Bionic Bugs To Fight Terrorists 417
dptalia writes "Israel is looking to create a small robot, no larger than a hornet to follow, film, and kill terrorists. It's just one of a series of weapons the country is considering as an alternative to conventional technologies. Other ideas floating around include gloves that would give their user 'bionic strength', and ultra-miniaturized sensors to detect explosives on suicide bombers." From the article: "The research integrates nanotechnology into Israel's security department and will find creative solutions to problems the army has been unable to address, Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres told Yedioth Ahronoth. 'The war in Lebanon proved that we need smaller weaponry. It's illogical to send a plane worth $100 million against a suicidal terrorist. So we are building futuristic weapons,' Peres said."
gah (Score:5, Funny)
Cowardly (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Cowardly (Score:5, Insightful)
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Fight the Technocracy!
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Hmm (Score:4, Funny)
Maybe it's just me, but that sentence makes it sound like we're running terrorists over with our jets. Teehee
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Maybe it's just me, but that sentence makes it sound like we're running terrorists over with our jets. Teehee
No, Israel is just bombing the neighbourhood where the were last seen. Just as efficient and just as effective.
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>Just as efficient
Efficiency is a ratio. I'm guessing you're not putting "total number of people killed" in the denominator?
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Nuke?
This is SOOO futuristic that it won't happen soon (Score:5, Insightful)
Plus, it's reasonable to assume that $100's of millions would need to be invested in such a "nanohornet" for it to be feasible. Heck, the current world's smallest flying robot [gizmodo.com] is massive compared to a bee, and can only fly a few minutes (yes, this link is from 2003, and the the robot is still considered the smallest working prototype of a flying robot).
In my opinion, the israelis need to invest in far better armor and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. During their conflict with Hezbollah, the UAVs were a huge success [tmcnet.com]. Also, wouldn't highly armored robotic vehicles be better than a hornet? For example, maybe an armored ball (kind of like those hamster balls) that would essentially be indestructable and roll around doing reconaiscence and shooting things. Just a thought.
Re:This is SOOO futuristic that it won't happen so (Score:5, Informative)
Well you're right the UAVs worked great, and you're right that they need far better armor if they want to continue using armor. The RPG-29s and guided missles used by Hezbollah did a number on the IDF's Merkava MBTs, considered one of if not the most heavily armored tanks in service. Between those relatively cheap shoulder-fired infantry weapons, and the shaped-charge mines Hezbollah had sprinkled throughout their territory, it was demonstrated pretty conclusively that today's armor isn't standing up to even the guerilla weapons. More armor is needed, though I'm not sure that's the right tack to take.
First, tanks aren't that great in the kinds of environments we're talking about: hilly terrain with valleys and choke points that can be littered with mines and give attackers on the ridges an ideal firing line to hit the tank's weak point, and cities and villages that have basically the same properties. A slow moving tank with an enemy on high ground is vulnerable.
Second, there is no such thing as "essentially indestructable". In the ages-old battle between weapons and armor, weapons always win eventually. There have been times that armor would have a brief period of success, but then the weapons would advance one generation and the armor would fall behind. This is just the nature of the beast: it's easier to destroy than to resist destruction. It's easier to focus a large amount of energy on a small area, whether the tip of an arrow fired from a longbow or the shaped-charge explosive of an RPG, than it is to build a material that can resist that energy, whether steel armor or the advanced composites used in MBTs. Reactive armor was designed to defeat the shaped charge rockets, so the rocket designers responded by simply adding a smaller charge ahead of the main one to defeat the reactive armor so the big charge can hit the main armor with full force. Just as the cannon signalled the end of the castle, the RPG-29 and ilk are signalling the end of MBT armor.
Not that tanks aren't useful and further armor developments serve no purpose, it's just that you aren't going to get much of a lead even over non-state-militaries like Hezbollah. An autonomous tank would be nice because when it gets destroyed you haven't lost a tank crew as well. Plus you could design it to be more robust than a manned tank (where breaching into the crew compartment is basically all you need to do). But it isn't going to be an indestructable ball of death, that is for sure.
Re:Side tracking on the subject of tanks. (Score:3, Interesting)
If you make a tank automous or at least remote controlled, then you don't really have worry about protecting the crew anymore. Hence you can replace the saved weight with something devoted to firepower, fuel, and speed.
In fact, why not make the tank cost $500,000 rather than $10 to $25 million and make a whole slew of them with mass production
Sure an RPG could kill it with one hit, but a well placed mine or RPG could immobilize the best armored tank
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All your tank are belong to us!
Re:Side tracking on the subject of tanks. (Score:4, Insightful)
2) stealing the tank remotely
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They used russian-made/sold Kornets. I dont think theres any armor out there that can withstand a hit from those. Armor's not the problem its tactics.
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You got that right. Tanks just don't mesh well with effective anti-guerilla tactics.
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Re:This is SOOO futuristic that it won't happen so (Score:2, Insightful)
In my opinion israel needs to invest in finding ways to get along with it's neighbors and stop it's occupation of 3.5 million people.
If I was hated by my neighnors (and lets face it disliked by most of the rest of the world) then I might ask myself why and see I could maybe change one or two things to see if I could get along better.
It would be cheaper too and as an american who funds the majority if not all of the
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Re: Remote controlled meat (Score:2)
Perhaps put a chemical in the bug that has bacteria eating it producing some side effect, but the main problem is that the bug will constantly have to eat like a real one for its metabolism.
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But then we need to get the Palestinians to pay reparations to the people whose land they stole hundreds or thousands of years before, and we have to track down those peoples' descendents and make them pay reparations to the descendents of whoever had that land before that, etc. etc.
The Americans will have to pay reparations to the Native Americans (most of whom are only fractionally N.A.) for their land. The Br
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I took your skateboard 25 years ago. It is still in my basement.
My late grandfather stole your late gradfather's pogo-stick.
You don't see the difference there?
also, reparation shmeparations, just give me back my skateboard.
It solved the problem, didn't it? (Score:3, Funny)
Don't knock the Chinese head-tax. It kept the numbers of two- or three- headed Chinese to a minimum, didnt it?
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So ... (Score:5, Funny)
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Just gloves? (Score:3, Insightful)
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You lift with your whole arm, not just your hands.
And your back, and your legs....
Even as a kid, I thought The Six Million Dollar Man [wikipedia.org] was bogus. Think about it: Steve Austin grabs the bumper of a car, hoists....and telescopes his spinal column into 6 inches of splintered bone and splatted spinal nerve fibers.
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Bionic gloves, relatively cheap and easy (Score:3, Insightful)
True. However --
I assume that gloves are much, much cheaper to develop and build than full-arm augmentation. (For full-arm augmentation, you really need full-body reinforcement -- upper body augementation to support the arm, augmented lower body to support the upper body.)
Crushing grip alone can be very useful. Close-quarters action -- break a man's bones. Useful for black-bag s
Saw this once before... (Score:4, Insightful)
Sounds like the flying robotic syringes in Dune, they silently fly around to find their target, then fly directly into them and inject some sort of fast acting poison (the spice?).
tm
Re:Saw this once before... (Score:5, Informative)
William
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It's a hunter-seeker, not a hunter-killer
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Opinions of the films differ, personally I think the Lynch one succeeds in both being a good film and not ruining the book. However it certainly doesn't replace the book.
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As far as the movie[s] goes, the 190 minute version is probably the better version. And I couldn't even stomach the SciFi miniseries that was produced. I think in the first 15 minutes they introduced characters that weren't s
Power Source? (Score:2)
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Greeeat. (Score:4, Funny)
Great name! (Score:2)
What really bugs me... (Score:2, Funny)
Futuristic you say? (Score:5, Funny)
FFFFFFFFFFACE!!
Choose your killer please. (Score:2)
Israel, why must you have such wretched PR? (Score:4, Insightful)
Trust? (Score:2, Insightful)
What trust? With the Hamas vote, already half of the Palestinians indicate that they want the Israelis exterminated.
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It has been Israeli national strategy for decades to wish for the Palestinians simply to disappear if they are suitably squeezed. The Israelis are caught between their desire to get rid of the Palestinians and their need to preserve their souls. So in the absense of a really big-time terror attack, the Israelis can't bring themselves to commit another full-s
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So far Israel hasn't been moved by the hum
Great inventions! (Score:4, Insightful)
Remember, no matter how intelligent the weapons inventors are, it's still violence; and "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent".
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Technologies are developed by scientists and engineers. Creativity and imagination and core requirements for the job.
Peaceful solutions are developed by politicians and diplomats. Core job requirements include charisma and the ability to get people to do things. Creativity and imagination are not required, and may even be liabilities.
Therefore, e
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Consider this... Without Nazi Germany's V2 rocket program and World War 2, we wouldn't have gone to the moon or at least as soon as we did.
I'm not saying that war in itself is good or that we can't progress without it, but thats historically what happens.
There's high tech and higher tech... (Score:5, Funny)
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But if there is a God, why does God hate amputees? God heals all other wounds and diseases. Why not amputees?
Already here. They already use them. (Score:3, Informative)
If the bullet was following someone cleaver enough to move out of the way, it is very very cheap to send another.
All they need is... (Score:3, Funny)
Plan B (Score:2, Insightful)
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Was this lifted from one of the Iranian president's speeches? As for the bogus "hegemony", look at what happened in the Sinai. Egypt recognized the Israeli's right to exist and called off the war. As a result, the legitimate reason for Israel to occupy the Sinai was removed, and Israel left. Now look at the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinian government has an official policy of extermination of the Israelis (along with invasi
Remember Bugs, anyone? (Score:5, Informative)
Protection? (Score:2, Funny)
Lets see you film me when I flashfry your memory, stupid bug!
Oh, new tin-foil hat... randomly swipe a powerful magnet over any bug you see!
OK ... (Score:2)
Am I the only one who finds it laughable that nowadays practially every new piece of military tech these days is about fighting 'terrorists'? This technology could, of course, be used on people who are not terrorists, and it probably will be if it goes into production. This includes legitimate uses such as actual combat against soldiers who are not terrorists. Believe me, those do still exist. Even outside the US.
Of course, the flip side of the coin is the ongoing effort to redefine everyone the US is abou
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Oops - seems I jumped the gun there. It's Israel that's developing this. That said, I think my criticism still stands. Israel is very closely related to the US in many respects, including the tendency to pump money into the development of high-tech weaponry with dubious justifications.
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New boss, same as the old boss. Before terrorists it was drugs. Before drugs it was communism. Before communism it was blacks and mexicans. Back in england it was papists or protestants depending on who was on the throne at the time, and it was also the spanish, the dutch, and the french at different times. The more things change, yada yada.
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Yep, you are the only one. The rest of us are too scared to laugh.
Philosophical Question (Score:2)
Depends on which biology... (Score:2)
Biological warfare refers to using viruses, bacteria, and other infectious agents. What people call "biological warfare" is really germ warfare. There's a distinct natural line of using replicating biological agents that needs to be crossed for this to turn into germ warefare. Since these are simply just robo
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Granted there is a self-replication aspect to biological warfare; however we generally class biological agents with chemical agents. What if you were to deploy a vast number of robot hornets who could deliver fatal "stings". How would this be better than a gas
Welcome... (Score:3, Informative)
...to the Diamond Age.
For further reading and insightful predictions about the sociological effects of nanotech, see Mr. Neal Stephenson.
Among his other speculations: as nanotech becomes ubiquitous (in the way that bacteria are today), societies will manufacture nanotech-based airborne immune systems for themselves.
Other functions? (Score:2)
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Assassination is already the state policy of Israel, and enthusiastically pursued, and it was even in the occupied palestinian territories before they were granted some shadow of nominal self-rule that provided Israel some PR cover for not trying to arrest and prosecute suspects. So its unsurprising that they are creating an assass
Why this will never happen... (Score:2)
Blowback (Score:2)
Worse, much worse. Seriously.
The very political and military leaders who create assassination weapons will use them on
-kgj
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That's not really that bad, after all, if anyone deserves it...
The bigger problem is that the political and military leaders who create assassination weapons will continue to use them on "terrorists", the definition of which will slowly expand as those leaders feel threatened from more directions.
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The real reason (Score:2)
The real solution to Middle East problem would be one democratic state on the Palestine territory (that of course, includes "Israel") with right of return for all displaced persons.
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It makes you wonder if Israel would be further ahead if they tried to focus on the terrorist's technology core instead of worrying so much about the upper management that is fairly useless without their cronies to do the actual work.
Maybe they already do have some focus on these people as you hear from time to time of a "bomb builder" being a target of an attack. But what about the communications structure that lets t
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Israel couldn't knock out Hezbollah's tv station during the 34 day conflict nor could they disrupt the communications between Nasrallah and the troops in the field. For a good read on how Hezbollah defeated Israel, please see this journal entry [slashdot.org] which links to a three-part article from Asia Times Online.
I'm not trying to karma whore so please don't give me mod points. I'm just pointing out articles which
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Israel has already learned this. Time for the aggressors that keep attacking it to learn this as well. However, since the aggressors keep trying to steal land that isn't theirs (i.e. all of Israel), might as well target the technology core of the aggressors.
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Not very wise when the armies invading and attacking you have not done the same.
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two (Score:2)
There were two. Israeli's incursion into Lebanon after Lebanon's Hesbollah army invaded Israel [bbc.co.uk] can also be counted as in invasion, even though it was second.
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The only thing insane here is the current Palestinian government's call for genocide of the Israelis.
The Problem With Love (Score:2)
You're talking about Love, as a political-social-spiritual force. Noble goal, of course -- worthy of Saints.
The problem is that Saints fall easy prey to Devils, over and over. The Devils tend to have most of the guns, and none of the moral inhibitions.
-kgj
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What countries, territories, or tribes do you mean? That practiced human sacrifice in northern South America?
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What countries, territories, or tribes do you mean? That practiced human sacrifice in northern South America?
Probbably the Inca, Aztec and Mayans. Read about it here. [wikipedia.org] Though it's not like European culture was any better with it's practice of conquest, religious repression (the inquisition), or conflicts like the Crusades.
Wrong continent. (Score:2)
Two of those were in North America, and never South America. Whoever mentioned South America does not even know the continents these people lived on. The Inca did some human sacrifice (not any large scale), but they were in western South America, not northern South America.
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If America will stop its racist persecution of persons descended from Siberians who came over the land bridge, and give back the land we stole
Some people have this weird idea that something that happened 500 some years ago is a little different than something that happened less than 40 years ago. Also, last I checked American Indians were all full citizens of the US (though sadly it took until the early 20th century for this to happen). Most palestinians living in the occupied territories are NOT Israel c
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In order for them to become citizens, Israel would have to annex the territories and everyone would have to accept these territories as completely a part of Israel (instead of a control that is supposed to be temporary). Is this a change you support?
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Presuming that you are referring to the example usually cited for this kind of thing in pre-Columbian America, don't you mean the soutehrn part of the continent of North America, not the northern part of South America?
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What has Gibson ever said about South America? Or is this just a general reference to Gibson's drunken rant?
The genocide in the Middle East. part 2 (Score:3, Informative)
To make clear the actual genocide problem (and you were blaming the VICTIMS!), here are some quotes from the current Palestinian government and their actual charter: [mideastweb.org] "Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious" [At least they do not hide their hatred behind the code word "Zionists"]..."The Day of Judgement will not c
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The government of the Palestinians in the 1940s, such as it was, was a close ally of Nazi Germany, and actually participated in the Holocaust. This government pretty much survived for a long time: the leader from back then was Arafat's mentor.