These Are Not The Drones You're Looking For
Brought to you by the "One Nation Under Surveillance" Department . . .
The use of aerial drones has long been controversial, but a new drone built by the British that's set to take to the skies can select its own targets outside the control of a human operator. So maybe it's a good thing that Stephen Hawking joined a think tank about preventing a robot apocalypse.
Drones may not be just for the air anymore, though. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the futuristic research arm of the Defense Department that invented an early version of the Internet, among other things, has long had an interest in robots. NOVA produced a show called "The Great Robot Race" which chronicles a DARPA sponsored competition to build robot-controlled vehicles -- you can watch that show for free on Hulu*. And now DARPA is looking into underwater drones for things like ocean reconnaissance.
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* I'm not including a link to the Hulu video of "The Great Robot Race" because I can't find a link that doesn't automatically start the video when you go to the page. Pet peeve example of bad and annoying web design by a company big enough to know better.
The use of aerial drones has long been controversial, but a new drone built by the British that's set to take to the skies can select its own targets outside the control of a human operator. So maybe it's a good thing that Stephen Hawking joined a think tank about preventing a robot apocalypse.
Drones may not be just for the air anymore, though. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the futuristic research arm of the Defense Department that invented an early version of the Internet, among other things, has long had an interest in robots. NOVA produced a show called "The Great Robot Race" which chronicles a DARPA sponsored competition to build robot-controlled vehicles -- you can watch that show for free on Hulu*. And now DARPA is looking into underwater drones for things like ocean reconnaissance.
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* I'm not including a link to the Hulu video of "The Great Robot Race" because I can't find a link that doesn't automatically start the video when you go to the page. Pet peeve example of bad and annoying web design by a company big enough to know better.