Next to Team SCHAFT’s new Google overlords withdrawing them from further competition, the poor showing of NASA’s Valkyrie robot might have seemed the DRC Trials’s biggest disappointment, but it’s nowhere near that simple: NASA JSC and the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) are keeping the flame alive, and by flame we’re talking like…nuclear blow-torch.
![Machine Morality: a Survey of Thought and a Hint of Harbinger [FLASHBACKERY]](http://anthrobotic.com/wp-content/uploads/thumb-cache/MACHINE-MORALITY-HARBINGER-KILL-THE-ROBOT.plate_-317b89cc3772c9ff255ec623b7a278ac-180x159-6-nocrop.png)
Talking about machine morality is basically picking apart whether or not we’ll someday have to be nice to self-aware machines or demand that they be nice to us. Impossible? No, stupid. Guaranteed? No, stupid. Good idea to be prepared just in case? Damn right.
This week Hitachi is finally ready to send its snake/crawler hybrid robot into the heart of Fukushima Daiichi’s severely melted-down reactor #1, and a Japanese booze maker that owns an American booze maker wants to get cozier and it’s kind of funny.
Section A is furious anger at robotics coverage and the corpsifying institution of journalism in general. Section B is some very interesting robotics news from Japan (telepresence robotic heavy equipment operation!). Section C is the bow on the whole thing, so choose your own adventure(s)!
![REMINDER: More than 1/50 American Soldiers in Afghanistan is Robotic, with Helicopters! [FLASHBACKERY]](http://anthrobotic.com/wp-content/uploads/thumb-cache/helicopter.warbot-e1324347445897-e5aee0a6e5aa8e684d14b91bafb5fc1f-180x131-6-nocrop.png)
In addition to raining down death (or photography) from above, WarBots will now be dropping cargo as well. With this newly deployed robot helicopter.
![Lego Mindstorms EV3 Robotics Kit: World's Best Robotics Education Tool? [REISSUE]](http://anthrobotic.com/wp-content/uploads/thumb-cache/LEGO-MINDSTORMS-EV3-DOWNLOADS.anthrobotic.plate_.REDUX_-e1417373941202-f0b2f52876212ea2fbd9244a7b958332-180x120-75-nocrop.jpg)
They once had little to do with actual robotics, but two product iterations and 15 years later, about to release their 3rd-generation kit [sic], Lego is at the top of educational, DIY, and plain old fun robot building. MINDSTORMS EV3 is coming, and the robo-geekosphere is buzzing…and whirring.
All I Want for Valentine’s Day is a Robot Lover with an Aggregate Mindfile of the Best Parts of all my Ex-Girlfriends. Just Like Last Year.