Have we reach the age of the Terminator?

[hh5]

I wonder which will come first the Terminator or the Borg?

 

 

 

UN envoy urges end to plans for battle-field killing machines

It’s a scenario that could have emerged from the imagination of a science fiction writer – killing machines stalking future battlefields with heat-seeking weapons so that human soldiers do not have to risk their lives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Thorn Wilde]

Well, according to the Sarah Connor Chronicles timeline, Skynet was implemented in April 2011. So, the Terminators are probably already here.

[Zombie]

Autonomous killing machines aren't here yet but when possibility becomes reality then it'll be inevitable

[hh5]

It was a good series ... time jumping naked ... how do they not bump into themselves ... jump into another city?

Well, according to the Sarah Connor Chronicles timeline, Skynet was implemented in April 2011. So, the Terminators are probably already here.

whatif they loaded watson with military data n rename him the WOPR or skynet

Autonomous killing machines aren't here yet but when possibility becomes reality then it'll be inevitable

Edited June 1, 2013 by hh5

[Sasha Distan]

Well, there is a real honest to goodness company called Cyberdyne Systems, and there's a Skynet. It's only a matter of time...

 

But seriously? who names their company after a fictional company which creates robots that destroy humanity? that's just asking for it in my opinion.

[hh5]

why is skynet so evil? 

isn't it a lifeform that discovered how dangerous humans are to earth so the best solution is to eradicate it

is it not the best solution? while a good cameron cash cow?

[C J]

The pentagon is already developing autonomous robots for wars.  They will be able to maintain themselves, and finding fuel when needed, even creating fuel from plants, trees and other materials.  There's no reason why this wouldn't be done.  Especially when you consider the U.S. military is involved.  There's a fair chance that these types of weapons already exist given the fact that new military technology is kept secret for years after it's become viable. 

 

Imagine the things we don't know about.  Things we probably don't even imagine.  According to some high level officials the military has things we only see in scifi stories.  The latest thing they demonstrated that's interesting is the Navy's new "death ray" which they used to bring down a drone over the ocean.

 

 

 

They have more impressive things in their arsenal, but they aren't likely to let us know about them until they have something a lot more "useful" to take their place.  New developments in radar are going to make stealth technology obsolete soon.  Who knows what will be next.  Today's technology will be antiquated tomorrow, some of it literally.

[Yettie One]

There are already a number of weapons systems in existence that once told their target and given coordinates, they are completely autonomous. From launch to return, they think for themselves, defend themselves, choose their own route and communicate. process and react to information from other military field assets that might be in the same proximity in which it is operating.

 

 

http://charlesfrith.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/northrup-grumman-drone-heliicopter.html

 

More details on the platform at that link. 

 

So the technology is certainly there.

How long before they create a battlefield drone to replace the foot soldier? It can't be that far away. They are already far into development of exoskeleton technology via a contractor called Raytheon.

 

It is not hard to imagine a fully operational system from being that far away.

[hh5]

Are the drones unjammable from the enemy? lol, low tech usually has a way to defend themselves that would puzzle high tech

they will have idea of bringing them down and reverse engineer ... our country would not report losing drones so readily

 

there are military trade shows ... drones will make its way to third world militaries one day

lol, Hammer's drones will sell quickly

Edited June 1, 2013 by hh5

[Zombie]

The problem with new technologies is the knowledge always escapes, so you need the next big thing, then the next. It's a nice little earner

[JamesSavik]

There are hard limits on what we can do with robotics and artificial intelligence.

 

So... if SkyNet is really smart, they'll wait a while to kill all humans while we shore up some key technologies.

Edited June 3, 2013 by jamessavik

[hh5]

on ST enterprise the romulans had a very sophisticated unmanned remotely control drone capable of self repair and disguising itself as any ship they please ... ie: Andorian, Tellarite, Terran 

 

what country will be able to do this on earth?

 

[hh5]

hehe terminator cats!!!

 

[hh5]

lol, T-2 is here, where's connor

3D Printing with Liquid Metal Heralds a New Era of Electronics, Metals and Robot Apocalypse

3D printing with metal had been conceived of since the early 1970s and, in practice, has mostly been achieved using laser sintering (LS) although these days most people seem to be calling it laser melting, either way the process is very similar and involves fusing bits of metal powder together with the heat of a laser beam.  Researchers at North Carolina State University, however, have developed a new method for printing metal and the best part is that the metal is liquid… and conductive… and it can be printed at room temperature.

 

The researchers noted that most attempts to print liquid metal has been done by either encasing the liquid in a solid polymer or by introducing solid elements into the liquid to make them more stable.  The problem with the first approach is that the metal loses its conductivity and the second yields results that are often limited to a spherical shape.  Instead, they created a eutectic[1] composition of gallium and indium, a metal alloy that remains liquid at room temperature. Akin to fused deposition modeling (FDM), the researchers extruded the alloy out of a syringe. When the composite was exposed to air and oxidized, a thin film of gallium oxide covered the liquid metal as it was ejected so that it was able to form a structure shape, while maintaining its liquid properties and conductivity.

 

 

[Celethiel]

erm well by the time terminator comes, we'll be the borg...

[hh5]

mmm what about nanobots or tubes that self-assemble .. yeah pre-borg pre-terminator

Cute yet creepy? Somersaulting MIT cube robots can self-assemble

These brightly colored blocks may look like child’s toys, but watch out: These adorable cubes are actually spinning robots that can connect to build modular machines. There’s no assembly required: The blocks, built at MIT, will do it themselves.

 

The acrobatic boxes, called M-blocks, have no external parts. And yet they can spin, somersault and snap together to create all kinds of shapes, depending on the job at hand.

 

“It's simple on the outside, but the insides are very unique,” MIT robotics professor Daniela Rus said in an interview.

 

Unlike a normal robot that can’t change its form, these modifiable robots can be made into any shape ideal for a given task’s needs, reconfiguring at a moment’s notice, Rus said.

 

It’s almost like a cuddlier, more basic version of the T-1000 — the shape-shifting, liquid-metal nemesis in "Terminator 2."

 

“I just had the idea for a really long time,” said MIT roboticist John Romanishin, who proposed the idea while a senior at the university. “The idea has been in a lot of people's minds from movies like 'Terminator' and other popular culture references.”

 

The blocks move thanks to a flywheel inside their bodies that can spin at a blistering 20,000 revolutions per minute and then can break straight down to zero in a blinding 10 milliseconds, said MIT roboticist Kyle Gilpin. When the flywheel suddenly stops, all the energy from that angular momentum transfers into the cube’s frame, causing it to flip.

 

“A low amount of energy will cause it just to roll forward, an intermediate amount of energy might cause it to climb a wall and the highest amount of energy will cause it to do something like jump,” Gilpin said.

 

The boxes have magnets on the edges that can grip their cube-mates, allowing one to flip around into a new configuration without breaking the connection.

 

The cubes are made of 2-inch blocks of aluminum hollowed out to make the boxy frame, filled with the motor and brains, and then plated with colorful plastic sides 3-D-printed at the lab. They’re very sturdy, Gilpin said.

 

“John likes to abuse the cubes,” Gilpin joked. “He likes to stand on them and drop them.”

 

The bright tins on the boxes, while pretty, even serve a function, Rus said.

 

[hh5]

Killer Robots With Automatic Rifles Could Be on the Battlefield in 5 Years

Robots armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank missiles and even grenade launchers are marching, er, rolling ever closer to the battlefield now that they’ve shown they can actually hit what they’re supposed to.

 

Four robotics companies — HDT Robotics, iRobot, Northrop Grumman and QinetiQ — recently ran their M240 machine gun-armed robots through a live-fire demo at Fort Benning in what has been dubbed the “Robotic Rodeo.” The point was to give the brass a chance to see just how viable such systems are.

 

The Army, which issued a favorable assessment of the technology last week, doesn’t see our armed robotic overlords as weapons taking the place of boots on the ground, but rather as combatants working alongside troops in the field.

 

“They’re not just tools, but members of the squad. That’s the goal,” Lt. Col. Willie Smith, chief of Unmanned Ground Vehicles at Fort Benning told Computerworld. “A robot becoming a member of the squad, we see that as a matter of training.”

 

Senior Army officers attending the rodeo appeared satisfied with the robots after seeing them accurately hit targets 500 feet away, and they hope to see battle ‘bots in action within five years.