hey, so is it still alive when ya do this?

seems a bit, well cruel, XD but being a techie,

i have to say—AWESOME!!!

Posted at 12:59 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by JC

@jc you are 14m3

Posted at 1:10 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by n00bhunter

Why was the chip blanked?
MAX i think it says…

wonder how many beetles they fried by mistake?

Posted at 1:33 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by The Moogle

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.

Posted at 1:45 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by RJSC

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.

Posted at 1:48 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by AK

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.

Posted at 1:55 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by kw

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

too late. been doing that for years with plants. better stop eating produce from the grocery store or else you’re encouraging this kind of “evil” technology.

Posted at 1:55 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by andrew

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.

Posted at 1:56 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by walt

“we can’t help but think (hope) that we’ll be seeing giant robot controlled beetle battles with lasers and rockets”

If you recall your Dr. Seuss, beetles ought to battle with paddles in a puddle in a bottle on a poodle eating noodles.

Posted at 1:58 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by Blake

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

Posted at 1:59 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by Angus

All they need now are a tiny camera, mic & transmitter, and they can have the little RC spy cockroach from Fifth Element!

Posted at 2:11 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by 34

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.

Posted at 2:27 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by Insipid Melon

nerve gas and anthrax worry me a bit less than the government controlling my mind and body. :)

Posted at 2:34 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by Angus

“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.

Posted at 2:42 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by Laminar

> nerve gas and anthrax worry me a bit less than
> the government controlling my mind and body. :)

it’s too late, they are already controlling him

Posted at 2:57 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by klop

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!

Posted at 3:04 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by Marvin0013

Hmm…

So this is the very first Beetle Borg?

How long until we implant humans and seed them into the collective of involuntary action?

Posted at 3:23 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by Louis II

“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!

Posted at 3:33 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by Louis II

Remember humans are animals too. Maybe with beefier brains and what not, but still animals.

Now suppose humans are plain animals, and crocodiles are the advanced ones

Would you rather:

A. Die quickly and without too much pain, victim of a crocodile nuke or strong poison

-or-

B. Be controlled by the crocodiles against your free will while you’re still conscious and with absolutely no way to escape? You’d still feel pain from whatever they are forcing you to do

This is not about not putting technology under your skin (it has good uses), this is about having respect for the free nature of all animals, including humans.

Also, like ak said, metallic robots are more badass

Posted at 3:42 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by visionetiks

visionetiks = PETE Freak

Posted at 5:02 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by llama

Lead scientist happen to be Dr eurostone?
(francs were replaced by the euro you know ;)

Posted at 5:02 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by Wwhat

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.

Posted at 5:12 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by tlvb

This is just how it starts. This will lead to the development of medical systems that will significantly help humans. This is just helping us understand the nervous system on a smaller scale. Imagine if there were effective artificial nerves to help paraplegics walk again or increasing the range of prosthetics. We can’t just start out putting chips and stuff in people’s heads, we need to do a few practice rounds with something…I don’t wanna say less important.

Would it make you beetle rights people happy if they did some research to making this process painless to the beetle? I’m sure it wouldn’t effect it’s performance as a mindless cyborg-drone (lets just call it what it is)?

Posted at 5:45 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by Icefox

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

Posted at 6:05 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by supershwa

When tweedle beetles battle with a paddle in a puddle on a poodle eating noodles it’s called a tweedle beetle puddle paddle noodle poodle battle.

Posted at 6:09 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by Lee Drake

Gonna be cool when it makes crippled ppl walk.

Posted at 7:44 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by epicelite

@tlvb
all i could think of when i saw the artical, was “now even the bugs will have bugs”

Posted at 7:57 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by joatmon

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*

Posted at 8:08 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by DrJ

wirskrood

-hero

Posted at 10:14 pm on Feb 9th, 2009 by -hero

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

Posted at 2:32 am on Feb 10th, 2009 by ragnar

If I was a beetle i would sign up today!

Posted at 6:04 am on Feb 10th, 2009 by dan

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

Posted at 6:36 am on Feb 10th, 2009 by da66en

@Louis II
I am Locust-us of Borg. You will be assimilated.

Posted at 7:47 am on Feb 10th, 2009 by cyrozap

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.

Posted at 8:50 am on Feb 10th, 2009 by FDP

Wow i diden’t had a clue the bug was real.
that makes it twice as cool.
one verry expensive bug though

Posted at 10:51 am on Feb 10th, 2009 by oler

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.

Posted at 11:59 am on Feb 10th, 2009 by amp

“This will lead to the development of medical systems that will significantly help humans”
What?!

“Gonna be cool when it makes crippled ppl walk.”
Are you serious??

“Imagine if there were effective artificial nerves to help paraplegics walk again or increasing the range of prosthetics”
Lol wtf??

did some of you miss the part about who is finding this project? the DOD (translated: us taxpayers). for those of you expecting medical miracles to come of this, you need to remind your self that it’s an Army project! they are not in the business of helping or healing anybody. quite the opposite. if some of their finding could possibly help the handicap, those aspects would be ignored. in fact, if this project doesn’t fulfill their ambitions of spying on and/or killing people then funding for this project will cease to exist.

no good can come of this.

Posted at 2:46 pm on Feb 10th, 2009 by walt

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.

Posted at 2:58 pm on Feb 10th, 2009 by Icefox

My first post was not quite so happy.
Pacemakers and metal bones are good, but not anything that can control you.

Just imagine if this is the first step of a secret project to control soldiers and/or civilians to eliminate the “loose cannons” that do not follow the chain of command blindly.

Posted at 4:10 pm on Feb 10th, 2009 by RJSC

@ 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

Posted at 6:05 pm on Feb 10th, 2009 by Zem

I don’t actually see this helping us like some people claim it could. I see scaring implications….

Posted at 7:47 pm on Feb 10th, 2009 by MrWaffles

@ andrew

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

Posted at 1:22 am on Feb 11th, 2009 by trapezoid

What’s next ? Dogs ? Humans ?

Posted at 4:55 am on Feb 11th, 2009 by me_and_you

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

Posted at 5:17 am on Feb 11th, 2009 by Mic

So, this is what you do when you’re not slick enough to work with microrobotics.

Posted at 6:37 am on Feb 11th, 2009 by Alpha

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

Posted at 10:18 am on Feb 11th, 2009 by imperium2600

Great. Now my country will have to sign that American cyborg beetles are exempt from our laws and we’ll have to buy a bunch of old and worn out cyborg bumblebees from Americans. Just f*cking great…

Posted at 12:36 pm on Feb 11th, 2009 by xyr

lol @
all of the jokes!

Really some punny goodness going on here. :-D

Posted at 4:20 pm on Feb 11th, 2009 by louis ii

er… :-)

Posted at 4:20 pm on Feb 11th, 2009 by louis ii

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.

Posted at 12:14 pm on Feb 14th, 2009 by JC

@RJSC
Pacemakers can control you, if they zap you while nothing is wrong it will mess with your heart. It wouldn’t be too hard to adjust it so it can be activated from outside.

But I believe this is going to ethical twilight. I can think of several thing where this could be good for us, but at the same times pictures of Borg are are racing through my head.

Posted at 4:25 am on Feb 17th, 2009 by jcgv

“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)

Posted at 6:42 pm on Feb 18th, 2009 by Step

I have twice seen a robotic hornet insect drone that was 6-7 inches long.

The first time I thought it was a real bug, but after I saw it on the wall outside of my appartment door, I KNEW something was fishy.

The frst time I saw it, I was in my brother’s back yard, and I thought it was just nature.
We both saw it.
Then, I opned the door to my appartment to see it outside of my door. I was only2 feet away from it, and when it flew, I knew it was NOT natural.

It looked like CGI(comp. generated image) in a movie, but it was right in front of my face.

I do A LOT of truth spreading on YouTube.
I have been turning people on to some real amazing things.

I Swear that this is 100% Truth, so help me God.

Check me out at youtube(*com)/user/mrduffy81

Posted at 5:38 pm on Feb 20th, 2009 by J

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.

Posted at 5:07 pm on Feb 21st, 2009 by seanFalloy

Спасибо за ответы на все вопросы :) Действительно узнал много нового. Правда до конца так и не разобрался что и откуда.

Posted at 10:40 pm on May 25th, 2009 by милeди

“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.

Posted at 3:03 pm on Sep 25th, 2009 by J

hack for pc

Posted at 1:15 am on Sep 29th, 2009 by Baios