Video: autonomous nanobots capable of agile flight – a portent of future combat and surveillance technology

Sci-fi & Cyberpunk Future – Today

This is an informative little video showing experiments using nano quadrotors (developed by KMel Robotics) at the GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania.  It gets a little surreal and unnerving near the end when you consider that in only a few years these swarms are going to be out on the battlefield with military applications, and possibly out on urban streets performing surveillance (and enforcement?) by police & dubious corporate security teams.

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If you liked this then take a look at the concept of heterogeneous attack swarms, with different systems in a swarm providing unique roles in a synchronised manner.

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UPDATE 2nd FEB 2012:

And as if to reinforce the point, the Guardian website just posted this article about the long-term PR campaign being launched by corporations wanting to see these robots brought further into public life.  Surveillance drone industry plans PR effort to counter negative image – click to read

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David J Rodger – DATA

Science Fiction Art: #wallpaper – Beef Clone, Vat Grown Muscle, by Benedict Campbell

Beef Clone, Vat Grown Muscle ¦ Copyright Benedit Campbell (click image for website)

Part of a series of images from the liquid metal, carb0-plastic, hydrogel and permacrete core of visual creators on the Internet.  Images that stir my senses and evoke plots and concepts for what I’d like to see (or fear) in the future.

I like this image first and foremost because of the colouring, lighting and shadow.  And then come the questions:  Is this a man who’s gone to max with bioware implants and vat grown muscle grafts?  Chiba city excess.  Or is it something custom made?  A monster Carbon (see Yellow Dawn)?  Black-grade military asset for off-world jobs, now locked away in a holding tank during operational down time? Or somehow running solo, carving a little spending credit in the semi-legal fighting rings that spring up anywhere you get blue-collar workers tucked into remote, inhospitable locations with spare time and cash to burn?  Or is this a corporate experiment yet to step out from the R&D labs into the full glare of private scrutiny from military and security operators?  One image, so many ideas. Love it.  What do you think?

• Benedict Campbell website.

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David J Rodger – DATA

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Science Fiction Art: #wallpaper – Beef Clone, Vat Grown Muscle, by Benedict Campbell http://wp.me/pTAKk-1gV

— David Rodger (@davidjrodger) June 13, 2011