Ed, Jed I have to poke my head up on this one. All you have to do is look at the SBIR I believe its called. Been a while since I looked at it. It's the DOD/DOE wish list they publish for public bidding. Small tech firms can look at this list and propose creating the item. They get multiple rounds of funding etc.. yah dee ya dee ya. So I was looking at this thing what 10 years ago. On the list were EATER, a robot capable of harvesting organic material in the field for fuel. Any organic matter. Just think, robots that clean up all evidence, grass, trees, people, animals, yes you saw correct PEOPLE. We are after all organic. The second project that struck me as particularly terrifying was another project for robotics designs that can re/assemble themselves, yeah it's the golden army, it WILL run autonomously until all life on the planet is destroyed. All it will take is one hacker, one glitch, one terrorist who doesn't realize what he's done.
Gibson ________________________________ From: Edmund Storms <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Cc: Edmund Storms <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, February 25, 2013 3:42 PM Subject: Re: [Vo]:Tech Predictions Now Jed, you are agreeing with my conclusion. Should I take the opposite view as you normally do? My belief is that mankind will eventually find ways and means to destroy all life as we know it. We are almost at this level now. The only question is whether these means will be used. That is where the nature of the mind and its irrational features become important. Will the leaders be able to control insanity in the population effectively or will these leaders be insane themselves? People in the US are now trying to find ways to control the insanity that occurs on a small but growing scale, which shows itself most vividly when schools are shot up. How do we control the insanity that the suicide bomber exhibits by exploding car bombs in the heart of a city? Where does the insanity of leaders in North Korea end? Now, as you note, drones may give everyone a tool to gum up the works. Ed On Feb 25, 2013, at 4:21 PM, Jed Rothwell wrote: David Roberson <[email protected]> wrote: > > >We have survived this long by some means so I assume that we will continue to >do so into the future. > > >I do not see the logic of that! That is like saying we have survived countless >wars, so why should we worry about a full-scale nuclear war? > > >In 1914 people said war is war, machine guns will not make much difference, >and valor will win the day just as it always has. They were wrong. 9 million >soldiers were killed. Valor made no difference in the face of artillery and >poison gas. > > >Technology can profoundly affect the nature of war, or domestic violence, for >that matter. Suppose those autonomous little cold fusion powered robot killing >machines I have predicted become possible. Suppose they become very cheap and >reliable. Anyone, anywhere will be able to murder anyone else. I mean anyone >anywhere in the world, without getting caught, and without leaving a trace of >evidence. Think about that if you want a case of the heebee jeebees! Think of >all the people who want to kill political leaders. Or the jihadists who have >it in for authors such as Rusdie, and film makers. Or any disgruntled >ex-husband, or some nut who has it in for one group or another: homosexuals, >black people, Catholic School girls . . . > > >I can think of many other nightmare scenarios. I put a few in my book. I left >out some, too. > > >I do not think cold fusion can easily be used to make small nuclear bombs. But >if it can, it might lead to worst catastrophe in human history. I have been >aware of this for a long time. I discussed it with Martin Fleischmann and >others. As I said, we have been thinking about ways to deal with the problem. >There may not be any good way! > > >- Jed > >
