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Terminator Sparrows?

Posted by Soulskill on 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.

8 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. Your seeds by Hsien-Ko · · Score: 5, Funny

    Give them to me.


    Now

  2. This is good news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Even sparrows hate the undead. Those zombies are going down.

  3. Re:I Don't Understand the Conclusion by GameboyRMH · · 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
  4. But, was it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    an African or European swallow?

  5. Re:Jesus God by GameboyRMH · · Score: 5, Informative

    That's nothing. Consider this:

    http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/medical-robots/ratbot-beats-on-live-rats-to-make-them-depressed

    Harry Harlow would be proud.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  6. "Eventually the head fell off" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The researchers, as quoted in the original article, describe the problem I've always had with re-animation:

    "Eventually the head fell off"

  7. Ex-Parrot by Marillion · · Score: 5, Funny

    Repeat experiment with parrots and ruin a perfectly good Monty Python skit.

    --
    This is a boring sig
  8. "Hey, check this out!" by sdeath · · Score: 5, Funny

    "... We wrapped a robot in a dead sparrow and decided to see if we could fool the other sparrows into interacting with our creepy, ghoulish automaton! It's *science*!"

    And of course, it was COMPLETELY UNEXPECTED that the grisly abomination stapled to a tree branch triggered aggressive reactions from the other sparrows. Because every living thing JUST LOVES to be confronted with a soulless golem wrapped in the dead flesh of another of its kind. And that never causes pants-shitting terror or anything.

    I can see it now:

    Sparrow 1: "OH MY GOD! IS THAT... *THING* ... WEARING FRANK'S FACE? IS IT?! FRANK??!?!"
    Sparrow 2: "It's not him anymore. IT'S! ...NOT! ...HIM! IT'S A MACHINE! Help me destroy it! Be his egg-layer one last time!"
    Sparrow 1: "*snf* OK... OK... oh God, Frank... God help me..."

    Yup. Science.

    Is there, like, a review board or anything? Maybe that could screen some horror flicks before writing checks for this kind of bullshit? "New rule: If your study is substantially similar to the plot of any one of this library of 100 horror movies, or if it has a plausible chance of producing similar outcomes, we're not going to fund it."

    --
    I am Chaos. I am alive, and I tell you that you are Free. -Eris