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Robot Eats Flies to Generate Power

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the carnivorous-automotons dept.

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.'"

15 of 410 comments (clear)

  1. It's not possible. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    What I want to know is: Can they digest... humans?!

  2. Killing Robots by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Today it's flies. Tomorrow, wasps. Then, as robots grow more power hungry, WASPs. And soon, it will be your turn. Robots will grow us like plants, as seen in the Matrix!

    But seriously, I don't like this. Just because some animals are too weak to defend themselves, doesn't give us the right to kill them. Nor does it give us the right to build a robot that kills them. It's not like that robot couldn't be powered by other means.

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    Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    1. Re:Killing Robots by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Just follow that locig a little farther...

      We don't have the rights to kill animals...
      We don't have the rights to kill plants...

      Oops, I just killed some tiny single-celled organism by breathing!

      Oh no; I'm no longer sick. I must have killed the virus/bacteria trying to kill me!

      I should just kill myself and get it over with.
      .
      .
      .
      Do I have the rights to do that?

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      Please realize that rights are the sole domain of humans.

    2. Re:Killing Robots by Have+Blue · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Would you have any objection to an animal being killed by another animal in order to stay alive?

      Humans are just very intelligent animals, and the fly-eating robot is just a (very abstracted) result of our drive to stay alive.

    3. Re:Killing Robots by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The way I see it we shouldn't be causing harm or suffering without good reason. It is quite possible that flies feel phsyical pain in a way not dissimilar to humans. It is all too easy to believe that they are an inferior being not worthy of compassion, but if they do feel pain and suffering I think they are deserving of our compassion just as a dog is.

      I agree that just living will cause all sort of small organisms to die without us ever intentially causing this, but I do believe it is justified. However killing these flies is both intential and seemingly without a well justified reason.

      If any of you people are really thinkers I would urge you consider why you don't torture dogs or other small mammals. If it is to do with empathy and the fact that these small mammals are seemingly capable of experiencing severe suffering and pain, consider that even flies may be capable of not too dissimilar sensations.

  3. I wonder if it could eat other bugs.... by rubberbando · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If they made one that ate mosquitos, they'd make a fortune cashing in on the annual West Nile Disease scare. :)

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  4. Re:They're called, "Flowers" by Chris+Burke · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well, the symbolism should be obvious, and it was a lot better than the old tradition of giving them animal sex organs. If you think roses don't look very good in a vase after a week...

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    The enemies of Democracy are
  5. Re:Wait... by russx2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, and bye bye to the dragonflies who dine on them. So then we can knock a few breeds of bird off the non-extinct list who find their daily quota of dragon-like flies diminishing. And then of course the algaes around lakes grow out of control killing off the fish.

    Everything has its place in the chain :-)

  6. Re:seems like... by Trent05 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If they run out of dirt, we're all in trouble.

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  7. Re:They're called, "Flowers" by timeOday · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There must be some reason frogs aren't photosynthetic.

  8. Wait a minute here... by d474 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "...military monitoring of, say, temperature or toxic gas concentrations..."
    Why would the military have the need to be monitoring toxic gas levels with robots that use flies as an energy source? Well...

    If there is a major chemical weapons attack on a major population center there will be a lot of dead people. Where there are lots of dead people there are flies. Hence, the need for a robot that can sustain it's power needs with a fuel source available both day and night...Nothing to see here. Move along.
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  9. Sue, sue, sue by OwlWhacker · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think that the fast food chains should sue the fat people suing them, for giving the fast food chains a bad image.

    After all, it's not mandatory to eat fast food, and if these people have stuffed themselves silly on a diet of mostly fast food, their lack of a sound diet has maintained/increased their girth, not Ronald McDonald.

    Either that or the fat people suing them should be sued for ignorance. I mean, if you digest fat, what do you think happens to it? Does the fat fairy come along and take it away? Maybe the education system should be reviewed. Maybe the US Government should sue these people for giving the US a bad image, making people think that Americans are simpletons.

    It's funny how Americans can successfully sue anybody for just about anything, yet Microsoft always gets away unscathed.

    Maybe somebody will announce that the use of Microsoft software has made them obese? That would probably have more success.

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    Linux/Open Source/Anti Microsoft News
    1. Re:Sue, sue, sue by Sj0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Compared to the amount of food you get, fast food has an irresponsibly high number of calories, 52% of which come from fat.

      It's not exactly unreasonable to assume that a place which sells food would have caloric content decent enough that one could reasonably eat said food and hope to either maintain a weight or gain very slowly.

      Instead, Mcdonalds' portions have absolutely UNREASONABLE amounts of calories for the amount of food given, ie. I could make a standard hamburger at home which would have larger, more filling portions, for fewer calories. In fact, for a hamburger and fries made at home, served with some sort of drink, the difference is night and day.

      A supersized "big hamburger meal"(whatever the biggest one is these days) contains enough calories for an entire day, with negligible nutritional value, and they try to fill you up on soda water to mask the fact that the food just isn't very filling. A plate of french fries and a reasonably sized hamburger cooked up using pre-made stuff from the local supermarket has far fewer calories, far more nutritional value, will fill you up more, and won't leave you hungry an hour later.

      To be honest though, even though Mcdonalds food has way too many calories and it's portions are absolutely too large for any human to reasonably need to consume, I'd say the makers of "low carb ice cream" and such are in for a far greater fall. IIRC, the atkins diet requires carb levels of fewer than 20 grams each day, and much of this "low carb" junk food exceeds that with only one or two servings. All things considered, they are false advertising more, where McDonalds never explicitly implies that their food is actually supposed to be consumed.

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      It's been a long time.
  10. But in a toxic cloud... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    If it's in a toxic cloud, how will the flies survive to feed the robot?

    I, for one, welcome our new carnivorous aluminum-clad overlords.

  11. Dieselsweeties.com has the advanced version by Stack_13 · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Nice coincidence: today's Diesel Sweeties comic has a strip with a fly-catching robot, which also stinks.

    Weird, huh.