SCI/TECH: The New Military: Robots with Human DNA

Two robotics projects in the USA and Korea announced stunning breakthroughs this week. The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contracted Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to build a computer that can read documents and learn from them, for $1.2 million. Korea's Advanced Institute of Science and Technology created software to install 14 artificial chromosomes in a robot within three months. The software code is modelled on human DNA.





The article's title is "Can Skynet be far away?" Good one if you're a sci-fi fan.

Translation: We are moving closer every day to a privatized, robotized army and police force.


Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
SCI/TECH: Microbots: Towards a New Military

[edit on 8-2-2005 by soficrow]

Genetic Algorithms are used in lots of processing functions, these devices don't use the actual DNA, let alone human dna.


HOWEVER, there was talk about creating DNA driven chemical computers, devices that use actual strands of dna to perform calculations. THey can solve very difficult and complex problems in parallel, but aren't better than regular tubes and swtiches to perfrom moderately simple tasks.

Originally posted by Nygdan
Genetic Algorithms are used in lots of processing functions, these devices don't use the actual DNA, let alone human dna.


HOWEVER, there was talk about creating DNA driven chemical computers, devices that use actual strands of dna to perform calculations. THey can solve very difficult and complex problems in parallel, but aren't better than regular tubes and swtiches to perfrom moderately simple tasks.

that sounds likea cronomorphers like the power rangers time force used
my mam is freaking a bit on this :0

[edit on 8-2-2005 by leejones]

No reason to 'freak out' tho. Instead of tubes and wires, its monitoring a peculiar set of chemicals.

can you imgan virtual sims and us being a living sim

Did you catch this part? "... the chromosomes within the software, which ultimately could allow the robots to 'breed'..."

UPDATE and more info.


2005 - New micro-robots called microbots grow their own muscles from living animals. The microbots are grown on silicon chips, using the same principles and similar technologies as those used to make integrated circuits. "I can make hundreds of thousands as easily as I can make one," says nanotechnologist Carlo Montemagno. Blending biological and mechanical parts with phenomenal precision, microbots are a fully integrated system, blurring the lines between men and machines.

Microbots: Towards a Better Military


2000 - "One of the projects DARPA is currently supporting is work by a team at Michigan State University's College of Engineering, who are developing reconfigurable micro-robots for use in military, intelligence and law enforcement ...."

DARPA Works to Replace Soldiers, Police with Robots


2005 - "Scientists at the University of California Los Angeles have successfully bonded flesh to silicon to create what they claim is world's first muscled robot. ..."They have a maximum moving speed of 40 micrometres per second and can work for more than four hours, although not continuously." "

It needs your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle


Also see:

The Talon Robot: Ready for Iraq

Fly-eating Robot Powers Itself


So just put everything all together - AI, self-powered microbots, breeding robots - and all the other latest innovations...



How International Corporations Take Money Out of Troops Mouths


Outsourcing the Pentagon

Privatizing War - How affairs of state are outsourced to corporations beyond public control

Mercenary Firms and War Profiteers 1
Mercenary Firms and War Profiteers 2

Executive Outcomes: A new kind of army for privatized global warfare

Dogs Of War Inc. - A $300 Billion Dollar Business



For those who wonder where all the money is going:

What's Happening to America?

Where is the Money?



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Originally posted by Nygdan
HOWEVER, there was talk about creating DNA driven chemical computers, devices that use actual strands of dna to perform calculations. THey can solve very difficult and complex problems in parallel, but aren't better than regular tubes and swtiches to perfrom moderately simple tasks.

Actually, there's a $10Million reward to the group/individual that can solve the 100 city traveling salesman problem using a DNA computer. One of my best friends is currently trying to solve a 10 city traveling salesman problem with a DNA computer.

So we're set to replace human troops with better models, with a budget that shafts vets when they get home... but the science genius wannabes are still singin' Rah Rah Go Team...

Am I missing something?

Grant Morrison's We3 never seemed all that implausible but I guess they're just not going to bother with a species other than humans.

I'm of the belief that the majority of what can be researched is getting researched, tried or tested.

Anybody see this a while back?

news.nationalgeographic.com...

[edit on 8/2/05 by Ouroboros]

Hmm... Robots that breed, interesting. "Machines making machines, now thats real smart".

It sounds like a good idea now. However all it takes is some common logic, knowledge of how to build a nuclear bomb, a good geopolitical simulator (even the one's from Superpower and SP2 would almost work), some high tech factories, and that ladies and gentelmen is how to end the human race.

How long until that machines figure out that humanity is the worst thing to happen to this planet? Only time will tell.

Oh yeah and for all of you people thinking a Matrix would be so cool, the machines will just use nuclear power or something instead of us for electricity. So without a need for us they won't hesitate to kill you. I sure hope were careful of what we do.

If this is the information being released to the public, I can't even begin to imagine what they're working on that only a select few know about....

Originally posted by EnronOutrunHomerun
If this is the information being released to the public, I can't even begin to imagine what they're working on that only a select few know about....

That was exactly my reaction.

Originally posted by Ouroboros

Originally posted by EnronOutrunHomerun
If this is the information being released to the public, I can't even begin to imagine what they're working on that only a select few know about....

That was exactly my reaction.

ditto.


Great link ouroborous - meant to write about it . Pulled some stuff from the article...


"Scientists have begun blurring the line between human and animal by producing chimeras - a hybrid creature that's part human, part animal.

2003 - successfully fused human cells with rabbit eggs. The embryos were reportedly the first human-animal chimeras successfully created.

2004 - the Mayo Clinic created pigs with human blood flowing through their bodies.

2004 - mice with brains that are about one percent human.

Next - mice with 100% human brains.

What new subhuman combination should be produced and for what purpose? At what point would it be considered human? And what rights, if any, should it have?

There are currently no U.S. federal laws that address these issues.

"Research projects that create human-animal chimeras risk disturbing fragile ecosystems, endanger health, and affront species integrity."

"One doesn't have to be religious or into animal rights to think this doesn't make sense," (says Jeremy Rifkin). "It's the scientists who want to do this. They've now gone over the edge into the pathological domain." "


Animal-Human Hybrids Spark Controversy

Though it may be a couple hundred years away, Irobot and Terminator movies seem like distant self fulfilling prophecies.

Originally posted by infinite8
Though it may be a couple hundred years away, Irobot and Terminator movies seem like distant self fulfilling prophecies.

IMO - it's much, much closer than anyone thinks, and in part, already happening. ...We maintain our comfortable ignorance at great cost.


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The code is modelled on human DNA, although as a single not double helix.

Uff, my mistake, their reference to it as 'software' made me think they were merely talking about genetic algorithims, rather then DNA based computing.

mattison
Actually, there's a $10Million reward to the group/individual that can solve the 100 city traveling salesman problem using a DNA computer

Interesting, however I am unfamiliar with the '100 city salesman' problem.

www.pcug.org.au...
A salesman spends his time visiting n cities (or nodes) cyclically. In one tour he visits each city just once, and finishes up where he started. In what order should he visit them to minimise the distance travelled? [...]
So an algorithm that peters out at 50 cites now will probably never get you to 100 nodes, whatever happens to hardware technology. Alternatively there are algorithms that seem to come up with a good solution quite quickly, but you cannot say just how far it is from being optimal.

Very interesting, I had actually thought people were leaving dna computing and moving towards the much hyped 'quantum computing', but this thread in general certainly dispells that falsity.

Originally posted by Nygdan
I had actually thought people were leaving dna computing and moving towards the much hyped 'quantum computing', but this thread in general certainly dispells that falsity.

...Can you explain (simply) for the less well-informed - and also, explain why the 2 cannot be used together? Maybe with reference to nano-tech? ...Thnx.



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Originally posted by soficrow
So we're set to replace human troops with better models, with a budget that shafts vets when they get home... but the science genius wannabes are still singin' Rah Rah Go Team...

Am I missing something?

Not sure if this was directed towards me or not , but this 'DNA computer' has nothing to do with 'replacing human troops with better models.' It's just a different way of processing data, and in reality is peripheral to this thread. I was actually just expanding on one of Nygdan's comments.

Originally posted by mattison0922
this 'DNA computer' has nothing to do with 'replacing human troops with better models.' It's just a different way of processing data,

Alone, maybe - but viewed in the context of the other developments cited above? ...Are you saying these various technologies and breakthroughs cannot be integrated?

and in reality is peripheral to this thread. I was actually just expanding on one of Nygdan's comments.

My apologies. I didn't understand.


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