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Comments: 150 +- Hardware: Radio-Controlled Cyborg Beetles Become Reality on Thursday October 01, @10:14PM
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by
timothy
on Thursday October 01, @10:14PM
from the tsa-agents-didn't-show-enough-drive dept.
from the tsa-agents-didn't-show-enough-drive dept.
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holy_calamity writes "DARPA's plans to create brain chips for insects so they can be steered like an RC plane are bearing fruit. Videos show that a team at Berkeley can use radio signals to tell palm-sized African beetles to take off and land, and to lose altitude and steer left or right when in flight. They had to use the less-than-inconspicuous giant beetles because other species are too weak to take off with the weight of the necessary antenna and brain and muscle electrodes."
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I for one (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I for one (Score:5, Funny)
I am swarmed with the feeling that this will bug a lot of people.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Of course it stings people; this is a war technology and it flies in the face of diplomacy and peace. We should be able to listen to our Beatles records in our VW bugs rather than collecting new weapons like a scarab collects shit. This ticks me off!
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Me too. Any country that spends more on weapons than on education should be called a developing nation.
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Beetles? What I want to know is, where are the Lesbian Rapist Robots, as promised?
Re:I for one (Score:5, Funny)
What, no lasers?
Parent
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Re:I for one (Score:5, Funny)
Oh...I've said too much...
Parent
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And that is ONLY (Score:2)
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... look forward to attending the Reunion Concert that we never had.
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Why cant we do this to politicos and lawyers then?
For politicos, it's because they would need a brain to attach the electrodes to.
Smaller, smaller, smaller... (Score:2, Interesting)
"They had to use the less-than-inconspicuous giant beetles because other species are too weak to take off with the weight of the necessary antenna and brain and muscle electrodes."
So, as technology advances: smaller electronics, radio parts, electromechanical components, power source -> smaller state-of-the-art RC toy. How long until you can have your own, remote-controlled army of fruit flies? 5 years? 10? 20?
Name (Score:2, Funny)
Large? For Beetles.
Benevolent? Probably not.
Cyborg? Check.
I suggest we call these the Big Bad Beetleborgs.
Re: (Score:2)
Yo dawg, I heard you like flying beetles... (Score:3, Funny)
FINALLY. (Score:4, Funny)
Sweet, but needs a lot of work still (Score:4, Insightful)
If you can't monitor what they're doing without being in the same room, then the range is very small. On the other hand, if this could be scaled up to larger animals, perhaps the power would cease to be an issue. However, it does seem like the relative lack of sophistication present in these insects is what allows this control, in part.
Still, if they can get the surveillance issue figured out, this could represent a significant advance is Search and Rescue -- use insects or small animals to access places that humans can't (collapsed buildings, landslides, etc.)
Re:Sweet, but needs a lot of work still (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Sweet, but needs a lot of work still (Score:5, Funny)
if this could be scaled up to larger animals, perhaps the power would cease to be an issue
I say we strap a diesel generator and a surveillance suite on an elephant. It's my understanding that even if somebody notices him in the room, they'll still act like they don't.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Sharks. Although then you've got to find power for the laser beam.
I wonder... (Score:5, Funny)
We've always wanted to be a fly on the wall; but having your secret spy weapon get eaten by an insectivorous plant would be pretty embarrassing.
Who knows? (Score:4, Funny)
Old news (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, yeah, the beetles still move pretty damn slow.
beetles... (Score:2, Funny)
Finally! (Score:4, Funny)
Radio-Controlled Cyborg Beetles Become Reality
Well, it's about damn time. You know how long I've been waiting for this day?
/wipes away a single tear
Shame this is not genetic engineering (Score:2)
We're still decades (centuries? maybe, if there's roadblocks) away from being able to create a sense organ for radio and training an animal to follow commands received via it. Of course, then someone will want the communication to two way so you can see through the bug's eyes, etc. Before you know it you've equipped a social insect with a massive evolutionary advantage which it uses to form the most fearsome hive mind, flies into space and takes over the galaxy. Gah, then we have to flight bugs in space
Re:Shame this is not genetic engineering (Score:5, Funny)
So, you don't want citizenship, do you?
Parent
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I don't mind alien bugs, but if they start sucking out brains I'm going to kill myself rather than see how bad the timeline is.
Re: (Score:2)
Why fight them? We can upload our minds into the process distributed inside the bugs' network and finally leave this god-forsaken corner of Virgo, and move into Shapley [wikipedia.org], where all the action is.
Too bad this technology only works (Score:5, Funny)
Prior Art (Score:3, Interesting)
This was first done in the 5th Element when Zorg's assistant spies on the president. Obviously, according to IP law, DARPA owes the creators of the 5th Element $500 Trillion (in standard RIAA dollars).
Improvization and Military use (Score:3, Insightful)
I just had an interesting thought. If the same research happened in Iran or N. Korea, then the western media would have, by now, successfully crafted false stories like "Iran prepares robotic spies for spying on US". It is very sad that we are not seeing stories like "US preparing to dispatch robotic bees to all evil parts of the world."
Re: (Score:2)
North Korea and Iran ARE EVIL (Score:2, Insightful)
Seriously, why do you have to live in a stupid bubble that says a total dictatorship backed up by concentration camps isn't evil? These countries aren't like, ho hum, the USA, where you call yourself oppressed because your daddy didn't give attention. These are countries where you call yourself oppressed because you said you were hungry and the 5 year plan said you had more food than ever, or you said that you were unhappy and Allah should provide.
I'm so sick of hearing people put the USA on the same mora
Not yet ready ... (Score:2)
From what I've read they're many years away from perfecting this, it's too full of bugs.
Beetles today, people tomorrow. (Score:2)
This is awesome (Score:2)
I was afraid there was going to be stupid tether wire, but NO TETHER. Truly remote controlled this time.
How do you debug it? (Score:2)
Would you need an addbug to troubleshoot it?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
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More like something out of We3 [wikipedia.org].
No (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
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Come on.
Re: (Score:2)
I'll admit it creeps me out. Not that I have any problem with slicing and dicing bugs for science, but the whole area of brain control of any species, especially when that research is government funded really bothers me.
-jcr