Fly-eating robot powers itself

[BrandonL]

Scientists at the University of the West of England (UWE) have designed a robot that does not require batteries or electricity to power itself.

Instead, it generates energy by catching and eating houseflies.

Dr Chris Melhuish and his Bristol-based team hope the robot, called EcoBot II, will one day be sent into zones too dangerous for humans, potentially proving invaluable in military, security and industrial areas.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/12/27/explorers.ecobot/index.html

[Satan]

When the headline reads 'Fly-eating robots invent robot that catches and eats humans'

RUN LIKE HELL.


Seriously, people need to stop fucking around with this stuff. Why in the HELL would anybody want to invent a machine that 'can function without human supervision' AND relies on MEAT for it's functional ability?

I swear. The world has gone absolutely nuts. ::)

[BrandonL]

It can live on plant matter as well.

[NorNec]

I saw a show on History Channel talking about various ways the earth could end. One of them was the "Gray Matter Effect"" Scientists created just such a creature that could replicate itself and was deesigned to eat carbon based matter. It was desgigned to eat oil from wrecks, but soon adapted to eat all carbon based life forms.

[Satan]

It can live on plant matter as well.


That's comforting. ::)

[jeny]

The Terminator!!

[wendy]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/12/27/explorers.ecobot/index.html


The EcoBot II uses human sewage as bait to catch the insects.

Well, it's comforting to know that we're still needed for something. ::)

[BrandonL]

When the headline reads 'Fly-eating robots invent robot that catches and eats humans'This violates one of the three laws of robotics though. Assuming the scientists adhere to those laws.

[Satan]

I'm not nearly as concerned with scientists not following the Three Rules as I am with robots not adhering to them. I'm highly skeptical that scientists can incorporate the sanctity of human life into fuzzy logic.

[Larry_Oldtimer]

I'm not nearly as concerned with scientists not following the Three Rules as I am with robots not adhering to them. I'm highly skeptical that scientists can incorporate the sanctity of human life into fuzzy logic.


Well, if there ever was such "sanctity of human life" in existance. My perusal of history indicates otherwise. The "three laws of robotics" were made up by Isaac Asimov for purposes of his science fiction stories, not by any other recognized group that I know of. ;)

[Unca Walt]

Criminy...

It wuz 1950, I think... and I discovered "Ikey" (he hated that nickname).

From Unca's packrat memory:

1. A robot may not injure (or through inaction, allow to be injured) a human being.

2. A robot must obey a human, except where it would interfere with Law #1.

3. A robot must do what it must in order to protect itself, providing it does not interfere with Laws 1 and 2.

And Isaac, in about... 1980, I believe, either amended Law #1, or put in Law Zero (the predication for the other three):

Law Zero: A robot must not let the other three Laws interfere with the safety of the human race as a whole.

This covered the possiblity of an attack from outer space, for instance, where the robot may have to let a human die... for the general welfare of the whole race.

A lot of people think they have read a lot of Isaac Asimov's works. What folks in general do not know is that this man was an absolute genius... in all interpretations of that word.

Asimov wrote the staggering total of FIVE HUNDRED AND SIX BOOKS AND STORIES!!!

To my knowledge, no one on earth has even approached that number.

The books were, in great part, marvelous works... not ghost-written, and not hundred-page dime novels.

Blockbusters... enduring CLASSICS like Pebble In The Sky, The Foundation Series (Trilogy plus), Caves of Steel, Naked Sun, Fantastic Voyage, I, Robot,
The Gods Themselves, The Currents of Space...

(Just ran out of Asimov books in my library... but there are others I do not currently still have:

The End of Eternity, The Robots of Dawn...

The man was magnificent. And I never got to meet him. My loss, not his.

Unca Walt

[Satan]

I've never read any of his stories. Guess I'd better get busy, huh?


Larry, you're right: there is no true sanctity of human life in the grand scheme of things. It's just a moral construct, a mutual agreement among 'civilized' man. But at least the idea has managed to keep some of us from killing each other. ;)