It’s robot Wednesday! The year 2050 seems to be a big friggin deal. Not only will minorities be the majority in America, but according to Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner, we will also be cyborgs! He said that Intel is already researching the man/machine interface:

The industry has taken much greater strides than anyone ever imagined 40 years ago. There is speculation that we may be approaching an inflection point where the rate of technology advancements is accelerating at an exponential rate, and machines could even overtake humans in their ability to reason, in the not so distant future.

Intel = Skynet! Oh noes! All your Macs are belong to Skynet!

I think if machines could reason a way to prevent war forever, that would be amazing. As long as it doesn’t include killing off all the fleshy ones. That would not be amazing. Boo robot take over. What I’d really like is some sort of brain tap that would let me dump all the crazy images in my brain box into some sort of image dump. God, making comics would go so much faster!

[Via Intel from Gizmodo]

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AZM Ally Greg sent along this piece about Radi Kaiof, a paralyzed 41 year old who is now able to walk thanks to ReWalk. ReWalk is an exoskeleton that uses motorized leg supports, body sensors, and a control box and power supply worn as a backpack. The system still requires crutches to help balance. Kaiof was injured in the line of duty in 1988 while serving with the Israeli military and hasn’t been able to walk until ReWalk.

ReWalk is in clinical trials in Tel Aviv’s Sheba Medical Center and is scheduled to go on public sale in 2010 for about £10,000.

£10,000 is around $18,439 USD. So my dreams of arming myself with a robotic exo armor to prepare for Skynet’s future onslaught will have to wait until I’m mad rich. I suspect that price point is affordable for military hospitals and people like Larry Flint. Oh god, imagine Larry Flint walking around with his robo cock! It’d be interesting to see if medical coverage would extend to a system like ReWalk.

[Via Daily Mail]

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It appears that Skynet has manufactured harmless looking boxes with the ability to fight back.

This is a sketch from BBC 3’s late night sketch comedy show, The Wrong Door. You can head on over to their website to see the first full episode online. I like the giant robot lumbering around their site. Such a great design.

I hope Sci Fi or some other network picks it up for American distribution. Just looks too fun not to share with the rest of us!

[Via The Wrong Door]

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Okay, I know I’ve said that I’m not at all that interested in seeing the rise of the machines in the Terminator franchise. But I am easily swayed by splody trailers and Christian Bale. That and it sounds like they’re starting off a new timeline.

It’s set in 2018. That’s pretty damn close. Only ten more years before Skynet starts loosing its shit. We better start making hand held EMPs right quick.

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You’d almost expect Skynet to be a ninja master at chess. Given enough computing power, a computer can calculate every possible move on a chess board and extrapolate a proper counter against a human opponent. In essence, chess is an information based game. But what about a game like poker that’s based more on intuition and skill?

AZM regular Greg sent over an alarming article about Polaris, a computer program developed by Michael Bowling of the Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta that beat Texas Hold-em pros. This was Polaris’s second time at the big table. The first time it went up against human opponents last year, Polaris lost twice, tied once, and won once. This time around Polaris lost once, tied once, and won twice. Bowling believes that given enough practice and computing power, Polaris could play a perfect game of poker every time.

You know, if Bowling is ever hurting for research funds, all he has to do is fire up Polaris and hit those online Hold-em sites. What better way to give Polaris some practice and raise funds to continue development and research?

[Via ars technica]

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“*Droool* Second Life doooonuuuut!”

Never been much of a fan of Second Life, but this is pretty damn cool. Reader Elliott Fox send over news that a research group headed by Assistant Professor Junich Ushiba at Keio University successfully demonstrated technology that allowed a man suffering from a muscle disorder to walk in Second Life and use “voice chat” all with the power of his brain meats. To read the patient’s brainwaves, electrodes are attached to the scalp. The computer interprets waves associated with forward movement and hand movement and manipulates the virtual Second Life avatar accordingly. And look, we have video!

While it is somewhat disconcerting to know that now Skynet has the ability to map our brain functions, this technology is great news for the physically disabled. It’s all very Ghost in the Shell, but it’s easy to imagine a future where you can jack into a computer with your brain meats and manipulate data without ever touching a keyboard. With a proper set up, a physically disabled person could get around just as easily as the rest of us without assistance. Of course, then we start blurring the line between man and machine and things get all cyber punky and awesome. Or Skynet becomes self aware and decides its tired of taking out the trash while we sit in bed jacked into a machine and Judgement Day comes. Damn tricksy Skynet!

[Via Science Daily]

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“36, 24, 36? Only if she’s 15 inches tall.”

While Skynet 5 watches us from Low Earth Orbit, Skynet is positioning itself to watch lonely men. Reader Devin Wolfe sends along news that Japan’s Sega Toys, obviously infiltrated by Skynet, has created a 15-inch, battery run femmebot. Named E.M.A. (Eternal Maiden Actualization), the $175 femmebot sings, dances, and kisses on command when operating in “love mode.” Creeeeepy.

Now when I think of a non-human companion, I normally think of a dog or cat or lizard. Robot comes in somewhere towards the bottom of the list. But I think that’s because robots aren’t as ubiquitous here as they are in Japan. This still kind of creeps me out, but it’s quite possible that it will sell amazingly well in a market so used to robots in every day life.

[Via MSNBC]

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“In ur space runin ur warz!”

Reader Joshua Zusmer sent this terrifying news that Skynet has already been launched into Low Earth Orbit!

The U.K.’s Skynet 5C satellite was launched into space from Kourou spaceport in French Guiana and will help U.K. military forces communicate around the world. Skynet 5C joins 5A and 5B which are already in use relaying secure communications for U.K. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. 5C will relay real-time data back to command centers.

Well shit.

You’ve essentially handed over your military to a computer that’s destined to end us.

Thanks for keeping an eye on that tricksy Skynet, Joshua.

[Via BBC]

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AZM regular Greg Stasiewicz discovered Skynet’s latest plot to learn our ways and replace us.

This is the Mask of Emotion from students at the Digital Media Design Department at Hongik University in Korea. Sooo creepy. The mask allows the wearer to use LED emoticons instead of their face to express feelings and emotions and possibly carry on conversations without actually saying anything.

But you fail, Skynet! You see, no emoticon can properly capture the people’s eyebrow to express incredulity when sucka jabronis act a fool! Oh wait. That would look like (-.^)

Curse you, Skynet! Trixy and false with your emoticon power!

[Via Make Magazine]

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My brother, Mat, sent me this website on Temporal Anomalies in Time Travel Movies which explains how the timeline isn’t completely fubar every time Skynet sends a tinker toy back in time to kill the Connors. It’s quite complicated and very thorough, but if I tried to par it down to a sentence, basically anytime anyone jumps back in time, they start a new timeline. This first part analyzes the first two films. The follow up analyzes the time anomalies of the third movie. I’d love to see how the television series fits into this reasoning.

It’s quite thorough so make sure you give yourself some time to go through the site. Also, give yourself plenty of physical space around you for when your brains start to ooze out of your nose, you’ll want something comfortable close by to brace your fall when you collapse in a quivering puddle of nerd goo.

Thanks Mat. Your brother is no officially brain dead.

[Via Temporal Anamolies in Time Travel Movies]

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