Actual Giant Robot Spider

Russian railways plans to replace humans with tiny robots made made in Russia. Apparently, what makes this news is that they want to use Russian robots instead of robots made by Honda:

This makes a lot of sense to me. Since it is probably pretty easy to adapt any robot to live on water (a little duct tape, some rubber bands, and a bunch of plastic bags should do it), then we can let them live there … on the sea … where they will stop bothering…

[ripped from here]

What is going on with this Robot thing. There are too many stories per day about new robots to keep track of. I’ve been trying to keep up, but it has been difficult. Here’s the latest.

I just thought you should know about this: Researchers Create Robot Driven by Moth’s Brain from PhysOrg.com In a notion taken from science fiction afficionados, University of Arizona researchers presented a robot that moves by using the brain impulses of a moth at the 37th annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego. [...]

The Pandas are getting smart. Have a look at the film Corpus Callosum smuggled out of somewhere… Scientists in Utah make transsexual worms I always thought worms were hermaphrodites (both male and female) but the story, as usual, turns out to be a bit more complex. From Discovering Biology in a Digital World. Researchers Create…

No kidding. Comet Holmes is now bigger than the sun, and is still growing, and astronomers do not know how much bigger it will grow. View Larger image

More tools robots can use, and a random note about the latest Harry Potter(TM) related scandal.

… even for me. The robots are going to take over, and the Death Ray is going to become a reality any day now…

… then, who knows what next? Scientists use robotic bugs to change cockroach behavior from PhysOrg.com Roach-sized robots that scientists introduced into real roach colonies were able to change the bugs’ group behavior, a study released Thursday found. [...]

FUDAN University has invented an intelligent robot with a child-like ability to learn new things by following human voice commands. The robot, which is on display at the ongoing Shanghai International Industry Fair, is a man-shaped multi-functional machine with a small electronic screen “face,” a big square screen in the “chest” and two big wheels…

… or so says Lance Ulanoff. He continues… They’ll record our lives, obliterate our privacy, set off nuclear war, and eventually turn on us and eat our brains. If any of this ever did happen, it would serve us right. We, at least American consumers, don’t deserve the future that robots really have to offer.…

Turing’s Toddlers: As far as I know, no computer has ever consistently fooled an adult human into thinking it is sentient. But it apparently the case that toddlers can be tricked into accepting a small, cute machine as a fellow toddler: Computers might not be clever enough to trick adults into thinking they are intelligent…