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DARPA Planning Liquid Robots
moon_monkey writes "According to New Scientist, Darpa is soliciting proposals for so-called Chemical Robots (ChemBots) that would be soft, flexible and could manoeuvre through openings smaller than their static structural dimensions. They suggest that it could be made from shape-memory materials, electro- or magneto-rheological materials or even folding components."
*Holds up picture of John Connor*
Now when someone asks what crawled up your ass they might be very serious.
I think the invisible hand of the market has its middle finger extended
--A wise old fart named SC0RN
> I'm not exactly sure what they want with a robotic slug though. The design request seems pretty weird to me.
It's not meant for men.
I'll probably be modded down for this...
No, we wouldn't want a robot that could squeeze through rubble to find survivors of a building collapse. No sirree.
The way the request is written, there could be some non-killing applications for these kinds of robots. Search and rescue operations frequently require getting into small spaces to find out what's going on. Collecting information from an unaccessible location has many practical applications. If the espionage applications are the ones that will pay for the research, so be it. The majority of research funding goes into finding new and creative ways to eradicate the human race, but this one could also have up sides.
The timelines are consistent with current project management methodologies - if you have no intention of completing the project, you may as well fail on an aggressive timeline. At least they haven't yet reached the point where the start date is expected to be after the completion date.
Lots of money goes towards protecting soldiers, light body armor for example. When the Chinese decide to invade the US I'll be glad we have fancy killing weapons. The best way to protect our soldiers is to eliminate the enemy. It would be nice to think everyone can play together but thats not the case, I would rather have laser guns that collect dust than old m16s that can't penetrate the enemy's new body armor.
Knowledge = Power
P= W/t
t=Money
Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
you do realise the entire internet was designed as a hardened system to help communication in face of a massive nuclear strike.
What starts with an expensive cold military purpose becomes a tool for every day use.
There are very few things the military does that won't have practical everyday applications in 20 years.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Variable, flexible and soft is not liquid.
- liquid implies no strong bonding between neighboring particals, the particals are free to change their relationships with each other.
Remote control is not robot.
- robot is autonomous.
This was a rant.
But do they spill linux?
Remember the inter-net? "Connect multiple computers with disparate architectures manufactured and designed by multiple manufacturers into a single integrated network architecture with seamless sharing of data, regardless of native format." I was vaguely associated with the development work DARPA did on this back in the early 80's - I was sure they were chasing a pipe-dream. DARPA often does, you know.
Yup - if only one pipe-dream in a hundred ever makes it, the internet sure shows that the other ninety-nine pipes weren't wasted; we can use 'em as tubes for the intarweb. So even if we don't come up with a Cyberdyne T-1000, let's see if something useful does come out of this research. Remember, the Nautilus, space travel, powered flight, even travel in excess of fifty to sixty miles per hour were all once ridiculous ideas - all theoretically impossible for many good scientific reasons. Now, we have nuclear submarines, (arguably) reusable spacecraft, jet travel and teenagers who can't seem to drive at less than seventy to eighty miles per hour!
Not true, see here Amazon.com: Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet: Books: Katie Hafner While it was soon found that it would be useless in a nuclear attack, comments saying that it wasnt intended for use in one are revisionist history, even the budget allocations show, ARPANET was meant to be created to survive a nuclear attack.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
Since when has giving people things ever worked to win "hearts and minds" in the long run? Todays breed of anti-government anarchists, hippies, and malcontents are amongst the richest and most privileged human beings in history. They have attained that status through the rights and opportunities afforded to them by their governments. Yet their "hearts and minds" seem to be planted firmly in the camp of those who would not only give them nothing, but take away everything.
"Free Shit" generally leads only to resentment and antipathy. It is by providing people with the freedom and opportunity to decide their own future that the US has become the great nation it is today, while communist nations which attempt to provide everything for everyone while asking nothing of anyone have blown away like dust on the winds of history.
Human bridge over the Atlantic.