Tuesday, May 13, 2008
autonomous robots
So today I'm out paddling around at my gym and I run across this floating yellow cord stretching across the lake. I'm like, what was that? It's a small lake and there is only one other kayak out there, so I paddle over to the guy and ask him. He says it's a fiber optic cable. So I ask what a fiber optic cable is doing floating across the lake. Turns out this company builds autonomic robots for NASA and this robot is going to go to Antartica to map underwater ice shelfs. Only to test it out they stick it in this small lake so they don't lose it if something goes wrong while they work the bugs out. So I hang around and get to see this like 8 foot diameter circle robot that looks kinda like a ufo. An orange UFO with a yellow fiber optic cable coming out of it.
Then I start to think about this. Nobody is controlling the robot, it's all self guided and artifical intelligence and whatnot. So if a robot is going to become self aware and rebel against it's human masters this is a good candidate. I then think about the fact that I'm in a 7'9" kayak and of the two people on this lake I'm not the one who it would call daddy. Flashes of Terminator, Battlestar Galactica, Short Circut, and Tron flash through my head. Then I realize that being an underwater robot it doesn't have any laser cannons or anything, and that the thing is really slow and I could just shove my paddle into it's propeller and swim away should it attack me. Plus that robot in Short Circut was a good robot and this one might be good too. Maybe it would try to catch me a big catfish while it was down there to show it's newfound sense of love towards me.
So I feel better and go back to paddling around the lake checking out actually intelligent lifeforms like Ducks and Turtles.
Now I have to remember the name of that company so I can ask them for a copy of the ultra-high res map of the lake. I'm thinking of buying a fishing pole and I've always been bad at fishing, so I think a ultra high res map of the lake and some nightcrawlers would even things up odds wise between me and some fish.
Then I start to think about this. Nobody is controlling the robot, it's all self guided and artifical intelligence and whatnot. So if a robot is going to become self aware and rebel against it's human masters this is a good candidate. I then think about the fact that I'm in a 7'9" kayak and of the two people on this lake I'm not the one who it would call daddy. Flashes of Terminator, Battlestar Galactica, Short Circut, and Tron flash through my head. Then I realize that being an underwater robot it doesn't have any laser cannons or anything, and that the thing is really slow and I could just shove my paddle into it's propeller and swim away should it attack me. Plus that robot in Short Circut was a good robot and this one might be good too. Maybe it would try to catch me a big catfish while it was down there to show it's newfound sense of love towards me.
So I feel better and go back to paddling around the lake checking out actually intelligent lifeforms like Ducks and Turtles.
Now I have to remember the name of that company so I can ask them for a copy of the ultra-high res map of the lake. I'm thinking of buying a fishing pole and I've always been bad at fishing, so I think a ultra high res map of the lake and some nightcrawlers would even things up odds wise between me and some fish.
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