Quote from: rcjordan on May 27, 2019, 09:45:56 PM
UK: world's first raspberry-picking robot set to work
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/may/26/world-first-fruit-picking-robot-set-to-work-artificial-intelligence-farming

Goodbye hot Eastern European girls in their 20's bending over in the fields ;+}

I think of raspberries as one of the more fragile fruit, but also one of the more predictable (color as reliable indicator of ripeness, amount of tension required to pick one). Still... pretty incredible.

https://xkcd.com/652/

>>xkcd

This is my chief complaint about sci-fi movies. There is NO scenario in which "switching to manual" is going to save you in the robot apocalypse or while flying your faster-than-light rocket fighter.

I went through a period of reading a lot of old Asimov and Clarke and remember one book where, as they are preparing to jump to hyper-light speed, the navigator pulls out his ephemeris and slide rule to plot the course. FTL-drive was completely believable. A computer that would fit inside a spaceship and calculate trajectories was, of course, unimaginable. And these were books from the late 1950s and early 1960s when we were less than a decade from just such a computer.

PS - the hover text is usually a followup joke. This time, it isn't.

>>>xkcd

Getting serious about armed ground robots
https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/dsei/2019/09/13/getting-serious-about-armed-ground-robots/

Radio signals could be jammed, so eventually there will be a pushed towards autonomy.  For now we have the increase risk of tyranny that killing without one's own forces being put in danger will provide.  AI with bombs and bullet may be much worse.

I love coming to the The Core for my daily dose of sunshine and rainbows ;-)

Sorry Ergo.  I think part of the problem is that we all could agree on what's bad, but what is good news is up to interpretation.

That's okay. I have my crystalologist and astrologer on staff to counterbalance this.

>>>xkcd >drones  ...going for the jugular.

Saudi Arabia cuts oil output by 5 million barrels following drone attacks
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/14/business/saudi-oil-output-impacted-drone-attack/index.html

Aach!  This might be the creepiest one yet.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/dvv58u/rescue_robot_snake_that_can_sift_through_rubble/

I had a terrible fear of snakes as a kid and am still not much of a fan. I am also mildly claustrophobic. So this is basically my nightmare scenario - trapped in a rubble heap unable to move and what comes to save me? A snake.

https://xkcd.com/2228/

Swarming drones play the James Bond theme. Genuinely terrifying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sUeGC-8dyk&feature=youtu.be

Not only is that really cool, that vid is almost 8 years old.