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Electronic Warfare Insects Coming Soon
Mike writes "British defence giant BAE Systems is creating a series of tiny electronic spiders, insects and snakes that could become the eyes and ears of soldiers on the battlefield, helping to save thousands of lives, and they claim that prototypes could be on the front line by the end of the year. A fascinating development to be sure, but who thinks this won't be misused domestically for spying and evidence gathering?"
Included in the story is a link to a creepy little (scripted, rendered) demo video of these robots in action.
The Locusts of Borg will pwn you.
I, for one, welcome our robotic, war-waging insectoid ov... aw, forget it.
I prefer my spiders to be 20ft tall and wielding giant laser canons of death.... Who needs a covert force when you can have one that kicks ass and takes names?
So does the military sue people who step on these things the way we step on eveyr other insect?
..with a powerful EM blast!!!
Does make a good story plot.
That which does not kill me only postpones the inevitable.
I, for one, welcome our giant insect overlords.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
They can try to bug me.I have several rather low tech counter-measures.
1. I have cats that eat bugs or will roll them under the refrigerator.
2. I have Raid ant traps.
3. I have natural spiders that will capture the cyber bugs.
4. I have toddlers who have nothing better to do but patrol for weird things like that.
5. I have wireless internet; loose wires in PCs, cable TV, lighting; toys; baby monitors; my house was built by the Wal-mart of home builders and cordless phone on the fritz. I have to go outside 10 feet from my house to talk on a cell phone. I am lucky to get clear FM radio.
The bugs may work in less developed areas, but they will not be able to stand up to the food web, shoddy craftsmanship, and a toddlers instinct to put everything in its mouth.
They have to work all the bugs in first.
Thankyouenjoytheveal!
Due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was swallowed by a small dog.
In seriousness, I have a great and very cheap countermeasure against electronic insects, snakes, mice, etc.: cats. DARPA may spend billions developing these tiny surveillance critters, but nature has spent billions of years evolving an efficient hunter to eat them.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.