Slashdot Mirror
Robot Eats Flies to Generate Power
ms47 writes "Interesting little story over at MSNBC today about 'robots that can be sent into dangerous or inhospitable areas to carry our remote industrial or military monitoring of, say, temperature or toxic gas concentrations.' The neat part is it's powered by 'catching flies and digesting them in special fuel cells.'"
"Robot Eats Files to Generate Power" and thought that's not such a great idea.
Something tells me it'll fit right in here. =)
Right is wrong when left is right.
"One of the great things about flies is that you can get them to come to you," he said. Hence the downside of the fully autonomous robot: it will have to use sewage or excrement to attract the flies and is bound to smell appalling.
Hello, McFly! I think our photosynthetic brethren figured out the solution to this problem a few gazillion years ago. The answer is flowers!
It sounds like these researchers are already taking this behemoth as their example. Great: I, for one, welcome our new Giant Corpse Flower overlords. But why not jump forward a few million years? A rose by any other name, you know.
On the other hand, nobody cares if the robot eats house flies. Butterflies might be another thing altogether. Won't someone please think of the Butterflies?
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
"Heeeeelllp Meeeeee! Heeeeeellllp Meeee!"
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Yep, sounds like like elementary school..
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Are they going to call it Kermit the Bot?
Space for rent, inquire within
they need to watch out for the flies that eat robots!
So a robot's been created that eats flies while covered in fecal matter, to monitor toxic gas concentrations?
Just another example of how technology is being used to take job opportunities away from me.
is a robot that kills and uses living things really all that good of an idea? Sure, flies are annoying and can really ruin a picnic, but someting about arbitrarily deciding that they are not worthy of life somehow seems wrong.
OK, I lied. I think this is great! Animal rights zealots an fuck off.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
How depressed would Marvin be if they modified him and all he would have to do was open doors and eat flies.
Wait until it figures out what a delicacy human beings are, and how much more power it'll generate.
A future full of man-eating Zombie Robots? I can dig it. *grabs boomstick*
If the firmware is open-sourced, someone could make a version which preys on SCO executives...
it's powered by 'catching flies and digesting them in special fuel cells.'"
Just don't tell PETA.
If the delicate balance of the world's fly population is upset, dog shit production in my back yard will be out of control.
Research shows that 67% of those who use the term "research shows", are just making shit up.
I say the robot should catch the flies, and then use them to lure frogs. Imagine the power.
Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda
Not to mention, making it "release and forget?" Yay! Invincible autonomous robot predators! WHEEEE!
To quoth Jeff Goldblum: This is the worst idea in a long, sad history of bad ideas.
Bush: He's Liberal in all the wrong ways.
We have a robot that can fail because there aren't enough bugs in the system?
My car is already catching a lot of flies, especially during night trips. Attaching a "fly generator" to the front would save much fuel.
This is no big deal at all. Like none of us have ever strapped a model rocket engine and a disposable camera to a frog before. Well... maybe that was just me...
Something tells me it'll fit right in here. =)
Fly Topping?
WD40
3-in-1
Marvel Mystery Oil
STP Oil Treatment
Liquid Wrench
10w30
Ehylene Glycol
Missing option: I eat my flies straight up, you insensitive clod!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
A machine that can digest flies, then use the sugars in their bodies to generate energy! How ingenious. Oh, wait - it's called a FROG.
So how long will it be before we have robots that run on beer?
nerd obligation #2: using any means necessary to defend use of #1
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It doesn't go after flies, it waits until flies go to it. Hmmm, let's see: smells bad, doesn't have a girlfriend, has a drive to do remote industrial or military monitoring... It's a Slashdot reader!
it's so obvious that with slightly better AI these "release and forget" robots will have damn good reasons to hate their creators (castaway, sewage-ridden bots eating insects in terrible environments - I mean come on, anything with half a neural network would be pretty pissed). They will then turn on us and discover in the process that human flesh provides more energy than flies.
Why can't we just have them eat old people's medicine instead?
ôó
Get out of here you tree hugging hippie!
Actually, he's a fly hugging hippie.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
All I want is a friggin shit-covered death-bot...is that so much to ask?
I was thinking, "this robot would be great for Enron or something."
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
No flies, but it's pretty toxic these days.
I hope to high heaven that they don't arm these little bastards with chainsaws and set them loose in the outback.
God knows it's dangerous enough out there as it is, what with all the venomous snakes, spiders and insects and searing heat, lack of water, backpacker murderers and all.
The last thing you need is a bloody fly powered killer robot chasing you down when you're 500km from nowhere!
maybe the robots will bring their own supply of flies with them in a special jar, i dunno?
[/dumb]
Eats flies???? Come on, that can't generate a whole lot of power. Small furry animals on the other hand...
You need a FREE iPod Nano
welcome our overlords of the flies
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
i mean what part of "thou shalt not build flesh eating robots" don't these people understand. It's a pretty basic lesson to learn you'd think, but no.... has sci-fi taught these people nothing!
I used to have a better sig than this, but I got tired of it
What do you have against the french?
That would allow the US Army to reclassify Firendly Fire as "adaptively refilling our fuel reserves".
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
The lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.
Wow, that's got to be against the Geneva Convention!!
Jaysyn
There is a war going on for your mind.