The Disabled Wage War Against the Wheelchair and Begin Test-Piloting Transhumanism

 AI, Artificial Intelligence, Brain, CareBots, Cybernetics, Exoskeleton, Human Augmentation, Military Robotics, Neurology, Prosthetics, Robot, Technology, Technology & Disability, Transhuman, Transhumanism, Transhumanism Test Pilots, We're Already Cyborgs Already  Comments Off
Jan 102012
 

Burn it Down
This lovely young woman is doing her part to destroy the wheelchair industry. And she’s a hero. Practical, admirable, and necessary, movements such as ADA and other anti-discriminatory legislation were essential for their time, but we should all be happy when technology renders them irrelevant.

As I’ve said before, the technology that is the wheelchair has helped millions, but its time is finished – and the time of the wearable robot exoskeleton is approaching. Unless you build wheelchairs or access ramps or any other specialized wheelchair-centric equipment, you’ve gotta agree that a mobility revolution for the disabled is long overdue (and if you do build such equipment, it’s time to diversify, yo).

This post is really an update; this exact system came up here last May, then Berkeley Bionics (now renamed Ekso Bionics – a real lateral marketing move, I think) was just testing their prototype wheelchair killer. Now the device is moving through medical trials and appears to be fast-tracking to the market. These guys know what they’re doing – they’ve been at it since 2005, and their tech is also being used in Lockheed’s HULC exoskeleton.

The Physically Disabled as Transhuman Pioneers Continue reading »

ROM for Right & Wrong: Teaching Humans Vs. Coding Machines

 AI, Artificial Intelligence, Brain, CareBots, Consciousness, Future Already Very Pending, Industrial Robots, Medical Robots, Military Robotics, Robot, Robot Emotions, Robot Love, Technology, Technology & Politics, Technology & Work, Technology Law  Comments Off
Jan 072012
 

Here’s an interesting piece from the humanities section of the New York Times – a bit old but worth the read (awesome how a piece from two weeks ago is already “old.” INTERNETS!¡). Points on morality, philosophy, and existentialism on and for machines are rather thoughtfully drawn out. Recommended.

And I’ll offer this:
Stabbing forward and further into the human/machine civilization, it might be a good idea to let AI/NBI be, as we are, only vaguely moral. A self-aware & morally pure machine might not be so kind to human nature. Just saying.

[ARTICLE VIA NYT]

WarBot Update: WarBots in the News, WarBots Here, There, Everywhere.

 AI, Anthrobotic Originals, Artificial Intelligence, DARPA, Future Already Very Pending, Military Robotics, Multimedia, NBI, Robot, Robots in Space, Space Technology, Technology, Technology & Politics, Technology Law, WarBots  Comments Off
Jan 062012
 

War as Technology
Obviously human warfare has essentially never been waged without use of the latest technologies – that’s a given. What’s fundamentally changing with contemporary technological advancement is the gradual robotic extension/augmentation/replacement of the individual soldier; a trend pointing to the eventual removal of the individual from the battlefield and the sky (and space).

Announced within the past 24 hours, the U.S. military is going to seriously cut ground forces (Army & Marines, particularly). The monkey pony show of politics calls it budget cuts and responsible spending and such, but they neglect to point out that it’s also because of those machines in the image above and their like – grunts are being obviated by bots, man.

WarBots All Over the News:
There’s a lot out there right now – lots to take in. Of course these developments come with a whole laundry list of ethical and philosophical and practical questions I’ll not address here – so go read/watch and make up your own mind.
First: Robot Wars, Al-Jazeera Fault Lines Special Report (VIDEO)
Then: New WarBot Dexterity, Forbes (ARTICLE BY ALEX KNAPP)
And: Real-Life War Machines, Gizmodo (ARTICLE & VIDEO)
Wrapping it Up: X37B Spaceplane Maybe Kinda Spying on China, BBC (ARTICLE)


BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS POST:
“Wired for War”
by P.W. Singer
Support the site – buy at Anthrobotic’s Amazon Affiliate store!

REMINDER: More than 1/50 American Soldiers in Afghanistan is a Robot, with Helicopters!

 AI, Anthrobotic Originals, Artificial Intelligence, DARPA, Future Already Very Pending, Military Robotics, Robot, Technology, WarBots  Comments Off
Dec 202011
 

Over There, Over There…
It’s kinda bizarre that we just, you know, have become kinda blasé about sending robots and other stuff to Afghanistan now. At what point did we transition from a war to “The War?” Namsayen?

But Anyway, ROBOT HELICOPTERS!
There are already a significant number of robots fighting in Afghanistan. Those guys in trailers somewhere in New Mexico or Nevada or wherever, the guys who fly the majority of Predator drones and other warbot aircraft, well, in addition to raining down death (or photography) from above, they’re now going to be dropping cargo as well. With this newly deployed robot helicopter.

Air, Land, Sea, and Air Again.

[ARTICLE VIA WIRED DANGER ROOM]
[MORE INFORMATIVE STUFF FROM THE NY BOOK REVIEW]

BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS POST:
“Wired for War”
by P.W. Singer
Support the site – buy at Anthrobotic’s Amazon Affiliate store!

A Human Soul: Gift from Spooky Father Figure Above, or Just a Complex Recursive Pattern?

 AI, Artificial Intelligence, Brain, Consciousness, Medical Technology, Neurology, Technology, Transhuman, Transhumanism  Comments Off
Dec 072011
 

The Sum or The Pieces or The Product
Well, here’s the pandering, patronizing sentence where,
like a good journalist, I state the screaming obvious:
AI & NBI researchers, transhumanists, philosophers, and of course neurologists have grappled with questions of the nature of the soul, consciousness, and their representative patterns in human brain activity and whether or not they can be reverse engineered, and what the hell are we, and why are we here, and does it even mean anything?

See – despite my bizarre sentence structure, I did use the word “grappled!” And I’ve never even studied journalism!

Connectome
There’s a book coming out in February: Connectome, by Sebastian Seung. It’s asking the classic questions, but more so as an overview of contemporary biological/neurological science that, more so than philosophy or religion, pushes forward our understanding of the sloppy grey thinking organ in our skulls. SciAm has pre-review up, and ANTHROBOTIC recommends – have a look – add to wish list!

And who knows, man… Are we monumentally arrogant to even wonder if we are anything other than an inevitability of chemistry and physics? [author shrugs] We’ve been asking ourselves this stuff for like, you know, ever. Probably because it’s the best question like, you know, ever.

[REVIEW VIA SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN]

BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS POST:
“Connectome”
by Sebastian Seung
Support the site – buy at Anthrobotic’s Amazon Affiliate store!


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