Terminator Sparrows?

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Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday February 26, 2013 @08:06AM from the they'll-be-back-...-from-the-dead dept.

AstroPhilosopher writes "In a move not far removed from the model T-101, U.S. researchers have succeeded in re-animating a dead sparrow. Duke scientists were studying male behavior aggression among sparrows. They cleverly decided to insert miniaturized robotics into an empty sparrow carcass and operate it like a puppet (abstract). It worked; they noticed wing movements were a primary sign of aggression. Fortunately the living won out this time. The experiment stopped after the real sparrows tore off the robosparrow's head. But there's always a newer model on the assembly-line. Good luck sparrows." Bad Horse has not yet made a decision on the researchers' application.

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I Don't Understand the Conclusion by eldavojohn · 2013-02-26 08:06 · Score: 4, Insightful

Awesome research but the last section puzzles me:

The living male birds were equally aggressive to Robosparrow whether its wing movements were activated or not, the researchers found.

"It confirmed our hypothesis that the wing-waving behaviour is functioning male aggressive communication," said Dr Anderson.
Wouldn't the first sentence imply that nothing can be determined? I mean, it sounds like they weren't beating the shit out of robosparrow because of his wing movements but more so because he was going around looking for Sparrow Connor.

But in all serious does anyone know how they came to that conclusion given the seemingly arbitrary constant aggression?

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My work here is dung.
1. Re:I Don't Understand the Conclusion by GameboyRMH · 2013-02-26 08:14 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  It certainly looks like a pair of conflicting statements...did they never consider that they'd triggered an "Uncanny Valley" reaction in the sparrows and they were being aggressive towards the cyborg-zombie sparrow?
  
  --
  "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
2. Re:I Don't Understand the Conclusion by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-26 08:42 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Yeah... if this were to happen with humans, I could see that just about anyone would try to take down a random robo-zombie with a baseball bat or shotgun blast to the head!
  There's not going to be any "Oh hey... are you okay, man? You look pale, and your eyes are dull and you move with an unnatural jerky movement... did you eat some bad shellfish?"
  It's going to be screaming and mayhem.
  BEST CAPTCHA EVER: "automata"
3. Re:I Don't Understand the Conclusion by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-26 10:58 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Gorillas don't normally have an aggressive reaction to people in gorilla suit.
  Apples vs. Oranges.
  How would gorillas react to someone in a suit made out of a dead gorilla? You know: with rotting flesh smell and dead eyes.
  It must have a robotic whirring noise to be a fair comparison.
Re:But, was it... by interval1066 · 2013-02-26 08:28 · Score: 1, Insightful

I would've modded you up if I could've. The jerks who modded you down are comically barren.

--
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
Terrible summarization by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-26 08:30 · Score: 3, Insightful

This is a terrible summary even by /. standards.
Both terminator and 'reanimate' have completely different inferred meanings than what the story is actually about.