Friday, March 7, 2014

Be Prepared for the Robot Apocalypse (part 5)


Some of you might be wondering why it is assumed that we should flee--why not stay and fight? Ok, let's be honest, your black-belt in karate is almost useless against a 300 pound hunk of steel. The best you can hope to achieve with that roundhouse kick is unbalancing the robot enough to topple it over. Shooting a robot with a gun could risk a ricochet off its metal surface and will probably trigger a call for back-up from other nearby robots. Don't forget, military drones are often equipped with high-caliber weapons, so it is best to not take your chances with close-range encounters. There are ways to fight, though, and they involve exploiting design flaws. Original programming routines still reside in the robot's memory, and with the proper catalyst, these routines can be prompted. For instance, the angry cleaning-bot that is rushing at you with sharp, pointy scissors could be distracted if you dropped your chewing gum and some pocket lint in front of it. Robot sensors can also be confused or temporarily disabled. Shine a bright light on a robot and its sensors may momentarily wash out. Even better, if you have a laser pointer handy, shining the beam of the laser on the robot's sensors could permanently blind it—until it hops online and signals an order for a replacement part from Amazon, which we've all been told will soon be able to air-deliver our packages by flying drones.

http://nysebulletin.com/bezos-announces-drone-package-delivery-testing-by-amazon-5584.html

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