AstroBoy Online Forums

This program is scheduled to air January 23, 2013 at 9 pm on PBS. My own DVR is set to record it Thursday night.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military/rise-of-the-drones.html
My own interest is in the autonomous element; I find it annoying when people use the word robot to mean anything other than an autonomous machine. Too many use it in reference to remote controlled devices.

Well the word Robot comes from the Czech and means worker. It was coined in the play RUR (Rossum´s Universal Robots) which I had to read in High School. While Karel Čapek envisioned his Robots in human form (his were more like bio-machines than electro-mechanical beings), ANY machine that performs a task to replace human labor is a robot. I'm not sure that remote control can't be involved, though most robots do have some sort of CNC programming. The most famous example are the machines found on assembly lines building automobiles, they are just large 'arms'. Humanoid robots such as Astro are a special kind of robot, androids. Robbie and 'the robot from lost in space' are only roughly humanoid, but I'd still call them androids. Data from STTNG is a stunning example of an android. Come to think of it, Data has the same Pinocchio complex that Astro does.

Ohhh-kay; many of us older members already know that & likely have discussed it on older threads, but how is your post relevant to the topic or even to anything in my 1st post?

errr welll . . . . there's this comment that might have inspired that comment...

I find it annoying when people use the word robot to mean anything other than an autonomous machine. Too many use it in reference to remote controlled devices.

But RATS - I missed it . . . however we can still watch it online...

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military/rise-of-the-drones.html

Thanks, Jeffbert for posting this

My cable provider carries several PBS stations, & even if you have only 1, check the schedule, this may be repeated.

Just watched it whilst having dinner!

That was pretty darn cool - and also a bit - to save money they made a mosiac of smartphone cameras to create the mega-snoop camera! :d oh:

But I think my favorite section was the guy who retooled his AR Drone into that device that flies itself! I got my husband one of those things a couple years ago, and I was wondering if somebody would pull it apart and amp it up! YEAH!!!

They're critical of the civilians who were killed because the soldiers couldn't tell what they were looking at for certain, but let's be honest - 50 years ago way more "collateral damage" than that resulted from "regular" bombers.

It's interesting to consider what these things will be like a decade from now, and, ultimately if they will save lives, or ruin lives. Once again, AI will play a large part.

"AprilSeven" wrote:That was pretty darn cool - and also a bit - to save money they made a mosiac of smartphone cameras to create the mega-snoop camera! :d oh:

I fear this may become the heart of a BIG BROTHER system. Combine this with the cameras already in use on street corners, etc., & privacy will be extinct. :d evil:

I can certainly understand that . . . but ye olde Internet is also another snoop-source (although eyes in the sky cover everyone). It is, indeed, more than a tad creepy!