Robots are awesome and terrifying!
Sensing the potential for saving lives and limbs, the U.S. government has made an unprecedented move: enlisting robots in the war in Afghanistan.
According to CNN, the robots fighting with flesh and soldiers outside Kabul, “requires almost no human interaction. It can take off and land by itself… It will be able to find its target by itself. The only thing it needs a carbon-based life form for is to let it know it’s OK to drop the bomb.”
The Pentagon is also planning on adding real live robot translators just like C-3PO. Via Wired.com: “Thursday, Darpa announced its new Broad Operational Language Translation, or BOLT, research initiative — the latest in a long, long line of military interpretation gadgets and algorithms. The United States tends to fight its wars in places where it doesn’t really speak the language. Training up troops in critical languages like Arabic would be difficult, time-consuming and not entirely practical on a large scale.”
Hmm. So our government would rather invest millions of dollars on an Arab speaking machine that works with a gay soldier who already speaks Arabic and costs less to operate? Wow.
Robots fighting our battles are nothing new. We actually employ them to retrieve bombs, clean windows and reach hard to reach places. What’s terrifying, however, is the day these metallic thingamabobs gain consciousness and start demanding their rights.
After the break, meet our favorite automatons!
[pagebreak]
The original trailer for Star Wars introduced us to R-2D2 and C-3PO, a robot skilled in human interaction.
[pagebreak]
Number 5 made robots cute in the ’80s, but the fear of robots turning evil persists to this day.
[pagebreak]
The best robot ever was Arnold “The Governator” Schwarzenegger who traveled through time to become the governor of California.
[pagebreak]
Robots dreamt of electric sheep and of murder in “I, Robot.”
[pagebreak]
When they’re not busy being toasters or trying to kill us, robots can be quite adorable.
[pagebreak]
Japanese robots are cute little boy machines looking out for the interests of mankind. Until they turn evil.
[pagebreak]
Can’t have a robot gone wrong story without Blade Runner. They’re not really robots, they’re androids. Still, they are machines trying to survive in a cold and cruel world.
