NASA Considering "Luna"forming Moon

NASA is looking for funding for rather ambitious research projects.  One very unusual project concerns the moon and Shackleton (wow, those that listen to the podcast may well recognize that name) Crater.  NASA's plan is to send autonomous robots to transform the crater into an environment habitat to house the robots and associated equipment.  NASA is aiming at eventually turning the crater habitat into one that can also house human beings. 

Much more can be had at the Popular Science web page HERE

BMU #422 Isaac Asimov - Michael Juby - quantum computers - closest supernova in ages - Killer Robots

This week's episode (422) of Beam Me Up, my opening comments contain information on odd happenings with cube sat launches as well as near passes of a just discovered asteroid.

I end the the opening section with the opening theme music from the anime series Durarara!!

The first story of the afternoon is Phillippe and His Rather Boring  Time Travel (pt1) by Michael Juby.

This week from the Beam Me Up - 

Google wants to create sentient robots and to that end are working on quantum computer chips.
Chandra observes one of the closest 1a supernovas in decades. 
Spitzer space telescope has observed a large asteroid collision.
Will Robots of the future be mercy killers?

The final story this week is part two (ch 2+3) of Isaac Asimov's The Last Question.

Google Wants to Create Robots That Think

 

 Google says it is working on a "quantum" computer chip.  The goal, stated Google researchers, is to, one day, have machines think like humans.

Researcher John Martinis and his team at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has begun to work with the Quantum Artificial Intelligence team at Google.

Thise new pairing is part of Google's "hardware initiative" to design and build chips operating on sub-atomic levels in ways making them exponentially faster than processors currently used in computers today.

Now with an integrated hardware team, the blended Quantum AI team will now make it possible to implement and test new designs.

Recently, Google's artificial intelligence lab, partnered with NASA space agency on quantum computing research.

The complete Business insider article is HERE

Amazing in Motion Video by Lexus Featuring the Music of Kristina Train

Have you seen this amazing commercial by Lexus called Amazing In Motion "Steps" which features 11 foot tall metal puppets and  the song Wandering sung by Kristina Train which is a cover of the Aretha Franklin’s soul classic, ‘I’m Wandering’... .

The commercial is unusual in many ways because first it does not depict a real product, instead centers around an 11 foot tall lattice work puppet, brought to live by puppeteers dress in black holding control rods attached to key points along the puppet's frame and moving it in a very convincing lifelike manner.  Throughout the commercial, the puppet seems to be hunting throughout the city for something not brought to life until the very end.  

The short is a wonderful mix of scenery  acting and music.  

More about Mz. Train is available on her website KristinaTrain.com

Here is the YouTube video

Discovery Channel's Incredible Robots

CrystalWizard sent me a note saying"I ran across a very cool video on robots...when ....hunting stuff to watch"  and "this" is would seem is an in-depth look at the early evolution of robots et-all as well as a critical look at the various systems that would constitute a "robot" or an autonomous device that can overcome its own physical short comings to complete its' mission.   

The 47 minute program ( the equivalent of an hour program on US television ) is slightly dated as some of our most sophisticated probes in the form of NASA's Cassini–Huygens or the latest NASA Mars  Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover are not mentioned, though some of the earlier tests on Curiosity's suspension was in evidence.

My conclusion is, that after watching, not only will you find it entertaining, but very likely informative, especially if you are not as familiar as some when it comes to Robots in science fiction text or possibly some of the earlier efforts into learning an movement.

This is most definitely a check it out.

Thanks CW!


 

Creepy Shoulder Robot Wants to be Your Friend?

I found this creepy article while looking through the Komando blog which tells us about this group of Japanese researchers from Yamagata University who are developing a robot to keep you company....sort of. The "robot" consists of a wearable miniature humanoid in a controlling framework that sits on your shoulder. Creepy enough, but creepier still it can be remotely operated by your friends from anywhere, you know, like one of them good angel/devil bad angel/devil scenarios.....ick! Oh and I can just see the problems....I have five other brothers who would just LOVE to take control of this thing while I was trying to have a conversation or some sort....I know, because it is the same thing I would do....I know ASL see.... the possibilities are endless.... Nope, not going to give em the chance.....

Project KARA (tech demo for Quantic Dream)

Here is a short film written and directed by David Cage of Quantic Dream. The video runs real time on the PS-3 and was created as a demo of the software game engine to convey different emotions.

What we get though is a disturbing and poignant short about a new robot helper who seems to become self aware. This is grounds for instant disassembly while the android
begs for its' life.

As a tech demo, it's amazing, but its real calling is in the morality play that plays itself out in a few short minutes. It asks us to examine when and in what form can we accept a machine as an alive and thinking individual.

Youtube page

Dodge Charger: Leader of the human resistance?

Well I'm speechless.....

Weird Robotic Mouth

This has got to be one of the most uncomfortably weird robotic devices I have ever seen... Leave it to Dvice!

Hawking asks:What's the future of manned vs robotic missions?

I read in an article in "The Daily Galaxy" online magazine, that Stephen Hawkings has asked a question that has certainly weighed on many person's minds, exactly what is in the cards so to speak, concerning space exploration missions and will they be robotic or human crewed missions.

Hawing has said:
"Robotic missions are much cheaper and may provide more scientific information, but they don't catch the public imagination in the same way, and they don't spread the human race into space, which I'm arguing should be our long-term strategy. If the human race is to continue for another million years, we will have to boldly go where no one has gone before."


The concern being, will robotic explorers be able to step outside their mission parameters, to say, recognize lifeforms that it was not specifically programmed to look for.

Astronomer and planetary scientist at Cornell University Jim Bell in an article in Scientific American said that you might think that being so heavily vested in robotic exploration that he would dismiss manned missions as too costly but he added: “Although astronaut missions are much more expensive and risky than robotic craft, they are absolutely critical to the success of our exploration program."

The article continues with quotes on the subject from luminaries like Ben Bova.

Read complete article here

NASA could put telepresence robots on Moon in 1000 days

You know those fancy gold robots that NASA has been experimenting with? Well according to an article in Gizmodo:

• NASA can put humanoids on the Moon in just 1000 days. They would be controlled by scientists on Earth using motion capture suits, giving them the feeling of being on the lunar surface.

This works only for the moon of course. Mars has a substantial signal delay, but the 3 second delay to the moon and back can easily be accounted for.

Below is some video of how that might look:



Read complete Gizmodo article here

Another step closer to Terminators?

You may laugh at the thought of Skynet giving humanity the big spanking, or discount it completely, then stuff like this comes along just to let us know that the pieces at least are in place.



Thanks to Dvice for the heads up!

Do Machines deserve rights?

Or more accurately, as the question recently asked in Wired, Do Human-like Machines Deserve Human Rights? I suggest you read the Wired article to get a clear idea of the argument.

But basically, the argument is does a humaniform machine require the same rights as a human.

In the article I read a graphic description by the author who witnessed the torching of a TMEX doll or a Tickle Me Elmo Extreme doll. Anyone familiar with the item will know that the doll would sing and tell stories while moving it's mouth in sync among other activities. The description was of course skewed toward the fate of the doll, describing it as "googling" as it burned. Far from being repulsed I couldn't hold back a gawf. As they later said, there was no feeling for the office equipment that would often fail that was far more sophisticated. And there might be the rub. Remove the eyes and you have a rather animated pillow which would never invoke such responses.

No, a pair of eyes does not a being make. But then the argument isn't about TMEXs is it. I suspect this is about much more sophisticated automata. And we find ourselves once more at "I Robots" door stoop. Again the question is at what point does a collection of parts, pulleys, pistons and such deserve the rights that are afforded humanity? Does this argument also pertain to toys and devices that share a vague resemblance to the human form? Is affirmation of the latter a slippery slope to the former? I think not. Automata, no matter how sophisticated are creatures of rote. Deviation and spontaneity are but clever misdirection. But sentience, that balance of intelligence and self-awareness tempered by the ability to question and even modify that very negligence - That is what will deserve the protection of such "rights" and therefor might not even be of human form.

So my argument is that something of human form does not instantly have "humanity" bestowed. And it's not bigotry that colors that opinion. As you have already read in the above mentioned article, given a set of eyes and the viewer is willing to imbue human feelings on a mildly clever toy, all I am saying is before the hysterics start, lets discern if there is actual humanity afoot.

Besides if Elmo and Teddy Ruxpin get together, next they might demand the vote?

Read the Wired article

Robot Evolution

What if robots evolved like other life-forms? Interesting idea huh? Well here is a very interesting take on that subject in the form of a German Saturn commercial.

I have to agree with suicide bots and say very cool

Do you need protection from robots?

Top robotics expert Professor Noel Sharkey, of the University of Sheffield thinks so. He has called for international guidelines to be set for the ethical and safe application of robots. Sharkey believes that as the use of robots increases, decisions about their application will be left to the military, industry and busy parents instead of international legislative bodies. He is concerned because the amount of various helper robots is on the rise. Despite this no international legislation or policy guidelines currently exist.

This has science fiction written all over it, Asimov played with the idea in several stories. Sharkey, despite the crackpot feel to the idea, does make some points....Like who should make the decision to set controls?

<- Read more in Science Daily ->

Robots have Sex lives? (nsfw)

What is it lately with the blogosphere? It seems that I have seen more references this week to robot weirdness than ever before. Cabin fever or what? Anyway, what we have here is more of a 'making of' a film made by Michael Sullivan. It's weird, unsettling and compellingly imagery. It really shows the loopholes in what society calls pornography, when you have for all intents, mangled Barbies and G.I. Joes, stop motion photographed into something that resembles the human condition, I .....guess. It's worth it to hear Sullivan speak about his views and how he managed to make a robot porno...

Microscopic bio-robot slaves

Shaun Saunders sends in an article from New Scientist concerning research into biological based microscopic robots that researchers envision performing a myriad of tasks. Even the smallest robots built today are far to large to do work at the micro scale let alone the nano scale. However a physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues, say it may be possible to create new species of slave bacteria to do the job instead. What they envision an artificial bio construct a stripped down versions of bacteria, with only enough of a genome to perform certain tasks - for example, swimming along a chemical trail using their flagella, secreting another chemical as they go. The team proposes that thousands of these constructs could be used to carve out the kind of microscopic features needed on microprocessors and other likely tasks.

The article of course has some "lighter side" tasks that they could perform as well. Click the article title for more.

Robots Rule's "Robot Girl" video

Are you familiar with Aqua's music? Barbie Girl? Well that is science fictionish in its' own weird way, but here is a weird twist on Aqua's song from Robots Rule called aply enough Robot Girl

Tufts Scientists to Develop Morphing "Chemical Robots"

Scientists at Tufts University have received a $3.3 million contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop chemical robots that will be so soft and squishy that they will be able to squeeze into spaces as tiny as 1 centimeter, then morph back into something 10 times larger, and ultimately biodegrade.

Today's rigid robots are unable to navigate complex environments with openings of arbitrary size and shape. They are stymied by, say, a building whose only access points may be a crack under a door or a conduit for an electrical cable.

The robot design is inspired by the team's findings on both the neuro-mechanical system of the Manduca sexta caterpillar. The Tufts chembots will copy some of the performance capability of Manduca, including its flexibility, climbing ability and scalability – from hatching to the end of its larval stage, the caterpillar grows 10,000 fold in mass using the same number of muscles and motor neurons.

According to Dr. Mitchell Zakin, Ph.D., DARPA program manager for the ChemBots program,

“DARPA’s ChemBots program represents the convergence of soft materials chemistry and robotics. It is an entirely new way of looking at robots and could someday yield great technological advantage for our armed forces.” Read full article

8 Classic Movie Robots That Actually Suck at Their Job

Cracked.com has a riotously funny rant on movie robots that look cool but suck at what they do.
As they put it:

Basically, robots can make everything cooler, from wars to weddings. Hollywood knows this and tries, when possible, to give us what we crave in the form of kickass robots with kickass abilities.

Most of the time, though, these robots that look so cool on screen are so incompetent at their jobs, they'd have had better luck just sending a random intern to do it.

They give us wonderful examples of deus ex machina and pretty much keelhaul the robots we all though that they were so cool they had to be good at what they do. Some examples of who they trash:

Terminators
Ratchet (of the Transformers)
R2-D2 (yeah, I know! lol)
Box (from Logan's Run)

and more.... click here for the complete article