In the Robotic Near-Future, Most “Will Live Off Government-Provided Income”

Mac Slavo

If you think the jobs market and larger economy are bad now, just wait for the future.

In the future, virtually everyone you know may be on the dole.

There are a lots of projections and scenarios about what to expect as technology advances to practically unimaginable heights.

Already many human jobs are being displaced by computers, and most trends point to a rise of automated assembly lines, computer-run logistics and services and robots to do jobs humans did before that.

China has already ushered in a workforce of robots, with less and less reliance on humans for anything.

What does this mean for the average American?

In a word: dependence.

Scientists Continue Path of Darwinian Evolution for Robots

Source

Nicholas West

Worldwide neuroscience research conducted under Obama's BRAIN project, as well as similar research sponsored by the European Union exceeds $1 billion combined. The goal is nothing short of decoding the human brain. While there are many embedded initiatives associated with this type of research, the production of artificial intelligence that can rival or even surpass humans is at the forefront.

One recent development aims to move beyond mere computational horsepower and incorporate the principles of Darwinian evolution in order to naturalize the process of robot evolution.

DARPA's Cheetah Bot Is Off The Leash

Activist Post

DARPA continues to develop an array of robots designed for the battlefield. Naturally, one of their slated applications is to chase human prey.

In February, 2011, DARPA first announced its next-generation robot called the Cheetah; it was heralded as the world's fastest legged robot. In fact, its speed of 28.3 mph was faster than the world's fastest man, Usain Bolt. However, its speed was reached in a laboratory setting, tethered on a treadmill for stability.

MIT researchers are now announcing that they have solved the riddle which kept the Cheetah on its leash - the secret lies in a new computer algorithm that not only enables untethered running, but jumping as well.

A Future With Us On the Sidelines…

Melissa Melton

It’s kind of ironic, if you think about it…

On the same day that China announced that robots will replace their factory work force in both the chemical and steel sectors, the Drudge Report also highlighted some novel “progress” that was made for humans, too.

In Guangzhou, China, the bosses brag that the robots make ideal employees:

Efficient, working 24-7, no need to talk, eat, or drink, and best of all, you don’t have to pay them. There are more benefits to having robots working for you. They don’t get hurt.

“The injury problems are solved, and efficiency is improved,” Sun Zhiqiang, president of Guangzhou Ruisong Technology, said.

At least 180,000 such industrial robots have already been deployed, many of which ended up in China.

Meanwhile, the Western world is working on…

Wait for it…

Why Humans ‘Need Not Apply’ For the Future…

Aaron Dykes

What happened when we went from nearly everyone producing food to only a few mega-corporations?

That’s just part of the problem in the wake of self-driving autos, software replacements to human jobs, robotic factory workers and beyond. It is the road to a future where human labor is not needed – just as transhumanist Ray Kurzweil and others predicted (or planned for).

Check out this eerie video; how relevant is this becoming to your life?

Robots Could Learn How to Herd Humans Like Sheep: Study

Activist Post 

Information from a new study into the lives of sheepdogs could be used to model robots after their techniques. This takes on a sinister possibility when we understand that researchers are opening up the Internet to robots for autonomous learning. Robo Brain is being funded by the military-surveillance-industrial complex. The press release below specifically mentions crowd control as a prime application. What could possibly go wrong?

Sheepdogs use just two simple rules to round up large herds of sheep, scientists have discovered.

The findings could lead to the development of robots that can gather and herd livestock, crowd control techniques, or new methods to clean up the environment.

Robots Receive Internet Brain For Machine Learning

A new system called Robo Brain is being funded by the usual suspects in the military-industrial-surveillance complex. Nicholas West

The initiative to merge robotics with artificial intelligence continues to expand its vision. I recently wrote about an internal cloud network program which enables robots to do their own research, communicate with one another, and collectively increase their intelligence in a full simulation of human interaction. It has been dubbed "Wikipedia for Robots."

A parallel project in Germany went further by seeking to translate the open Internet into a suitable robot language that would prompt accelerated, autonomous machine learning. 

Now researchers at Cornell are presenting Robo Brain – "a large-scale computational system that learns from publicly available Internet resources." Evidently it is learning quickly:

Cyborg Moth "Biobots" Preparing For Flight

Photo credit: Alper Bozkurt

Nicholas West

The military-science industrial complex continues its pursuit of modeling drones after nature in order to hide in plain sight. While there have been some successes in this area with systems like RoboBee, nature's flight pattern is proving to be difficult to perfectly replicate, as well as providing steep challenges in energy consumption.

Enter cyborgs. While mice have long been tested upon in the areas of direct mind control, it is cyborg insects that are currently leading the way. In October of last year, I wrote about a pet cyborg project called RoboRoach that was essentially open source, mail order neurosurgery for kids. While few people seem to have ethical concerns over insects, we would do well to take a look at how the mechanization of living beings is starting, and where it ultimately might be heading. 

Mass Produced Security Robots Introduced in U.S.

Vigilant MCP - Gamma2 Robotics

Activist Post

While debate continues to rage about the threat of autonomous "killer robots," the mechanized replacement of humans continues across the workforce. In fact, the robotics industry notched record sales in the first half of 2014 in North America, and there appears to be no indications of a slowdown. 

Security robots have become a special area of interest for developers. Britain recently unveiled its first robot security guard. "Bob" is the outcropping of a worldwide initiative into robotic security set to appear at prisons, care facilities, schools, or perhaps a neighborhood near you.

A U.S. robot called Vigilant MCP (Mobile Camera Platform) can be seen in the following video. The robot is being produced exclusively in the U.S. and is set to ramp up to mass production as orders demand. At $4 per hour fixed cost, it could significantly impact the 1.5 million humans that are currently employed in some form of security patrol.

Canadian Robot Producer First To Denounce Killer Robots

Take Action HERE

Nicholas West 

One could debate the overall merits or failings of robotic systems, but one area that clearly has become a point for concern on all sides is the idea of "killer robots." According to robotics pioneer, David Hanson, we are on a collision course with exponential growth in computing and technology that might only give us a "few years" to counter this scenario.

Elon Musk is the latest to proclaim the magnitude of the threat following a reading of Nick Bostrom's book Superintelligence, stating that robots infused with advanced artificial intelligence are "potentially more dangerous than nukes." Stephen Hawking has said much the same, and universities such as Cambridge have said that "terminators" are one of the greatest threats to mankind according to their study program Centre for the Study of Existential Risk.

The above sources do not reflect Luddites and conspiracy-minded individuals. This has led to international human rights groups and concerned citizens to launch a Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. It is a topic being taken up by the United Nations and even the U.S. military itself.

However, it's doubtful that we should expect global bureaucracy and those who profit from war to be the best solution to an imminent problem. For the first time, a robot manufacturer is sounding the alarm and taking a clear stance against the pursuit of these systems. Clearpath Robotics Co-Founder and CTO, Ryan Gariepy, is offering an open letter that is a must-read, as it clearly focuses on ethics - something that consistently has been left out of the equation thus far. Please spread this far and wide so that we can get this debate ramped up as quickly as possible. Once we halt this potential catastrophe, then we can continue debating other aspects of robotics. Please offer your thoughts in the comment section below.

Robots Get X-Ray Vision With Wi-Fi

TechSwarm | Wi-Fi makes all kinds of things possible. We can send and receive messages, make phone calls, browse the Internet, even play games with people who are miles away, all without the cords and wires to tie us down. At UC Santa Barbara, researchers are now using this versatile, everyday signal to do something different and powerful: looking through solid walls and seeing every square inch of what’s on the other side. Built into robots, the technology has far-reaching possibilities.

“This is an exciting time to be doing this kind of research,” said Yasamin Mostofi, professor of electrical and computer engineering at UCSB. For the past few years, she and her team have been busy realizing this X-ray vision, enabling robots to see objects and humans behind thick walls through the use of radio frequency signals. The patented technology allows users to see the space on the other side and identify not only the presence of occluded objects, but also their position and geometry, without any prior knowledge of the area. Additionally, it has the potential to classify the material type of each occluded object such as human, metal or wood.

Enslavement is trendy! Get ready for your very own ‘smart’ robo-servant!

Melissa Melton

Coming soon to a home near you, it’s your very own Hal 9000, er, your “first family robot” JIBO.

Complete with facial and voice recognition software, your new trendy new “smart” robo-servant will be able toparticipate in you and your children’s lives 24/7/365!

Robot Bees Will Be Better Than The Real Thing Says Greenpeace

Heather Callaghan

This is an update to the original post on April 17, 2013. 

No, this is not a tabloid - it's real. According to several videos, which are posted below, robotic insects have made their first controlled flight. According to the creators of Robobee:

The demonstration of the first controlled flight of an insect-sized robot is the culmination of more than a decade's work . . . Half the size of a paperclip, weighing less than a tenth of a gram, the robot was inspired by the biology of a fly, with submillimeter-scale anatomy and two wafer-thin wings that flap almost invisibly, 120 times per second.

In addition to the recent suggestion from insecticide producers that we should "plant more flowers"to aid the declining bee population, Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has been working with staff from the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Northeastern University's Department of Biology to develop robot bees. These insectoid automatons would be capable of a multitude of tasks: autonomous pollination, search and rescue, hazardous exploration, military surveillance, climate mapping, and traffic monitoring - to name a few.

U.S. Government Invests in Robot Personal Trainers for Children

Nicholas West

The evolution of humanoid robots continues to quicken with greater strides being made toward applying artificial intelligence to create emotional robots.  

The commitment to reverse engineer the human brain coupled with the exponential increase in computing power is now forcing the discussion toward the social impact robotics is beginning to have as humans and robots begin interacting with greater frequency. 

Consequently, newer robots are being produced with the intention of manipulating emotional triggers that guide human-to-human interaction. It's all part of a move to make robots seem less creepy and more like real members of society. Researchers are taking multiple angles to establish these connections. The U.S. government is now getting involved with a $10 million investment into developing robots that can serve as personal trainers for children with the stated intention to "influence their behavior and eating habits." 

Defense Report Sees Environmental Warfare, Corporate Armies and Robot Takeover

Daniel Taylor

In 2006, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense published the DCDC Strategic Trends 2007-2036 report, outlining possible scenarios for technology, society and world politics. Among other issues, the 2006 report accurately envisioned a “revolutionary middle class” that would revolt against economic hardship and burdens of debt.

An updated version of the report was published on June 30, 2014. Titled "Global Strategic Trends out to 2045", the report outlines a future in which globalization limits countries “freedom of action”, alternative currencies challenge the establishment, environmental warfare and viruses delivered via insect-machine hybrids.

RHex the ‘Parkour robot’ shows off its ability to handle various obstacles in the wild

screenshot from University of Penn vid

Madison Ruppert

The University of Pennsylvania’s Kod*lab has developed an amazingly nimble hexapedal “Parkour robot” dubbed RHex, shown successfully handling various obstacles in the latest video.

RHex is “biologically inspired,” according to the university, which is an increasingly common trend in robotics.

Biologically inspired robots range from giant autonomous jellyfish to tiny flying robot insects to larger drones modeled after insects which are even capable of carrying out lethal missions to drones modeled after owls and other birds to robots modeled after cheetahs and cats to robots modeled after humans.

The most impressive part of the video demonstrating RHex (embedded below) is that it is not performed in a perfectly controlled laboratory environment.



Instead, the robot is shown navigating everyday obstacles around the University of Pennsylvania campus.

Will You Welcome and Love Your Robot Overlords?

Nicholas West

There is no question that robots are evolving at warp speed. As computer power grows exponentially, and political and military commitment to neuroscience is established, robots are taking on an increasingly humanoid form in both appearance and thought. Transhumanists like Ray Kurzweil have been very open discussing their plans for The Singularity - the moment when computer intelligence surpasses that of humans to such an extent that humans become practically redundant, perhaps as soon as 2045.

Robots are already having a massive economic impact on the planet, but now are poised to evolve to where they will begin to impact social interaction. This fact is embraced in the presentation below by Aaron Saenz from Singularity Hub given to the BAASICS conference one year ago as an "an ongoing effort to bridge the gap between science and the arts..." As Saenz highlights in his accompanying article, even his predictions from a year ago are now outdated. Keep this in mind as he dismisses with mockery and laughter any concern one might have about runaway technology. After all, the concept of having an overlord should be welcomed, no?

As a people then, the only real question remaining to us is the big question I presented at BAASICS: when the robots take over, what will they be like?

Another question might be: when the robots take over what will we be like?



Source article:
http://singularityhub.com/2013/07/16/welcoming-your-new-robot-overlords/

Related Activist Post Articles:
Top 10 Reasons We Should Fear The Singularity
Top 10 Reasons We Should NOT Fear The Singularity

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The Evolution of the Humanoid Robot

image source

Nicholas West

In the age of computers, things evolve exponentially. In just a few generations robots have gone from a scientific fantasy, to a playful curiosity, to entering the battlefield to replace and/or augment their human counterparts.

We are already at the point where we have to consider what the next step of robotic evolution looks like. According to robotics engineers, it appears that at some point in the near future the next step could very well be whatever the next generation robot chooses for itself.

The humanoid robot is now poised to take a leap from a mere facsimile of human behavior to one that futurists suggest will not only walk like a human, but will possess self awareness, as well as a full range of high-tech computational spectrum analysis and capabilities . . . and emotions.

New Wave of Mini Robots Has Arrived

No name yet for this bot;
see it in the video below ... if you can
image source

Nicholas West

Beyond the economic debate of whether humans will officially be outsourced to robots -- or not (maybe by 2045) -- there is no question that the military-industrial complex loves the idea of creating robots that can serve the battlefield and beyond. Here are some of their current favorites.

• PETMAN humanoid robot
• Sand Flea jumping robot
• Robobee - pollinator/surveillance
• Cryo - robot jellyfish to patrol the oceans
• Cheetah - designed to chase human prey (and now has had a cub)
• Big Dog - Heavy lifting, like throwing cinderblocks, and transport

But, just as with drones, the next phase of miniaturized robot tech is offering some insane possibilities. The video below shows a new bot that Singularity Hub defined as "freaky fast" -- like the equivalent of a human running 120 mph.