Academic

"We completely understand the public's concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population." Well, that's settled then.

By Mark Weidemaier

From the be-careful-what-you-name-your-innovation files: The Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (yes, that's EATR) is a conceptual (for now) robot designed in part for military use that can "find, ingest, and extract energy from biomass in the environment." You know, eat. Who could possibly object to that?

Apparently, enough people that the company developing the EATR had to issue a fairly remarkable press release - really worth a full read - insisting that the EATR will be "strictly vegetarian." I imagine it's rare that a company feels the need to affirm, in a press release regarding one of its inventions, that "desecration of the dead is a war crime under Article 15 of the Geneva Convention" and to empathize with folks concerned about robots "feeding on the human population."  But I, for one, am reassured.

Here's a neat glossy slideshow about the EATR. Note the chainsaw in particular.

HT: Wired magazine.

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on July 30, 2009 (boomark / email).