@jc you are 14m3

This is going to far!
I Love Technology, but to me, technology stops when it tries to pierce under the skin of a living thing.

I don’t think the issue should be that they are controlling living things. I think it should be more of understanding the nervous system and a step to a possible treatment to life-threatening nervous diseases.

nice to see the army is still wasting my tax dollars on more useless lame crap. not to mention electronic manipulation of nerves and muscles is neither new or impressive.
it’s odd that they would debut such a cruel project. can’t help but wonder what sort of unethical, bizarre crap they keep secret.
way to be all you can be, army.

This WAS the coolest thing I’ve ever seen…until I saw that it’s funded by the DoD. Then it just got scary.

The DoD has nukes, nerve gas, anthrax, agent orange, napalm, etc., and people are worried that they can remote control beetles?

If you want to be a hippy, fine, but there is no need to be patently irrational about it.

As for the sentiment that this is cruel, I don’t think the beetle minds, seeing as its nervous system is not complex enough to permit any sort of ‘thought’ beyond direct physical response to stimuli.

For comparison, the wasp Ampulex Compressa stings a cockroach so as to briefly paralyze it, then again so as disable the escape reflex, and then steers the roach to its nest where it lays eggs on, which hatch, penetrate the roach, and devour it alive as the larvae gestate. That seems a much crueler fate for the beetle, but I don’t see anyone launching an extermination campaign against Ampulex Compressa. Of course, maybe that is that is because Ampulex Compressa is not a convenient political target.

“I Love Technology, but to me, technology stops when it tries to pierce under the skin of a living thing.”

Yeah, tell that to anyone with a pacemaker or false hip.

Hey, both Rocket Robin Hood and Spider-Man fought Giant Robotic Beetles over 4 decades ago. I guess it means that golden future we were promised is almost here!

“Wow robotics has become a lazy field. What ever happened to building metal contraptions from the scratch? Now we’re just adding chips to bugs? weak.”

Lol… so true! I was thinking to myself “hm.. with a controller that small, they could easily build a “beetle” from scratch that would do the same exact things as this one, with out having to be concerned with it running off, or needing to add leg-movement inhibitors.

In other History of Tech news:
There was a project to burn out Japan by using Bats deployed with time release incendiary devices on their beings. They would fly in to roost after being deployed from an offshore bomber plane in the very early morning. As they left the bomber deployment system, they would prime the incendiaries. After finding roost, the incendiaries would ignite and burn Japan to the ground. It was developed and fully tested in the US before the war with Japan ended with WW2. The thing that stopped it from going ahead was the nuclear weapons program that was a month from being ready for deployment over Japan. The bat project was canceled and the nukes were dropped soon after.

Anyway.. technology is a trip!

visionetiks = PETE Freak

So, removing all the bugs from the system would make it stop working?
They should have started with a better platform to begin with to avoid to have to code around bugs this big.

woohoo! the cyborg era has begun! i can’t wait to get my fully-loaded machine body parts complete with rocket launchers and machine guns. oh and a dvd player.

heck with just this they could introduce a new type of warfare: swarmfare

guess I’ll need to equip my cyber-skeleton with a few tanks of bug spray too.

:P

Gonna be cool when it makes crippled ppl walk.

I take a class from this professor.. harhar.

If you think about it, we could use this to spy on people in a large group.

*puts on tinfoil hat*

Today I like the ethics part of my brain more than the scientific part. It seems to be higher evolved.

When are we going to get shark’s with freaking laser beams? That is all I ask for!

Some Japanese scientists had a remote controlled cockroach years ago (maybe 8-10 years ago). We are just playing catch-up in the cold war of creating zombie insects.

C’mon guys, 35 comments on this post and no one has welcomed our cyborg beetle overlords? Once they take over, you’ll all be punished.

Walt

First off, just because it’s the dod doesn’t mean that they are trying to make weapons. It’s more likely that this somehow will play into moving information around on the battlefield. This kind of technology could possibly deliver necessary information to soldiers on the front lines that much faster and make them even more effective. I don’t think the dod is that closed minded that they would think that if it can’t kill someone, it’s not worth their time.

While it’s fair to say that a good number of the people on here don’t know what they’re talking about (welcoming cyborg-bug overlords and whatnot), it’s really a fair assumption that this research is going to help people somehow.

@ what the kitten
Bug off

This does seem awesome, but I want specifics. Any idea on a way to make this a diy? I want to make mice walk around behind me and carry my pens and “my dog ate my homework” would be actually true once
heh

@ andrew

pain is a meaningless concept in plants as they have neither a nervous system or conscious thought, unless you consider yourself a philosopher.

Imagine guys there intel device could really help people tell where ambushes are without the chance of being sighted from the sky not to kill people or ya know maybe if we could get a small enough insect it could get inside of people and see whats going on without exploratory surgery you all need open minds

I really don’t see why this is so tragic for animal sympathizers. I mean really, once this beetle has served the country in war and has a long and decorated military background, he can run for senate and then when we eventually gets into the white house it will be the “Manchurian Candidate” all over again. (on a side note i just realized that sounds a lot like McCain)

Let’s all hope my theory is wrong

lol @
all of the jokes!

Really some punny goodness going on here. :-D

off topic

why exactly am i lame? (14m3)

is one not allowed to ask questions and express one views?

—i wonder if youv’e ever heard the saying
keep your mouth shut unless you have something good to say

thank you.

“Yeah, tell that to anyone with a pacemaker or false hip.”
Yes but the person has
1. choice
2. gives consent
3. understands the procedure
4. has an anaesthetic
(Au English)

To every one of you that thinks this is a cruel experiment better have felt alot of remorse the last time you killed a mosquito.

Dont be a damn hypocrite.

“Today I like the ethics part of my brain more than the scientific part. It seems to be higher evolved.”

I actually got a good laugh out of that. Everyone thinks their ethical mind is better than some others. Usually self righteous bible thumping idiots.