Picture a movie where robotic flies swarm and wipe out one town after another. Someone escapes and tries to warn the authorities. No one will believe our hero that robotic flies threaten to wipe out humanity. How does it end? Harmless and useful for humanity or the foundation of a nightmare future?
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 2, 2010 -- Engineers at Harvard University have created a millionth-scale automobile differential to govern the flight of minuscule aerial robots that could someday be used to probe environmental hazards, forest fires, and other places too perilous for people.
Their new approach is the first to passively balance the aerodynamic forces encountered by these miniature flying devices, letting their wings flap asymmetrically in response to gusts of wind, wing damage, and other real-world impediments.
Will the robot flies have little voices? Will they be controlled by a central server that our heroes will track down and, while losing a few supporting actors, penetrate and destroy so that the flies drop harmlessly to the ground? The sequel will involve activation of a secret back-up server at an automated robot fly factory that only people who died in the first movie knew about.
| Share | | Randall Parker, 2010 September 06 09:11 PM Robots Dangers |
Wouldn't all that tiny circuitry be more vulnerable to EMP bursts?
To me - this falls more into Grey Goo teritory than Terminator imho...
Either way - unless we restructure how mankind is governed it is likely one or another sci-fi worst case scenario will actually become a reality.
It is almost amusing how dedicated our species seems to be to inventing its own means of extinction.
There is a better way.
"Will the robot flies have little voices?"
We just have to program them to say "Help me, help me!!"
Technically, smaller electronic objects are less susuptable to EMP (and other interference like solar flares, etc.) than larger devices.
Basically, it is the 1/4 wavelength size of the antenna. The larger the antenna (electrical wires, circuit board, and such), the lower the frequency that will be received. For the most part, things like EMP, Lightning, Solar Flares are "lower frequency" events. For example, solar flares will affect power and other networks that are miles across--not inches.
Still does not hurt to have good shielding on the electronics/cables. ESD (electrostatic discharge from running your feet across a carpet on a dry day/in an air conditioned room, anbd even paper movement in a printer) actually can have very high frequency components and may reboot poorly designed/unshielded computers in a 10's of feet or farther radius.
The wiping-out-towns problem is already solved by aerial bombardment or poison gas. Notice that full-size drones are already being used for targeted killing. Swarms of fly-sized assassins, with some means of identifying targets, are a logical development.
Sounds like the security screens used in the "Diamond Age".
Actually the first wide-scale commercial use for them will probably be as Phillip K Dick described in one of his books (can't recall title). He described a future where swarms of tiny robotic bees would follow people around and sing commercial jingles for consumer products.
Then there is the anti-fly-fly. I can see MRF's fighting it out with AFF's. The MRFS that can target an individual by some bio-metric will lead to the BARF. Excuse me I have to get to work on a book about new acronyms.
Still waiting for my Knife Missle here, Boss!
I've seen this movie before...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invincible
I'm reminded of Michael Crichton's novel, Prey, which paints a nightmare scenario in which swarming tech, distributed intelligence software, and self-replicating nanotech create a crisis out in the desert that threatens to spread to inhabited regions.
I think it important to remember that any weaponized offensive technology also comes automatically with its defense. Disaster scenarios usually depend on the idea that some technology will arrive that is completely lopsided. If we have lethal robot flies, the obvious counter is robot wasp and the same technology that builds the flies would build the wasp. Tiny sensors for the flies could also be used a distributed sensor grid to detect the flies and so on.
In addition to targeted killings, imagine if you could get a small swarm, one at a time, to fly into key parts of Iranian nuclear facilities and then have them all detonate at one time. You don't need to level the place just destroy key components with small holes. Appropriate delivery of a kg of explosives in tiny amounts all over a plant may be as effective as a bunker buster.
spray laquer. Spray the little buggers (pun intended) with spray laquer, paint, super glue, silly string, whatever. their wings will jam and that's the end of the story.
For the more sporting among us, Fly swatters. Ho-Hum, humanity saved again. What next?
This is exactly like the nanobots in Jimmy Neutron - evil little robots out to ruin a 4th graders day! Also, this is right out of Prey by Michael Crichton.
We've got to start building robotic praying mantises now! Millions of them! They could eat the robotic flies!
I'm sure they would never get out of control.