s the first car without a steering wheel and pedals,” said Kyle Vogt, chief executive officer of Cruise Automation, the San Francisco-based unit developing the software for GM’s self-driving cars.

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I’ll take Level 0. Bloomberg.

From observing the way American’s absentmindedly enter freeways, one would already suspect the cars lack pedals and steering wheels. For many the robot driver will be a probable improvement.

Y’all have fun with that…

Have Hydrazine, Will Travel

03 Sunday Dec 2017

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Over 40 years and 141 AUs after launch Voyager 1 is still rocking along.

At present, the Voyager 1 spacecraft is 21 billion kilometers from Earth, or about 141 times the distance between the Earth and Sun. It has, in fact, moved beyond our Solar System into interstellar space. However, we can still communicate with Voyager across that distance.

This week, the scientists and engineers on the Voyager team did something very special. They commanded the spacecraft to fire a set of four trajectory thrusters for the first time in 37 years to determine their ability to orient the spacecraft using 10-millisecond pulses.

After sending the commands on Tuesday, it took 19 hours and 35 minutes for the signal to reach Voyager. Then, the Earth-bound spacecraft team had to wait another 19 hours and 35 minutes to see if the spacecraft responded. It did. After nearly four decades of dormancy, the Aerojet Rocketdyne manufactured thrusters fired perfectly.

File this one away under “pretty cool;” another of man’s most impressive, if quiet and distant, little accomplishments.

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Don’t Worry, Buy a Tesla!

27 Monday Nov 2017

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Mr. Musk sees a statistically unpleasant outcome from the robot wars:

Elon Musk has been very vocal about his concerns over artificial intelligence, and now the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has quantified his worries.

In a recent talk, Musk claimed that efforts to make AI safe only have ‘a five to 10 per cent chance of success.’

The warning comes shortly after Musk claimed that regulation of artificial intelligence was drastically needed because it’s a ‘fundamental risk to the existence of human civilisation.’

Of course, of course – regulation always fixes everything. Trust in the government. See their shining work in eradicating: war, poverty, drugs, terrorism, obesity, etc.

In the meantime, please by a Tesla…

OR!

Buy a FLYING CAR!!!!!

Available in 2020! (2020 in Flying Car advertising talk translates to 2220 in actual time…).

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Hanna Barbera.