Robotics Roadshow - Employment Opportunity or Ground Zero for World Robot Domination?

This Robot Roadshow happening in Boston on April 14 reads like a weird ad from a Jetsons future we never had. "Learn to be a robot integrator, reseller, engineer, installer, or -- would you believe --robot personality designer?" But it seems to be for real, so perhaps we need to send some folks in to infiltrate the ranks of our future robot overlords and try to stop the robot rebellion while it's still in its infancy.

Robot Gardeners

Soon they'll be pruning you.

Cute Informational Children's Book or Pro-Robot Propaganda Distributed by Our Future Overlords in Order to Lull Us into a False Sense of Control?

At A Loss For Words

What can we say about a giant fire-breathing baby robot?

Think Unsexy Thoughts! Think Unsexy Thoughts!

World Robot Domination Step One: Human controls robot using only brain power. Status: Complete.

Step Two: Robot reverses the polarity of the neutron flow, turning the unsuspecting human into a puppetized killing machine. Status: ???

In Which We Break Our Long Silence

In order to point you toward the Roomba FAQ.

The Last Link

You know what? Just go here for all your evil robot news. They're thorough and probably actually get paid to keep track of world robot domination. I just don't have the energy to pay attention anymore.

You Have 30 Seconds to Comply!

Check out this post over at Sentient Developments.

He reviews a book called Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century
by P W Singer.

From the blog: It's no secret that the U.S. military is developing a variety of unmanned weapons and seemingly futuristic technologies -- everything from automated machine guns and robotic ­stretcher ­bearers to tiny but lethal robots the size of insects.

As these weapons gain more and more autonomy, deeper questions arise. Singer poses difficult questions: "Can the new armaments reliably separate friend from foe? What laws and ethical codes apply? What are we saying when we send out unmanned ma­chines to fight for us? What is the “message” that those on the other side receive?" And ultimately, asks Singer, how will we remain masters of weapons that are immeasurably faster and more "intelligent" than we are?

Gee, you think that could be a problem?

First They Came For The Rolling Stones, And I Said Nothing...

Robot band to perform at rock festival.

Insert gratuitous "Freebird" joke here.

Hunter Killer

The following is a post from Sentient Developments.



It's the product of the Missile Defense Agency and they call it the MKV-L (Multiple Kill Vehicle). The hover bot is meant to be used as a bundle of missile interceptors deployed by a larger carrier. Objectives of this particular test included having the MKV-L hover under its own power and prove its capability to recognize and track a surrogate target in a flight environment.

Terminator style hunter-killer, here we come.

For Your Reading Pleasure

How to build robots who won't kill us.

See, We Told You So

The Pentagon is looking for contractors to build packs of robots that will hunt down uncooperative humans.

Somebody's Working On It

Hope?

Isaac Lives

Asimov's Laws are actually being followed.

Of course, many of his robot stories involved ways that the laws were broken, so I wouldn't hold out too much hope that this will hold back the robot rebellion.