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Robots to Rid Us of Cockroaches?
unassimilatible writes "It behaves like a cockroach. It smells like a cockroach. It is accepted by other cockroaches. But it is not a cockroach. It is a robot and scientists say its invention is a breakthrough in mankind's struggle to control the animal kingdom. The Sunday Times is reporting on a cool form of robotics, impersonating (inanimalnating?) animals. Leurre is a project on building and controlling mixed societies composed of animals and artificial agents. Within a decade, its inventors believe, it will be leading the unwanted pests out of dark kitchen corners, to where they can be eliminated. Additionally, they say they will soon be using robots to stop sheep jumping off cliffs and to encourage chickens to take exercise. Schematics, tools, and pictures here. Apparently, cockroaches do not wear tinfoil hats, as they are not smart enough to be suspicious of box-shaped circuit boards with an antennae sticking out."
FTA: It is a robot and scientists say its invention is a breakthrough in mankind's struggle to control the animal kingdom.
I would like to see a little drosophila robot lead all of the confounded fruit flies out of my kitchen and into the wild! (although I'm not sure where they'll put the batteries for that one)
If I could control the little robot, I might be tempted to send them right down the drain into my neighbour's place!
I see this as an excellent way to control animals, keep them off of roads and away from harm, but if I have to buy a robot dog to control my real dog, I might just buy a robot dog and leave it at that!
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
...who will rid us of the robots?
New market opportunity:
But can it survive a nuclear attack?
no.
score one for mother nature.
-Teiresias
What happens when the robot that vaccums your floor sucks up your cockroach robot? Do they fight to the death?
cleverly disguised as a responsible adult ||
But then I saw the boxy green things, and it occured to me, if the roaches are fscking stupid enough to accept it as one of their own, they deserve to be exterminated by it.
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
they say they will soon be using robots to stop sheep jumping off cliffs
Or a... fence.
Hokey statistics and ancient misconceptions are no match for a good thought in your head, kid!
This roach bot should be called the CyberDyne Systems T-1. The First Terminator, a robot designed to infiltrate a population and eliminate it.
Human models should be available in a few decades.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
"and to encourage chickens to take exercise"
...Please leave the chickens alone, they have enough of a problem running from the farmer when his wife is out of town.
Let's get one thing perfectly clear, I did not vote for George W Bush, and I do not endorse what he does or says.
"
...when these robots are so effective, the male roaches will mount them, and get their little roach members snipped off.
Raid®: EMP. Robot Ant and Roach killer.
3.5. Develop advanced tinfoil-production methods that reduce costs to 1% of the former foil-making budget, mark up the price of hats 137%
....
and then
8. Lobby Congress to pass legislation granting a legal tinfoil-hat monopoly to prevent piracy of copyrighted hat design
9. Sue cockroaches who buy their tinfoil from "bootleg" foil distributors in Hong Kong or over the internet
10. ???
"Linux doesn't exist. Everyone knows Linux is an unlicensed version of Unix"- Kieren O'Shaughnessy
We need robot republicans.
It's not that hard to program, republicans don't believe in moral ambiguity or accountability. So you don't even have to program the fuzzy logic thing.
And make sure to make a Bill Gates Bot. (-;
Microsoft is pure dog-ma. FreeBSD is pure cat-ma.
Additionally, they say they will soon be using robots to stop sheep jumping off cliffs [...] I thought sheep were supposed to push back when they are near the edge of a cliff.... oh wait... nevermind
"It behaves like a cockroach. It smells like a cockroach. It is accepted by other cockroaches. But it is not a cockroach."
Oh God! I just stomped on my $1,200 Robo-Roach!! Arrrgggghhh!
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
How do you say "Resistance is futile... You will be assimilated!" in cockroach?
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
"And then the Cyborgs came."
I just realized how many movies and books could be greatly improved by adding that line to the end narration.
Honor Among Slackers. A veri
First they came for the cockroaches
and I did not speak out
because I was not a cockroach.
Then they came for the sheep
and I did not speak out
because I was not a sheep.
Then they came for the chickens
and I did not speak out
because I was not a chicken.
Then they came for the humans
and there were only robots left
and none would speak out for me.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Bagpipe music provides a simple solution to the problem of areas being infested by roaches.
Play bagpipe music in area.
Humans are repulsed, moving to what is likely a roach-free area.
Roaches stay in human-free area: if they can survive nuclear winter, there is a good chance that they can survive bagpipes too.
Roaches and humans now live happily in separate places.
Anthropocentric? What other viewpoint do you suggest, exactly? Should we think like trees? Or maybe we should think like martians! Or like cartoon characters... no wait, they're anthropocentric also. Or maybe we should do what lots of slashdot readers do - think like computers! Unfortunately they have no personality at all, and they have a tendency to build up huge stockpiles of grandma / grand-daughter / yak scat porn, but at least we won't be anthropocentric! And honestly, I think a lot of geeks would be happier living like that.
I submitted this story last night, and it didn't get posted.
If you developed little robots to pick up all all those food crumbs and eliminate any spills and puddles, the Cockroaches won't prosper.
As seen on the 5th Element, that will happen; you'll have a lot of cleaning robots, and the cockroach robots will be refurbished to serve as remote controlled bugs (pun intended).
Hmmmm, I've probably seen that movie too many times... multipass.
One possibility is to target mice or rats. They're prolific, but being mammals are less so than roaches. Unfortunately, they're pretty damn smart and might be able to foil or avoid these robots (finding particular crannies in the wall it can't reach, for example). Also, from a public relations standpoint, a robot that snuffs fur covered rodents would probably spill enough blood to freak out a homeowner. And if the thing botched the job and only maimed the little guys, you'd be stuck with a thousand grossed out homeowners complaining about mice with partially amputated limbs crawling across their new carpet.
Ironically, one of the best choices might be the pests that act more like robots than any other: ants. The tough part of taking them out is tracing them all the way back to the nest, which might be inside a wall or foundation crack. A robot that could track them inside walls, etc. and then do a quick one shot of poison spray to get the queen would be perfect. Ants may be as prolific as roaches, but the queen is the only fertile one in the nest. Get her and it's "game over, man!"
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
Actually, most houses in the United States now are cockroach-free. The emergence of transported-bait poisons has essentially wiped out that particular pest in indoor spaces throughout the nation in the past decade.
You are on crack, try visiting any home in the inner city, or in the very warm southern states.
What if they do this to lead geeks out of dark basements and into the light, where they can trap us ?
They could control the nerd/geek kingdom! Oh, no! where is my tinfoil hat when I need it!
wake up and hold your nose
The English language already has a word like this. It's the transitive verb "mimic" (mimicked, mimicking). Please don't make up any more new words, or we shall be forced to send a large brutish person over to your house to shove a copy of Webster's 2nd down your throat.
Thank You
Usage Enforcement Agency,
Large Brutish Person Division
You deserve a funny for suggesting that someone is on crack but has not been exposed in the inner city.
Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
Is this a big problem? I've never heard of it but there could be a lot of reasons for sheep cliff divers. They get drunk with their hoodlum buddies and start showing off, I'm not sure. But when you think about it there aren't a lot of sheep singing It's A Wonderful Life. You stand around eating grass all day, constantly on the alert for predators, then once a year you get man handled by some smelly guy who shaves all your fur off. That's all fine and dandy, then one day you get to go for a ride in the trailer that ends up at the slaughter house and you're nothing but mutton chops after that, baby.
Yeah, I think I'd opt for the cliff myself. At least you've got a chance that way. You could wash up on the island of lost sheep. But I guess that's another movie.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Kid: "Mom, I made this great invention that will make us millions! Millions I'm telling ya!"
* Cruunnnccchhhh! *
Mom: "Got it! Now, Son, what is your invention?"
Kid: "Doh! Ah forget it."
Table-ized A.I.
Is it a sign of too much internet pron viewing when you read a line like "And then the Cyborgs came." and you think the poster meant it the "naughty" way?
Who said anything about wasting the wine?
Yes, but you catch more flies with honey... :)
~Idarubicin
the super-intelligent roaches will "scorch the sky" in an attempt to keep the robotic cockroaches from using solar energy. The robotic cockroaches will then have to turn the real roaches into "batteries," and create a virtual reality world for them to live in. The roaches will have to await "the One," that roach who is so hyper-intelligent that he can bend the rules of the virtual world with his mind.
While all of this is playing out, I'll just be searching for a very large shoe.
Who will rid us of the Governor of California?