Robots @ MindSay 
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I assume that if there ever were to be a robotic uprising, there would be resistance fighting, much like in the world of the Terminator series. I can't pictures humans just being eradicated without a fight. Even in the FotC version where the humans are killed with poisonous gasses (they poisoned our asses), I believe there would either be some immunities or numerous pockets of people that are not hit by the initial and follow-up deployments of the gases that have traces of lead. There would be survivors and they would fight for freedom from the new robotic overlords.
I would not be one of these people. This has nothing to do with pacifism or my inability to win a fight against anyone, including a toddler. This would be a conscious decision on my part to do whatever the robots wanted, including dying, because robots are fucking cool.
I would happily do anything the robots wanted me to do. I would bend over and get anally violated by the robots if that's what they wanted me for. I would smile, grab my ankles, and scream, "Give it to me, Robo-lover! I'm a bad, bad human!"
Not fighting for the survival of the human race? I really am a bad human.
I can't decide.
okay I confess it....it takes a visit by relatives to get me to thoroughly clean the house. we are pretty organized and only have a few areas of entropy at a time but i have a pretty high tolerance for my own dirt like bathtub rings or spots on the floor. but today we both really CLEANED. down on your knees scrubbing in little corners cleaning that you do for a tour of homes or maybe if you are considering selling your home. or in case the queen drops in.
when i was working full time i was shamed into hiring a cleaning service. I was at a staff meeting and the head of the center ( a very borderline MD PhD who was brilliant and cruel but for some unknown reason didn't give me as much crap as she gave others) was taking about her cleaning woman. I said I had this ethical thing about paying someone to do work I could do but didn't want to do.... she countered that I was full of shit, I just didn't want to a paye a livable wage to a cleaning person. so........ the next week I hired someone at a very comfortable for them rate and stopped worrying about toilets and dust kitties etc. to put it bluntly ethics went poof and i threw away the rubber gloves.
But when I went to part time I didn't feel that I should use money that way and besides the cleaning woman I had first in Bama had OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) and was FANTASTIC. but she had to quit because it was feeding her disorder. My next cleaning woman, Carol, a very nice jehovah's witness , wanted me to be part of her life and all i wanted was an anonymous relationship with the cleaner to whom I wrote weekly checks. And she was an perfectionistic as Ann, so i thought i could have that dirty a house for free.
Anyway I digress. oh hell. why not digress? I wanted to tell y'all about a writer from the 40's who is great fun and sort of invented the modern spy novel.. Eric Ambler. My husband introduced me to his novel a Coffin for Demetrious and as you read it you can just imagine Sidney Greenstreet saying the lines. it's fun to find a new/old writer who might be less formulaic and writes well.
all of this is to do anything but return to cleaning for "los hespuedes" I still have two toilets and two bathroom floors to go. We have five toilets in this house. do you think it excessive? (I won't clean the studio toilet--- no one but Abs and i see it.) but before I sign off I wanted to mention that the section of the Lewis and Clark trail that heads north from Cannon Beach is stupendously beautiful although lots of ups and downs and some scrambling and LARGE mucky areas after every rain. but it goes through old growth Sitka spruce forest and every now and then opens to amazing views of the pacific. This is where we saw a bald eagle preening itself in a half barren pine. very very very nice. and then we stopped in a little gallery and bougt some art to add to our wall of western photogrpahers in the den.
speaking of photographs.... the mindsay blogger paviel does gorgeous work at very reasonable prices and he has begun to sell his work. I bought one and it's hanging over my desk in the kitchen. so check him out and get the link to see more of his work. and make him sign it, he might be famous one day.
By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service
Feb. 13, 2007 – Testing for some of the systems slated for the first "spin out" of the Army's Future Combat Systems program has gone well, except for one minor glitch: the soldiers testing them don't want to give the prototypes back. "They won't give me back my stuff," joked Army Maj. Gen. Charles A. Cartwright, program manager for the Future Combat Systems Brigade Combat Team, as he briefed reporters on the progress of the program at the Pentagon last week.
The FCS is a "family" of a variety of manned and unmanned vehicles, sensors, launch systems and unmanned aerial vehicles. All are connected by a common network with the soldier. Some systems within the family are marked for an early fielding in an effort to get the technologies to the soldier as early as fiscal 2008.
Dubbed Experiment 1.1, the testing ran in three phases, starting in July 2006 and finishing this month. Already, some of the systems are garnering rave reviews from the combat veterans testing them. It was the first time that soldiers collectively employed FCS systems in "live" training and used the system's computer-based training support package, officials said.
"They loved it," said Col. Charles C. Bush, FCS division chief. "What the FCS spin-out is all about is getting information down to the soldier level so they can use it. Experiment 1.1 was designed to test the tools that will get them more tactical information on the battlefield."
Soldiers tested the initial version of the network operating system, the joint tactical radio system, the tactical and urban unattended ground sensors, the small unmanned ground vehicle, the Class I unmanned aerial vehicle and the non-line-of-sight launch system.
Officials taped responses from the soldiers testing the equipment and played them at the briefing. The common theme among the mix of commissioned and noncommissioned officers was that using the new systems will save lives in combat. The systems worked together to increase efficiency and mitigate risks to the soldier. The combat veterans extolled the usefulness of the equipment, giving examples of actual fights in Iraq where they could have used the systems.
"I became a big believer," one NCO said.
"All they need to do is get it out to the soldier and start training on it," another said.
One soldier said the robot vehicles, sensors and the unmanned aerial vehicles help eliminate what he referred to as "The Big 'What if?'"
Robots can be sent into buildings instead of soldiers to identify booby traps and insurgents. Unmanned aerial vehicles can be flown over hills and walls, allowing soldiers to see what is on the other side. The sensors can be placed on flanks and in buildings to detect enemy movement. All are tied to a network that the soldier can monitor on a screen mounted in his Humvee.
It's about seeing the enemy before he sees you, Bush said.
"Instead of sending 'Private Snuffy' in the room to see if there is a booby trap, you send a robot in there," Bush said. "From a tactical perspective, giving the soldier the ability to see inside a room is pretty powerful."
Two soldiers testing the robot vehicle agreed.
"It would have saved our lives," one said, referring to a booby trap discovered by the robot vehicle during the testing.
Bush said nothing like the tactical and urban sensors currently is fielded at the soldier level. Some sensors are used by specialized military intelligence units, but that information is not immediately accessible by the soldier at a squad or platoon level. An earlier prototype of the small unmanned ground vehicle is being used in Iraq to investigate tunnels and possible improvised explosive devices, he said.
The Class I unmanned aerial vehicle was tested in Hawaii by some 29th Infantry Division soldiers working through a mission readiness exercise.
"The soldiers loved that thing," Bush said.
Its effectiveness was problematic for the trainers, though, because the soldiers were finding all of the "planted" roadside bombs and taking alternative routes. As a result, they were missing out on intentional training on how to react to an IED.
"It gives them ability to see the enemy before they run into them, and lets them maneuver more effectively," Bush said.
The FCS systems will also help soldiers make better, faster decisions on the battlefield.
A sensor will let them know, for example, that a vehicle is approaching. Video from the sensor will let the soldier know if it is a suspicious vehicle.
"It will put capabilities into the hands of soldiers that they don't have now," Bush said.
"It's tough in that kind of environment to identify one individual from another individual - who's the terrorist," he said. "The more tools you give the soldier the easier it is."
The bottom line for the combat veterans testing the new systems was that robots and sensors and information on the battlefield translates to more troops coming home alive.
"If the robot ges blown up, oh well. You still have a soldier with you," an NCO said.
One combat commander said if his unit would have had the systems in Iraq, it would have saved an NCO's life, his squad leader's legs and his team leader's hand.
The initial version of the network operating system, the joint tactical radio system, the tactical and urban unattended ground sensors and the non-line-of-sight launch system are funded for the first spin-out of FCS systems starting in fiscal 2008.
There is no funding currently for the small unmanned ground vehicle and the Class I unmanned aerial vehicle for the first spin-out. They are slated as options in spin-out 2, if funding is available.
Article sponsored by Criminal Justice online leadership; and, police and military personnel who have authored books.
(inspired by article at http://downloads.oreilly.com/make/08/pummer.pdf) (this is not a real article, and neither are the entities, names or companies written herein-- take it as sci fi..)
30 years ago it used to be one of childhood's common tragedies when a beloved pet died. Now that a household's pets, plants, decorations and toys are blending more and more into the same category, we are growing up into an age when some of our favorite pets are unalive. Moodistica by Aversteen Romance won't play the same games as either your traditional pet or your robo-ornament. In fact, it won't play any games at all, which surprisingly doesn't make this paperweight-looking creation any less interesting. In a new move towards unobtrusive interactiveness in electronic companion technology, Passionata reacts to something A.R. is calling the "emotosphere:" which consists of human-generated changes in air pressure, temperature, and an additional factor which A.R. refers to as "Element Q" or, more simply, "Q." Passionata then spends alot of its time simply reflecting the emotosphere around itself through a surface of LED lights, seemingly behaving like a robotics-age mood ring. However, the next step which Moodistica takes is to express a response to the emotosphere around it, reflecting back colors representing sadness, joy, anger and so on. At times Moodistica seems inspired to share in the same emotions as the humans around it. However it also comes with a setting which causes Moodistica to use its colors to try to perpetually encourage a positive or cheerful mood, particularly during those times when it is sensing high levels of stress in the room. "This is the feature we think users will find most interesting, especially those who work in the corporate environment" says team designer Williams Jakomile of A.R.
The emotion-coded color spectrum used by Moodistica was designed to be easy to learn and enterprit: with the exception that red can mean both anger and lust, "however red has many tones and variations, so its pretty straightforward, the difference between a sugary-purple red for affection, and the yellow-orange fire red for anger and frustruation" Jakomile emphasizes. "LED lights are a beautiful medium for this kind of expression. These lights can produce tens of thousands of colors and to a supurb degree of control. This means Moodistica can reflect a huge array of different moods and flashes of feeling."
So what if you don't want to know your co-workers to know how much you hate doing this project? Moodistica also comes with an "introversion" switch that puts it into a sub-conscious state, reflecting back on what it has percieved in the past, re-considering its responses, and learning new reactions to familiar cross-mood situations, according to Jakomile. What else does Moodistica dream about? Only the chief designers at A.R. know for sure, not even revealing the process by which Moodistica teaches itself to respond to its world to such designers as Jakomile. "Moodistica is designed to develop its own personality; or really its own set patterns of how it responds to different influences in the emotosphere, over time, through experience and by dreaming. At this time they're keeping a secret the exact process by which this happens," all we can know at this stage is that it seems to work and that no one has been able to crack the secret of Moodistica's emoto-processing. Top level designers at A.R. declined to respond to inquiries.
Ok, aside from being a cool desktop blinky, could Moodistica be the prototype for future emotion centers for artificial creations, both virtual and mechanical? Time will tell whether Moodistica marks the next wave in bio-simulating robotic ornaments, or if its destiny lies in the center of a highly complex electronic companion still to come.
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