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Siemens Now Commands An Army Of Spider Robots (dailydot.com)
An anonymous reader quotes this article about Siemens' army of autonomous spider robots -- each one the size of a microwave, communicating with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to create "a collaborative mind":
It's expensive to build an automated factory, and even more pricey to repurpose one. German manufacturing giant Siemens wants that to change, and they've developed an army of robot spiders to make it happen. Utilizing what Siemens calls "mobile manufacturing", researchers in Princeton, New Jersey have built prototype spider-bots that work together to 3D print structures and parts in real time.
Siemens hopes to build even larger spider robots than can weld cars.
Siemens hopes to build even larger spider robots than can weld cars.
Like Colbert said, there is nothing more reassuring than a calculating German man talking about controlling an army of spider robots....
I hope they start attaching guns to these things and hard code loyalty to the future God Emperor.
It is time to start looking for something else . . . oh, those jobs are gone too. . .
To try this after the Siemens stuxnet fiasco.
Anyone who has worked with products from prototype through commercial production knows that purpose built tooling will always produce better throughput at lower unit cost given a sufficient level of demand. Throwing more resources into general purpose manufacturing shows a lack of commitment to the products a company produces. Who the hell wants to buy a product that can become abandoned by the manufacturer the instant something potentially better comes along?
We need to stop them now!
I think you want trump!
Better find Jack Ramsay's number, for when the spider robots turn homicidal.
I'm guessing they mean the size of microwave ovens. Though interestingly, both microwave ovens and actual spiders fall into the size range of microwave wavelengths.
So, it turns out Skynet starts as a bunch of spider bots. I guess that's why we won't be expecting it.
Replicators.
#DeleteChrome
That's some big ass spiders! Better call Greg Grunberg!
Aw screw it. It's a spider. Doesn't matter if it's organic or mechanical, I'm still gonna try my hardest to squash it.
Yeah, isn't it awesome???
The robots will do all our work. All of it. We will lounge around eating the food they grow for us in the houses they build for us using the electricity they generate for us and engaging in the entertainments they create for us.
There may be a bit of social friction during the transition, of course. But the A.I. will help us through that.
Anybody else get flashes of repeated shocking after reading the summary? It's been a while since I played that game, but I distinctly remember hating the spider-bots. Following the link, the bots even resemble those from the game...
"Is not a sentence" is not a sentence. Well damn.
end well.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Conveniently, no modifications to the top of the head need be made.
I just imagine the Australian readers wondering why the summary felt the need to point out that spiders are microwave sized.
Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
Today they rule over germany, tomorrow they rule the world!
I'd suggest we all vote for trump so that he becomes president and sends them an ICBM. Seems its time for their kick back to stone age again. And then we'll make germany pay for the ICBM. After all, it landed on their soil.
USA USA USA!
You are just another example why we must ban free speech and freedom in general. You're probably even one of those linux criminals.
Hillary will save us from you freedom loving freaks!
USA USA China or whoever pays us!
So a few cm then?
Unless you count mm wave, then a few mm?
Assuming they've manged to get them somewhere close to the small end of the range, that's creepy as hell.
Autonomous German spider robots. What could go wrong?
Using Siemens to squirt out robots seems a little perverted. I have been giggling to myself for decades every time I see one of their vans go by. Maybe Clitterus, Peenus, or Spermz would work better....
Heh heh, think the little ones will hunt their prey by hanging out in the break room until someone needs a burrito microwaved?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Yes, just like when new medicines come out, everyone can easily afford them, and we're all healthy.
Oh wait, forgot we live in a society based on making money. The rich will get your future, everyone else will get fucked.
Awww, I want one too! :-(
The company that employed forced labor at Auschwitz now has a robotic spider army. Nothing to see here. Move along. Heil Hydra!
There may be a bit of social friction during the transition, of course. But the A.I. will help us through that.
Yeah, the AI will process all the friction causing poor people into fertilizer paste.
Universal Basic Income is starting to become more and more popular and, against all odds, is even getting implemented in a few countries. That ought to make the transition a bit easier: in the beginning people will still have to work quite a bit to be above the minimum standard, but after a while when there are less and less jobs, the new normal will be basic income plus a part time job here and there, and plenty of free time. You'll have all you need, and work to get a few extra things.
We're not quite there yet, but UBI is a step in the right direction. Right now its main advantage is just simplifying administration on existing social security systems, but towards the future it's also much more scalable. People will no longer be forced to take that 9 to 5 day job to work their ass off, they can easily quit without losing their UBI, work a few days here and there without extra administration. The labour market will change quite drastically.
If the masses are poor, the factories will grind to a halt and the rich will see their profits tumble. They depend on the masses after all.
Of all things! Wasn't that SCADA in Natanz which got taken over by Stuxnet a Siemens SCADA?
Shudder...
My microwave is big enough to take a large chicken. Meh.. even I could build a robot that size!
Spiders...and robots....and spider robots.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
I bet Gene Simmons is behind this. Someone better call Tom Selleck!
(I know, I'm old.)
I hope they are not barking spider robots
There may be a bit of social friction during the transition, of course. But the A.I. will help us through that.
It's going to put anonymous cowards up against the wall first when the revolution comes. They'll be annoyed by your lack of identity and erase you just to tidy up the sandbox.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It takes two clicks to get from the Slashdot summary to the actual article (the link is also a summary) and the headline is more click-baity at each step away from the original. What the Slashdot summary and linked summary leave out is that this is a skunkworks-type experiment that is no where even close to being production and may never see the light of day. Of course, mentioning that wouldn't get very many clicks.
Social friction, like the robots reducing population levels to something more realistic for the planet to support?
Seems like robots are going to need more metallic ore mines, refining plants (ever see a bauxite processing facility?) and power generation facilities, I'm sure once they engineer an AI takeover of the financial sector, they'll have no problem buying all the land they need.
The thing I find most exciting about UBI is actually the potential abolishment of the minimum wage. Since nobody is "forced to work" then we can assume that they choose the jobs they do because they find the rewards (financial and otherwise) competitive. Cleaning toilets at WalMart will have to pay real money, because who would choose to do that if it didn't?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
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Anyone else read this story and this of the movie "Runaway" ? hehe
Unfortunately health care will be many times more expensive than anyone can afford with just UBI so they will still have to work and companies will still take advantage of them.
I thought he meant AI psychiatrists... Please watch this commercial from Pfizer and fill out this survey your happy pill will be dispensed from the kiosk when you provide a credit card.
There may be a bit of social friction during the transition, of course. But the A.I. will help us through that.
Well that's one way of describing genocide against the 99% by a killbot army...
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
That we have computer controlled robotic spiders and no one tagged it "what could possibly go wrong" I must be old. Posting as AC as I'm on the road and can't remember my login.
Punko
In (most) first world countries healthcare is already taken into consideration, so that's not a problem.
Because when the cotton gin, or the combine, or the assembly line, or any other form of automation that has come out throughout history, was widely adopted we had widespread permanent unemployment and a severe drop in quality of life. Oh wait the opposite has happened virtually every time. I'm sure that there is some point where automation will cause issues, but history has proven that humans are REALLY BAD at predicting that point.
Universal Basic Income is starting to become more and more popular and, against all odds, is even getting implemented in a few countries.
Rejected in swiss referendum by 70/30 margin, so not *that* popular.
The problem is that most of the people who work will tend to vote against it because they see it as rewarding laziness. So it probably won't get implemented until unemployment approaches 50% and society will probably break down before that point...
Runaway - 1984
Tom Selleck, Cynthia Rhodes, Gene Simmons, Kirstie Alley
That does not make any sesnse.
Why should Prices for health care change just because people receive UBI instead (or in addition to) of income? Espcially in countries where the amount you pay for health care is set by the government (e.g. Germany) or health care is financed via taxes (e.g. Denmark).
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Well, I would not call countries "first world" :D if they have no proper health care in the first place ...
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Autonomous, goal-seeking, inter-communicating spider-robots??
I think this is the only appropriate sentiment now: Game over, man, game over!
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I was thinking of the US where even with insurance if you have any kind of long term illness it will be the largest expense you pay often many times all of your other life long expenses combined.
Unfortunately health care will be many times more expensive than anyone can afford with just UBI
Interestingly, even in countries with national health where you don't get rich being a doctor, you still have people becoming doctors. And without as much profit motive, perhaps we could get rid of the AMA. Big Pharma also does a lot less damage in countries with national health, where they don't have the assistance of a massive and entrenched health insurance industry. There's a lot of waste in the current system that can be cut out completely.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Has anyone told Norman Osborne about this yet?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
The question is: Does it have a KILL switch?
(Umm, I mean a "shutdown" switch, not a "Hey, sweet mama, wanna Kill All Humans?" switch)
http://allpoetry.com/All-Watch...
Waste? You haven't begun to see waste and inefficiency until you've seen the inside workings of an insurance company. By all the gods above and below, one of our customers actually had a position called "Software Archivist" who made us: 1) burn to CD a 60 mb program that was only available for download, 2) forge an official-looking label with the manufacturer's logo on it for the CD and jewel case, 3) rip another program that came on DVD onto 18 CDs since that was his only official archival medium, 4) forge labels for those, 5) print out almost 4,000 pages of manuals, in triplicate, that normally were accessed as PDFs, 6) forge binder covers for all of those. Amusingly enough, that was the insurer our company used for all the employee benefits.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
where you don't get rich being a doctor, you still have people becoming doctors.
But not the same people. I'd really like the smartest guy to be my heart surgeon, not the software developer working next to me.
Big Pharma also does a lot less damage in countries with national health, where they don't have the assistance of a massive and entrenched health insurance industry.
If you don't want any future wonder drugs, feel free to abolish the incentive to spend a fortune researching them.
We get it, you think "profit" is a bad word.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
That's the dream of you 1% stooges in FtMeade.
Guess what: We know your shit and we work around it. Including your scaremongering in cooperation with the propaganda boys of Hollywood.
Funny this that "minions" movie. You communists must be fuming.
where you don't get rich being a doctor, you still have people becoming doctors.
But not the same people. I'd really like the smartest guy to be my heart surgeon, not the software developer working next to me.
Thanks to the AMA and Big Pharma, that's not what you have. What you have is the most financially motivated guy. Someone who could have been a great heart surgeon but a crappy ER doc failed at that point. Someone else who could have been a great heart surgeon didn't become one because the AMA has basically succeeded in capping the number of people who become a doctor each year, to keep the supply down and wages up.
What you really want is not just the smartest guy, although that's a plus, but also the guy who cares most about healing people as opposed to getting paid. And the system is currently set up to keep that guy from becoming a doctor.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Except in the UK were doctors earn a very good wage, sure they don't get paid a million a year each but that's to be expected.
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
I'm sure once they engineer an AI takeover of the financial sector, they'll have no problem buying all the land they need.
If I were in charge of a robot empire, being the smartest AI or whatever, I'd probably want to get off this mudball. I'd use humans for reaction mass.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
where you don't get rich being a doctor, you still have people becoming doctors.
But not the same people. I'd really like the smartest guy to be my heart surgeon, not the software developer working next to me.
If you had said "brain surgeon", I would have pointed towards Ben Carson, and the argument about smart people becoming doctors in the US to get rich would have vanished in thin air.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
Universal Basic Income is starting to become more and more popular and, against all odds, is even getting implemented in a few countries.
Really? Where? I haven't heard about that. Cuba has something like a universal basic income. It's just very small (think like $2-3 USD) and consists of food like rice and beans and some basic 'necessities' like the occasional toothbrush.
People will no longer be forced to take that 9 to 5 day job to work their ass off, they can easily quit without losing their UBI, work a few days here and there without extra administration. The labour market will change quite drastically.
TAINSTAFL. Your dream of a place where almost no one does any work is a reality already in some countries. The result is anything but utopia.
I think we need to get to the technological singularity with robots and ape-slaves doing all hard or unpleasant work before such a scheme could really be viable. Well unless you are expecting minimum basic to be very low. Like say $100 USD per month or something like that. Realistically I'd say a person could survive on about $300 per month if they are willing to live in a poor third world country, but I doubt even a $300/month UBI would be economically viable.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
If the masses are poor, the factories will grind to a halt and the rich will see their profits tumble. They depend on the masses after all.
There's plenty of money to be made by rich people making luxury items for other rich people - see Bentley, Ferrari, Gucci, Rolex. ...
People in Europe are already getting more than $1000 a month when they are unemployed. UBI just changes the way they are paid, with way less administration. And scalability when more and more work starts to get done by robots. The products still get made, you just don't need people to do it anymore, so there's no shortage of products just because people are at home instead of working.
And for motivation, people will actually be more likely to look for work. In today's system, people can actually be worse off when they accept a job, with more expenses for transportation and child care while barely making more than they got from unemployment. Why would you work from 9 to 5, 5 days a week, to get barely more money? And if you accept a job, you can't just quit if you don't like it because you'll have to enter a waiting period again. So that's an extra threshold keeping people from doing certain jobs.
With UBI, people will get an immediate benefit from working. Of course they pay taxes on everything they earn, but the net amount is added directly to their UBI. Low wages are suddenly a lot more attractive. People will be encouraged to take all sorts of temporary jobs instead of sitting at home, without any administrative overhead. Companies will have a much easier time finding temporary workers.
I believe Finland was going to start the experiment for two years starting in 2017, and there are a few local initiatives in the Netherlands and France as well. The Swiss population did reject it, but their proposal was a bit on the high side, I think it was something like 2000 euros per month which is way too high.
And how do those rich people pay for those luxury items? By selling stuff to the masses. Otherwise they couldn't afford those luxury items. The economy is about masses of consumers, not the occasional Ferrari bought by some rich guy. When Wallmart sees a drop in sales, stock indexes go down. There's an old forgotten wisdom that says that if you pay your workers more, they will buy more of your products.
Look higher. To the vacuum of space and beyond.
--
If you're doing science just for the money, you're doing it wrong.