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DARPA Funds Remote Control Sharks

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the sunday-morning-new-baby dept.

An anonymous reader writes "From Undersea Spies: Turning Sharks into Robotic Sentries "It seems like science fiction, but the U.S. military would like to use sharks as underwater spies. The folks at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), who dream up the future of weapons and military systems, envision squads of sharks prowling the oceans with sensors that could transmit evidence of explosives or other threats.""

3 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Please update me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's a line from Austin Powers where Dr. Evil says that what he wanted was sharks with lasers on their heads and the other guy has to explain that sharks are endangered and so they settled for the next best thing -- sea bass.

    Dr. Evil: You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here! What do we have?
    Number Two: Sea Bass.
    Dr. Evil: [pause] Right.
    Number Two: They're mutated sea bass.
    Dr. Evil: Are they ill tempered?
    Number Two: Absolutely.
    Dr. Evil: Oh well, that's a start.

  2. Re:it used to be dolphins by Hal_Porter · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, I found this parasite fasinating

    http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?ne wsid=44092

    It knows how to regulate the human immune system for it's own purposes. It actually seems quite close to being a symbiote, since it can treat Crohn's disease. Reminds me a bit of Goa'uld in SG-1 actually.

    But I guess Rabies manages to change host behaviour in a way that encourages transmission.

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  3. Hello extinction, hello dupe by perrin · · Score: 2, Informative

    This proposal is unethical on so many levels. Most urgently - many species of shark are already nearing extinction, and if subs and other sea vessels that would like to go undetected start killing any sharks that come close "just in case", they will disappear quickly. As noted in this slashdot story: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/2 3/0214242, and this one: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/1 7/1815250

    Besides, this story is a dupe: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/0 2/0031225 was the previous one.