10.23.2005

 

Paul Krugman on the concentration of wealth

I find this article fascinating because Paul is talking about the exact sort of concentration of wealth that is discussed in Robotic Freedom:

Delphi bankruptcy signals further erosion of middle class

Here is Paul's thesis:His closing line is, "America's working middle class has been eroding for a generation, and it may be about to wash away completely. Something must be done." Robots will only accelerate the process. Soon, there won't be any auto workers at all.

See Robotic Freedom for one possible solution.

10.20.2005

 

Robo-Mule

Robo-Mule Gets Wheel, Leg Blend

From the article: "The new alternative would be as simple and cheap as a wheel but with the all-terrain capability of legs. Hillis is very cagey about the configuration - evidently there have been several different versions – and the picture shows one prototype. The ultimate design may be completely different."

10.15.2005

 

NASA robots

NASA concocting robots for space flights

From the article: "Then there's Spidernaut, a 600-pound mechanical arachnid that will crawl around on the outside of space craft to fix things. Although it weighs considerably more than a person, its eight-leg design distributes the weight in manner that makes the robot's footfalls less potentially damaging to the skin of a spacecraft than those of a two-legged human."

10.12.2005

 

Fast Robot Prototyping

Fast Robot Prototyping

10.10.2005

 

Four vehicles finish in $2 million robot race

Four vehicles finish in $2 million robot race

From the article:When you consider that just one year ago, the best car went only 7 miles, this is quite an improvement.

The implications of this achievement are profound. Imagine progress continuing at this rate for the next five years. This means that:The process should be very interesting to watch.

10.08.2005

 

Hummer takes pole in robot race

Hummer takes pole in robot race: "'The worst vehicle we have is as good or better than the best vehicle last year,' said DARPA director Anthony Tether."

10.06.2005

 

Devices can halt cars with tardy payments

Devices can halt cars with tardy payments: "Most of the credit-damaged customers at North Texas Motorcars learn to live with the lights.
They're attached to a black box on the dashboard and start flashing on the first day a car payment is late. On the fourth day, after two more days of warning lights, the car won't start.

'I would not undertake buy-here/pay-here without this system,' said Ray Williamson, president of North Texas Motorcars, which sells about 50 vehicles a month and installs boxes in each of them. 'There's just too much risk.'

The box - called a starter interrupt unit - is used mostly at used-car dealerships that provide financing to customers with bad credit. But other segments of the auto industry may adopt it, particularly if consumers' credit ratings continue to decline. "

10.03.2005

 

Car which will book you for speeding

Car which will book you for speeding: "Roadside speed cameras will be redundant eventually because vehicles will automatically cop themselves for speeding.

This is the plan of the Department for Transport, which has commissioned companies to develop aircraft-style black boxes for cars. They will record every aspect of a vehicle's performance and automatically issue a ticket every time the vehicle exceeds a speed limit.

The black boxes will be linked to central computers via the Global Positioning System so that the prevailing speed limit is known at any given point in time.
Every time a vehicle breaks the limit the black boxes will send a signal to the computer with the car registration number and a ticket will be issued automatically."

This trend will be short-lived. Cars will be driving themselves. However, in the meantime the idea that you will be carrying a robot police officer with you in your car at all times is interesting.

10.02.2005

 

AI systems may blow weathermen away

AI systems may blow weathermen away: "Weather forecasters could find themselves pushed out of a job by an artificial intelligence system designed to write clearer, less ambiguous reports.

Computer scientists at the University of Aberdeen, UK, were asked to generate an "artificial weatherperson" by operators of offshore oil rigs, who wanted more clarity in their forecasts. The vocabulary used by different forecasters can be vague and highly variable, says Ehud Reiter, who led the Aberdeen team."

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