Post by ironman on Apr 29, 2005 19:27:22 GMT 1
Flying said:
Fibremat,No, I've never been in a factory with robots, but I'm well aware of their capabilities.
Although they are very competent to do repetitive/programmed work, these machines do have 2 inherent design weaknesses (or at least, so we are being told...):
a) the controller-elements can only engage in pre-programmed activities (unless they are operated by remote control); and
b) the servo-elements require a substantial amount of electric/hydraulic power to operate (which limits them to relatively-fixed positions).
However...
We've all see movies where the robots (android or otherwise) work on batteries (of one type or another) which allow them considerable freedom of movement.
Also, these "fictional" robots can think for themselves, or at least have some degree of choice over a wide range of pre-programmed options.
These 2 freedom-factors may at first seem to contradict the very notion of a robot as a slave (from Czech, I think). But if you think about it, aren't humans the ultimate robot?
What are our thinking processes if not the result of very complex programming, running on a wet-wire CPU that is capable of establishing it's own neural pathways? If to that you add self-pruning capabilities (based on a trial-and-error type of behaviour, processing data collected by sensors), on top of a stable, pre-wired, support structure taking care of LSS, and you throw in a staggering data-storage capacity, you get a brain...
You give it mimetic capabilities, surround it with role-models, give it enough time to start turning data into info, and you get a working mammalian brain...
Speaking of which, wouldn't it be be much, much cheaper to just use "donw-rated" humans to do the work of robots? You won't get any cheaper commodity than human bodies, an all you had to do would to them was removing their capacity for abstract thinking...
But if you don't want to go to the trouble of changing their genetics, just use "toggle-switch", On/Off mind control.
You see, mind-control techniques (so called "brain-washing") are far, far more advanced than we would like to believe.
It is now perfectly possible to control the thoughts of any given subject by just pointing at him a source of micro-waves, tuned to the correct frequency, length and power.
Mind-controllers can now do away with any pre-conditioning of the subject: no torture, no drugs, no hypnosis, no surgery, no implants...
Just point your ray-gun at the guy (or point a ray-tower at an entire population, for that matter) and you get them to behave in a certain way, or even to think certain thoughts -- and the subjects won't even realise the thoughs don't originate inside their heads!
Anyway, back on topic.
Do such "free-roaming" robots exist? I would say "yes"...
Is the general public going to be told about them? I would say "no"...
well fly like i sayed on one of the previouse pages:
If we can send a robot to mars and drive around there sampling rocks and dirt, then the possibility of already having a numerouse amounts of army types as well..
and i for see only one (wich combines with problem 2) problem with robots that walk arround by them selves and think for them selves..
the problem is power supply, no matter how big or small the robots brains, simply moving arround slowly will drain power..
then "we need" it to have a massive hardware brain with software that can recognize and expand its data and hard drives..
this will all cost more and more power (think of the coolers in your own computer, wich would be very small compaired to what the "future"cyborg will need to have..
you can go 2 ways, well 3 ways but the third we will discuss later..
1) you can go for rows of batteries,
And then a solar collector for when the "cyborg" wants to recharge...
The rows and rows of batteries will take up a lot of space and make our cyborg robot really hugh and heavy...
recharging will take forever and will require good weather and a good sunshine (giving our battle cyborg more problems)...
2) we can go for atomic energy, it will make our cyborg heavy and big also but im sure we can make a "mini" nuke reactor to power our cyborg...
3) hydrygon (water)......
So i still say ,that energy is the biggest problem, esspecially when you think or want a cyborg that looks like a humanoid...
