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Archive for the ‘defense’ category: Page 7

Dec 20, 2013

Drones and robotic warfare you just can’t imagine

Posted by in categories: defense, drones, human trajectories, military

Mary (Missy) Cummings is Associate Professor at Duke University and Director of the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Humans and Automation Laboratory.

In just the past two years, it seems as if drones are everywhere in the news. This technology has been around for more than 60 years, but has only recently captured both national and international attention. This is primarily because of the increasing use in the military, but also because of concerns that such technology will be turned on a country’s own citizens.

The average person thinks of a drone as a flying spy camera, loitering overhead waiting to spot a target and then possibly launching a weapon when that target is labeled as a threat. To be sure, this is indeed one mission of drones, typically of organizations like the CIA.

However, this is by far the least common mission. The vast majority of military drone missions today are data and image collection. Their ability to provide “situational awareness” to decision makers on the ground is unparalleled in military operations since drones can essentially conduct perch and stare missions nearly endlessly.

Dec 16, 2013

Laser Weapons Are Finally Here, but Future Remains in Doubt

Posted by in categories: defense, engineering, military

By Sandra I. Erwin

A laser beam the size of a quarter fired from the back of a truck successfully shot down football-size mortar rounds and took small drones out of the sky.

In the world of directed-energy weapons, this was a milestone achievement, government and industry officials said. It happened between Nov. 18 and Dec. 10 during tests of the Army “high energy laser mobile demonstrator” at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.

Continue reading “Laser Weapons Are Finally Here, but Future Remains in Doubt” »

Dec 14, 2013

Google Adds to Its Menagerie of Robots

Posted by in categories: business, defense, drones, engineering, futurism, government, human trajectories, law enforcement, military, robotics/AI

SAN FRANCISCO — BigDog, Cheetah, WildCat and Atlas have joined Google’s growing robot menagerie.

Google confirmed on Friday that it had completed the acquisition of Boston Dynamics, an engineering company that has designed mobile research robots for the Pentagon. The company, based in Waltham, Mass., has gained an international reputation for machines that walk with an uncanny sense of balance and even — cheetahlike — run faster than the fastest humans.

It is the eighth robotics company that Google has acquired in the last half-year. Executives at the Internet giant are circumspect about what exactly they plan to do with their robot collection. But Boston Dynamics and its animal kingdom-themed machines bring significant cachet to Google’s robotic efforts, which are being led by Andy Rubin, the Google executive who spearheaded the development of Android, the world’s most widely used smartphone software.

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Dec 12, 2013

The Future of Management Wargaming, Now!

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, big data, biological, bionic, bioprinting, biotech/medical, bitcoin, business, chemistry, climatology, complex systems, cosmology, cyborgs, defense, economics, education, energy, engineering, environmental, ethics, existential risks, finance, food, futurism, genetics, geopolitics, government, health, information science, law, life extension, nanotechnology, neuroscience, philosophy, physics, policy, science, security, singularity, supercomputing, transhumanism, transparency, transportation

The Future of Management Wargaming, Now! By Mr. Andres Agostini
WarGaming
This is an excerpt from the conclusion section of, “…The Future of Management Wargaming , Now…!” that discusses some management theories and practices. To read the entire piece, just click the link at the end of article:

In addition to being aware and adaptable and resilient before the driving forces reshaping the current present and the as-of-now future, there are some extra management suggestions that I concurrently practice:

a) “…human knowledge is doubling every ten years [as per the 1998 standards]…”

b) "...computer power is doubling every eighteen months. the internet is doubling every year. the number of dna sequences we can analyze is doubling every two years…”

Continue reading “The Future of Management Wargaming, Now!” »

Dec 11, 2013

Applied Omniscience in Transformative and Integrative Risk Management!

Posted by in categories: big data, biological, biotech/medical, bitcoin, business, climatology, complex systems, cosmology, counterterrorism, defense, economics, education, energy, engineering, environmental, ethics, existential risks, finance, food, futurism, genetics, geopolitics, government, habitats, health, information science, life extension, nanotechnology, neuroscience, physics, policy, robotics/AI, science, scientific freedom, security, singularity, space, supercomputing, surveillance, sustainability, transhumanism, transparency, transportation, treaties

Applied Omniscience in Transformative and Integrative Risk Management! By Mr. Andres Agostini
OMNISCIENCE
This is an excerpt from the presentation, “…Applied Omniscience in Transformative and Integrative Risk Management!…” that discusses some management theories and practices. To read the entire piece, just click the link at the end of article:

Please see the graphic at http://lnkd.in/dUstZEk

Dec 7, 2013

Our Final Invention: How the Human Race Goes and Gets Itself Killed

Posted by in categories: complex systems, defense, ethics, evolution, existential risks, futurism, homo sapiens, human trajectories, posthumanism, robotics/AI, singularity, supercomputing

By Greg Scoblete — Real Clear Technology

We worry about robots.

Hardly a day goes by where we’re not reminded about how robots are taking our jobs and hollowing out the middle class. The worry is so acute that economists are busy devising new social contracts to cope with a potentially enormous class of obsolete humans.

Continue reading “Our Final Invention: How the Human Race Goes and Gets Itself Killed” »

Dec 5, 2013

US Navy launches drone from submerged submarine

Posted by in categories: defense, drones, military, security

By

December 5, 2013

Sequence photo of the launch of the XFC (Photo: NAVSEA-AUTEC)

Today, the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) announced that it had successfully launched a drone from a submerged submarine. The all-electric eXperimental Fuel Cell Unmanned Aerial System (XFC) was launched in the Bahamas from the Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Providence (SSN 719) using a system that allowed the drone to be deployed without modifications to the boat, or requiring it to surface.

Continue reading “US Navy launches drone from submerged submarine” »

Dec 2, 2013

Law Banning 3D-Printed Guns Up for Crucial Vote

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, defense, engineering, government, law enforcement, open access, policy

3d-printed-gun

By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was speaking at a government function in July when a man sitting a few rows behind him pulled a Liberator, the infamous 3D-printed gun that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) recently defined as a “lethal weapon.”

The gun posed no real danger. The man bearing it was just a TV reporter trying to prove how easy it is to sneak a 3D-printed plastic gun past security checks that include metal detectors.

Continue reading “Law Banning 3D-Printed Guns Up for Crucial Vote” »

Dec 2, 2013

New Tech and National Security Law – 3D Printing

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, complex systems, defense, engineering, geopolitics, military

By
Monday, December 2, 2013 at 7:00 AM

For those who haven’t been following along, this recent story about 3D printing of plastic guns should be a revelation. 3D printing is one of those technologies where the reality is fast outrunning our imagination. It is, in essence, the ability to construct a product from feedstock using a readily available “printer” linked to a computer where the source code for the product is executed. According the Washington Post’s story, the new plastic guns are capable of firing lethal rounds and, naturally, they are beyond the detection of metal detectors.

But for every “parade of horrible story” about 3D printing there’s also one of great promise. For example, NASA recently announced plans to send a 3D printer to the space station. This development, combined with the development of printing for metal objects (from liquid metal feedstock) means that many of our concepts of logistics will go out the window. If a manufacturer can construct metal parts from an easily transported feed stock then, as Andrew Filo, a consultant with NASA on the 3D space station printing project, said: “You can get rid of concepts like rationing, scarce or irreplaceable.” That’s a truly extraordinary development.

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Nov 14, 2013

The Disruptional Singularity

Posted by in categories: business, climatology, complex systems, cosmology, counterterrorism, cybercrime/malcode, defense, economics, education, engineering, ethics, existential risks, finance, futurism, nanotechnology, physics, policy, robotics/AI, science, singularity, supercomputing, sustainability, transparency

(Excerpt)

Beyond the managerial challenges (downside risks) presented by the exponential technologies as it is understood in the Technological Singularity and its inherent futuristic forces impacting the present and the future now, there are also some grave global risks that many forms of management have to tackle with immediately.

These grave global risks have nothing to do with advanced science or technology. Many of these hazards stem from nature and some are, as well, man made.

For instance, these grave global risks ─ embodying the Disruptional Singularity ─ are geological, climatological, political, geopolitical, demographic, social, economic, financial, legal and environmental, among others. The Disruptional Singularity’s major risks are gravely threatening us right now, not later.

Read the full document at http://lnkd.in/bYP2nDC

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