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Wednesday, July 24, 2013
The US Government Is Metamorphosing Into the Borg
by: SUBHANKAR BANERJEE
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius--and
a lot of courage--to move in the opposite direction."
--E. F. Schumacher
When I moved to Seattle in 1996, I had thought I knew how to order a cup of coffee: "I'll have a cup of coffee please." Soon I realized that it was more complicated: "I'll have a Venti soy dolce latte, topped with sprinkled cinnamon and caramel drawing on whip cream, with coffee on the side please." Referring to the US government is increasingly becoming as challenging as ordering coffee in Seattle: "Petro-imperial, coal-fired, plutocratic, oligarchic, inverted totalitarian, fascist, propagandist Big Brother, with democracy on the side." Things are beginning to simplify though. Soon you'll be able to refer to the US government with one single word--the Borg.
Two recent news stories reveal that Homo sapiens aren't always loyal to a tyrannical regime. Edward Snowden opened the valve so that crude secrets could flow out of NSA's pipelines--to benefit humanity. And, in protest of America's "dirty wars," Brandon Toy publicly resigned last week from his job at the US Defense contractor General Dynamics. In his resignation letter, published on Common Dreams, Toy wrote: "I have always believed that if every foot soldier threw down his rifle war would end. I hereby throw mine down."
What if the US military were to replace not-to-be-trusted Homo sapiens with completely trustworthy Robo sapiens?
On 11 July 2013, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) unveiled the "Atlas" humanoid robot. Before I go on, take a look at the skeletal structure of Atlas here. Now, in your mind's eye put some smooth metal over the skeleton, and then take a look at a Borg here (stationed at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum). Do you not think they are siblings, or more appropriately two members of the Borg collective? They are--because both are creation of the human mind.
Inspired by the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) was launched last October. Nine months later, Atlas, a six-foot tall, 330-pound baby was born (developed by Boston Dynamics with DARPA funding). Atlas "May Foreshadow Age of 'Robo Sapiens'" is how the New York Times headlined the news. The DRC program manager Gill Pratt gave a rather emotional justification for his program with these words:
"Two weeks ago 19 brave fire fighters lost their lives. A number of us who are in the robotics field see these events in the news, and the thing that touches us very deeply is a single kind of feeling which is, can't we do better? ... I think the answer is yes."
The MIT Technology Review noted that "Atlas is designed to eventually take on some of the most dangerous and high-stakes jobs imaginable, such as tending to a nuclear reactor during a meltdown, shutting off a deep-water oil spill, or helping to put out a raging wildfire." But Atlas isn't there yet. "We're talking about a robot roughly on par with the motile competence of a one-year-old child," according to DARPA. In time though, Atlas and its various siblings that DARPA is creating now, will grow up.
DARPA insists that Atlas is not being designed for
The State Of American Journalism
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
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