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DARPA To Turn Humans Into Batteries

Posted by samzenpus on from the electric-personality dept.

DARPA is working on a project that will convert energy from the human body to power a variety of military gadgets. From the article: "Obviously, our bodies generate heat — thermal energy. They also produce vibrations when we move — kinetic energy. Both forms of energy can be converted into electricity. Anantha Chandrakasan, an MIT electrical engineering professor, who is working on the problem with a former student named Yogesh Ramadass, says the challenge is to harvest adequate amounts of power from the body and then efficiently direct it to the device that needs it." If I remember the movie correctly, this didn't turn out so well for the humans.

2 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Here's my solution by david.emery · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If you want (a) power; (b) biometric identification; (c) biological status/health monitoring, consider the Rectal Thermocouple... This will normally generate substantial additional power in combat as an added benefit. :-)

  2. Re:Matrix Jokes ... by TheLink · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So it just means that "real world" is actually still a "matrix".

    The idea that humans are batteries is just what Morpheus claimed. It may be true in the inner Matrix world, but may not be for the outer matrix worlds. Remember even in the first movie the question was asked: "What if when you woke up, you didn't know the difference between the dream world, and the real world?"

    My interpretation is the Oracle is trying to upgrade herself- she believes humans have something the machines don't.

    Think of the whole thing as a "hybrid/breeding program".

    Neo is likely at least partly a machine (and a special one). The Oracle gives Neo a cookie to add features/upgrades at critical moments.

    After each world iteration, Neo has a chance of becoming more human but crucially retaining the abilities of machines.

    Smith goes about merging with all the humans and other machines, including the Oracle (who still somehow retains enough of herself to prompt Neo), and Neo merges with Smith.

    If things go fine, the Oracle gets her upgrade...

    As the Architect said, the Oracle is playing a dangerous game.

    But life is dangerous :).

    --