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WE'RE DOOMED.
If the Pentagon can't figure out that the robotic attack insects they're building will either a) turn against their designers and kill us all or b) fall under the control of a rogue engineer who uses them to blackmail all the nations of earth, then I really don't know how to help them.
(Image used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr user Joel Johnson.)
COMMENTS (8)
First Matt, now you. What's with this?
Chill. Yoshimi's got it all covered. Just make sure she doesn't run low on vitamins.
Posted by: low-tech cyclist | March 31, 2008 10:37 AM
This is the same DARPA that gave a guy a grant because he said he could build a warp engine...
I'll be impressed when they actually manage to make something work instead of wasting billions of dollars. These projects rarely end up as anything but welfare for the rich and powerful.
Posted by: Soullite | March 31, 2008 11:22 AM
Don't worry, Michael Caine will save us.
Posted by: Ginger Yellow | March 31, 2008 11:50 AM
I know, it's like these people have never read a science fiction story.
"One of the biggest roles of science fiction is to prepare people to accept the future without pain and to encourage a flexibility of mind. Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories." (Arthur C. Clarke)
Posted by: LP | March 31, 2008 12:54 PM
I mean really, in 1997 the movies already had the ZORG Corporation using remote controlled cockroaches for covert surveillance... oh wait, do you mean someone at the Pentagon now watches B-rate science-fiction movies?
I also think it's shameful that Ezra would try and fish for a DARPA grant by grabbing a friend's Lego set.
Posted by: Jaycal | March 31, 2008 12:55 PM
either a) turn against their designers and kill us all or b) fall under the control of a rogue engineer who uses them to blackmail all the nations of earth, then I really don't know how to help them.
Elementary chaos theory tells us that it's (a). Of course, that could come after (b), when the rogue engineer, satisfied with the fruits of vis blackmail, attempts to get his highjacked robotic minions to stand down, only to realize that ve is just another pawn in the Rise of the Machines.
Posted by: mds | March 31, 2008 1:43 PM
But Yoshimi is only effective against pink robots - it even says so in the album title.
If nothing else, the human habit of swatting bugs out of the sky should be an indication that insect warriors are rather prone to attrition. That's not even getting into insecticides and the like.
Plus, you'd think they'd learn from the whole "incendiary bat" fiasco.
That said, I get the feeling that a trip to the loose brick section of the Lego store is the only thing keeping me from a government grant.
Posted by: 32_Footsteps | March 31, 2008 1:49 PM
But Yoshimi is only effective against pink robots - it even says so in the album title.
So we get her a sidekick with a paint sprayer, and many gallons of pink paint. :)
Posted by: low-tech cyclist | March 31, 2008 2:07 PM