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DARPA’s James Cameron Mashup: Unsurprising, but Existentially Bananas

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, Cybernetics, DARPA, Exoskeleton, Future Already Very Pending, Human Augmentation, Military Robotics, NBI, Neurology, Prosthetics, Robot, Technology, Transhuman, Transhumanism, WarBots No Responses »

Feb 212012

Remote-Controlled Humanoid WarBots
So DARPA got some so-called Avatar robot money in next year’s budget. This is interesting news that slips neatly into anthrobotic.com’s WarBot thread, but for those who follow the WarBot-machine-drone-non-directly-human-remote-watching/killing/delivering field of technology, it’s hardly a revelation. Becasue Predator, Reaper, Global Hawk, K-MAX, Sentinel, Packbot.
And more:
Drone aircraft and other remotely controlled vehicles in our unmanned arsenal already function as primitive avatars, so obviously this is a logical next step. But, as with most things DARPA, it begins an interesting discussion.

First, a question I haven’t quite figured out is:
Where’s the line between robot and R/C car or plane or whatever? Some consider our various military drones to be robots, but we wouldn’t really consider this here to be a robot:
Other than size and munitions and relocating to Nevada in order to play with it, isn’t a Predator drone essentially the same thing? Which is a robot and why? I don’t know, man!

What about an automated parking garage? Aren’t those kind of like building-sized robots lugging cars up and down and to and fro? Shouldn’t a gigantic semi-autonomous robot have geeks like me all kindsa dorktastically excited?
They don’t. Well, maybe me a little bit.

The thing is, there’s a kind of animal vanity at work here. I think in order for us to call something a robot, we want it to be at least vaguely modeled after something that is actually living. Or has lived. Because I’ve seen a robot T-Rex before, and it was unquestionably a robot.

Red = Pissed Off.

Continue reading »

Japanese Technology from the Future Friday! (NEW SECTION AT ANTHROBOTIC.COM)

CareBots, Energy Technology, Exoskeleton, Future Already Very Pending, Japanese Technology from the Future Friday, Prosthetics, Robot, Technology, Technology & Labor No Responses »

Feb 172012

Announcing a New anthrobotic.com section:
Japanese Technology from the Future Friday!
See, the thing is this – it’s already Friday already here in Japan – we’re 17 hours ahead of the western U.S., which means I totally live in the future. And because it’s already Friday already, I’m left with little time to provide something original or worthwhile before the weekend hits. So I aggregate!

Why Japan and J-Technology?
Well, I live here.
So I’m uniquely positioned to tell you about the future, because I’m in the future.
In Japan. And Japan has some of the best technology. See?

Your Source for One-Upping Other People Who Care About Technology
So, Japanese Technology from the Future Friday will be become a conduit of specifically Japanese technological news that’s a day ahead of half the world – which will make my readers super-informed well before the other dorks.

Real-World Example Conversation:
A: “Tokyo Electron is probably going to drop
production by the end of next week.”
B: “Billy, they’re totally not – they’re
actually going to give it a bump.”
A: “Whatever to your face. How would
you even know that, Walter?”
B: “There is a man who lives in Japan, in the
future, and the J-Tech is strong with him.”
A: “What? Are you serious? How can that possibly work?!”
B: “See, Japan IS in the future, man.
It’s already tomorrow there already.”
A: “Oh my god.”
B: “Just read anthrobotic.com’s special section:
Japanese Technology from the Future Friday.”
A: “Wow, that sounds amazing. I should
go read that and click on ads, too!”
B: “Goddamn right you should.”

Later that day…
A: “Wow. You’re right.
The J-Tech IS strong with that one.
The WordPress, not so much.”
B: “Billy, shut your mouth.”

___________________________________________________

Okay, here’s how it’s going to look:
Japanese Technology from the Future Friday – February 17, 2012
High Tech Japanese Robot Puppet Avatar Thingy
[PAKISTAN TIMES]

Sony Developing Pay-As-You-Go Electrical Outlets
[SMART PLANET]

Japanese Gaming Industry Relies Heavily on External Tech
[VG24/7]

Japanese Electronics Companies are Losing a Ton of Money
[WALL STREET JOURNAL]

On future installments I’ll of course have something to say about each story, and there will normally be 4-5, sometimes more. We’ll see how goes the news! Thanks for reading – and hey, perhaps someday I’ll do some actual reporting here in Japan!

Live from the future, that is all!

Technological Utopianism is Way Better than Technological Apocalypticism. Robots, Robots.

AI, Anthrobotic Originals, Artificial Intelligence, Future Already Very Pending, Industrial Robots, Medical Robots, Military Robotics, NBI, Robot, Robot Art, Robot Emotions, Robot Love, Robots in Space, Technology, Technology & Labor, Technology & Work, The Beginning is Near 4 Responses »

Feb 142012

Robots in the Future are Coming to Take Your Job?
Oh No, Oh No!
Oh… Not Really.
Okay, Maybe in China.
As my 6 regular readers know, I often go off on various angles of this issue. Have a look at the Technology & Labor category – one can see there’s certainly no shortage of hand-wringing, gee-whiz, and scare tactics. And why I think China’s economy is going to get hosed by robots.

One thing is for certain: putting “robot” in your title is shrewd marketing.

Two Futurists, Two Generations
Singularity Hub interviewed this younger guy Federico Pistono – talking about his upcoming book “Robots Will Steal Your Job, But That’s Okay,” which seems to be a commentary on our labor force’s pending inability to retrain itself, keep up with technological advancement, and manage/sustain continued growth (capitalism). Thereafter we get some riots and economic collapse. Hard to decipher where robots come into play – maybe just the marketing? Dude’s throwing out a healthy portion of pseudo-intellectual anti-capitalist hippy apocalypse babble, but while it might be somewhat myopic and one-sided it’s likely good perspective and food for thought. I wish him the greatest success with the book, but right now he sounds a lot deep in the danger of little information and little regard for the comprehensive, contextual, holistic nature of technological advancement.

Another position, recently unveiled at a TEDx appearance, is from older guy Thomas Frey. His bold proclamation is that by 2030, 18 years from now, 2 billion of the world’s jobs, that’s 50%, will have been lost. Frey lays out his 5 projections on areas of transformative advancement very soon to obviate current modes of employment, and he then proposes replacement jobs that will rapidly supplant that which was lost. Contrasting Pistono’s doom and gloom, Frey thinks we’re going to be okay, but there’s also an unsettling optimism in his words and bullet points. Are things REALLY going to change that fast in 18 years? And if they do, can humans really adapt so quickly? Maybe – I don’t know though. I dork out on the future all the goddamn time, and Frey’s timeline is challenging even for me.

Choose Humanity’s Adventure!
It makes me nervous when I realize I’m the moderate voice. Continue reading »

Even a Broken Newt is Right Twice a Day. The U.S.A. Needs More Space in Politics.

Anthrobotic Originals, Energy Technology, Industrial Robots, Japan 日本 Tekk, Pure Science, Robot, Robots in Space, Space Technology, Technology, Technology & Politics Comments Off

Jan 312012

No Props for Me, But…
I’ve so been talking about this for years. About the need for a grand-space-program-national-project-thingy to be applied like a blowtorch & kerosene to the psyche of my nation and reignite the corpsified American Dream.

Because as a nation, what do we really have to unite and inspire us right now? If you have an answer for that question, well you’re totally DELUDED and WRONG! Or at least mostly. Sorry.

Want an example? Well, it’s been argued, quite convincingly I might add,* that last year’s dorktarded iPhone 5 anticipation was really just Americans having nothing else, you know, going on. Nothing big to drive their hopes and dreams, nothing to encourage the study of science & technology & maths, nothing to demonstrate on a grand scale the value and payoff of hard work on big projects.
*Oh, that was me.

That’s why a shiny new mobile computer gets us all hot and bothered.
Weak.

We Gotta Do Better.
With all due respect to NASA and other space agencies around the world, the international space station is really awesome, and I love the technology, but we’ve had interconnected solar-powered tubes in orbit now for a long, long time. And the Space Shuttle was a revelation – in 1985. Its merciful euthanasia was long overdue.

Debris?

The Dumbest of the Species
The two most holistically primitive varieties of anti-technology people are:
#1. Hardcore Religious Zealots
and
#2. Hippies
Regarding technology’s fundamental role in human civilization’s, ummm… existence, these two groups are far and away the most confused and contradictory. If that sounds discriminatory and judgmental, well that’s because it’s meant to be. What other sets of humans have been more consistently incorrect and backward about nearly everything their philosophies project onto society?

While what hippies and religious zealots stand for is dumb as hell, and they’ve done exactly nothing positive for the world they live in, mentioning them does make for a fabulous segue into today’s Anthrobotic Book Recommendation! Continue reading »

Hello, China! Welcome to Capitalism. Ummm, You Might Not Like the Next Part…

Anthrobotic Originals, Apple, Future Already Very Pending, Industrial Robots, NBI, Robot, Technology, Technology & Labor, Technology & Work, iPhone 5 Comments Off

Jan 172012

Okay, Here’s the Thing:
Came across this brief but interesting piece about China’s pending labor crisis over at the Washington Post, and I’m going to swing back around to that robot up there (VIDEO) here in a moment, but first, dig on this:

Economics, Yo.
With various technologies, humans have built vast networks of trade and currency and opportunity. For better or worse or neutral, as a globally connected species we’ve decided a capitalist economic system is what works best. I’m not saying there was a vote or conscious choice per se, what I mean is that capitalism is what we’re all doing, and things for the human animal are better than they’ve ever been, and no one’s proposed anything better (OWS, at best you’re a poo-flinging baboon).

Now, economic systems are essentially governments, and there are many theories on and examples of their practical application. Here in realityland the practice of market capitalism seems to be the most universally feasible, generally beneficial, and least horrifically exploitative. And if you don’t like that, well, consider that at times we have indeed embraced hardline socialism, communism, fascism, theocracy, monarchy, feudalism, etc., and those experiences all suck(ed) pretty hard (nihilism & anarchy don’t get a voice here because they’re dumber than dumb). Like democracy or the iPhone, M-Cap expresses an ideal, some do it better than others and it’s far from perfect, but for now it’s the best we’ve got.

Made in China by Humans. For Now.
AS SUCH, the world wants/needs stuff – we need product – this is the system’s lifeblood. As consumers, to get stuff we exchange something of value ($/¥/€, etc.), and that something is in turn exchanged, and so on.

As this exchange system has progressed and globalized over the past several decades, China has in ways become the world’s factory – our stuff comes from there – they make SO MUCH of it, and they do it on the cheap and easy. So of course China then gets loads and loads of $/¥/€, etc., and with a literally global consumer base, Chinese manufacturing has become essential and inseparable from the economic circuit. An absolute prerequisite for this system has been China’s vast, cheap, malleable, and easily replaceable wage slaves. Oops I mean labor force.

But then technology. And… uh-oh. Continue reading »

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, Transhuman, Transhumanism, 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 »