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The Next Generation of Rescue Robots
Next month, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency—the sci-fi research wing of the U.S. military—will pit companies and universities against each other in a competition to design the best disaster-relief robot, and odds are the winner will look somewhat like you and me.
Robots have proven tremendously useful in defusing bombs in Afghanistan and detecting radiation at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant. But those bots are basically small remote-controlled tanks with a mechanical arm, and they can get hung up on narrow stairwells and are totally stumped by ladders. The robots in DARPA’s obstacle course will not only have to climb ladders; they’ll have to drive vehicles and fix leaking pipes. That means they’ll probably be humanoid, even though DARPA doesn’t require them to be.
“A lot of the places you do disaster recovery are designed for people,” says Marc Raibert, the president of Boston Dynamics, which is providing robots for the software component of DARPA’s competition. “If you’re a humanoid, access can be increased and you can use available tools.” When Fukushima melted down, there were fire trucks on site but radiation was too high for people to use them. In the future DARPA hopes for, a humanoid robot could have driven the trucks, entered the power plant, and carried out repairs.
That future is a long way off. Simple motions like squatting are almost impossible for something with metal parts and rigid skin, says Raibert. While Dynamic’s headless humanoid can climb stairs, it does so with all the flailing grace of a windup toy.
Still, recent progress is impressive enough that the military has begun to bet on legged bots. The Office of Naval Research is working with Virginia Tech on a humanoid firefighting robot, and earlier this month, Dynamics showed off two of its latest projects: Cheetah, a four-legged robot capable of running 28 miles per hour, and the Legged Squad Support System, a hulking headless robotic “pack mule” funded by DARPA and the Marine Corps to help carry gear over harsh terrain.
“Half the land on earth is too rough, sandy, or rocky for wheeled things,” says Raibert. “Humans and animals can go to those places. They’re the only examples of successful systems that do what we’re trying to do.”
None of the walking bots is meant to fight. They’re designed to put out fires, clean up industrial accidents, and schlep gear for overburdened Marines. But they are all funded by the military, and as we saw with drones, the step from combat support to combat itself is a short one. “I’m not naive,” says Dennis Hong, founding director of Virginia Tech’s robotics lab. “Robots for me are tools to help society. I don’t weaponize them. But once a technology leaves our lab, there’s no way to control how people can use it.” In that regard, DARPA’s boast that the Cheetah bot can outrun the world’s fastest human isn’t particularly comforting.
Source: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/09/16/the-next-generation-of-rescue-robots.html
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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