Posted on 03/17/2016 9:58:42 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The robots are called microTugs and they’re the creations of scientists at Stanford University’s Biomimetics and Dexterous Manipulation Laboratory who have been working for some time on tiny-yet-strong robots. In 2015, they unveiled one weighing less than half an ounce that can pull up to 52 pounds. Another one weighing 9 grams uses its super-strength plus gecko-like sticky feet to pull a 2-pound object up a wall.
...
The microTugs use the adhesive foot-power of the gecko robots, whose feet have minute rubber spikes that grip firmly by bending when pressure is applied, thus increasing their surface area and stickiness. When the robot lifts a foot, the pressure is released and the spikes straighten out, ready for the next step.
The researchers observed that ants on a team get greater cooperative strength by using three of their six legs simultaneously. Combining those two ideas, they built the tiny (less than an ounce each) microTugs and demonstrated their team effort by pulling Christensen’s 3,900-pound vehicle.
(Excerpt) Read more at mysteriousuniverse.org ...
Why keep us around?
It is kind of like the industrial revolution, when machines replaced most of the farmhands (then the majority of the population), the galley slaves and such.
People got other jobs, and those who owned machines were able to do a lot more work, and make a lot more money. Quality of life skyrocketed. We didn’t even have to push a button to heat the house during a blizzard - it was on an automatic thermostat.
A general purpose robot, with the strength, dexterity and mobility of a typically human; could just download software to perform a whole new job. Your household robot could be a chef, an armed guard, and EMT, a gardener, and then just download the mechanic app if the car or refrigerator breaks down. Like having a slave, except that they could be world-class great at whatever function you choose.
There is a risk that the people running the government might not see the value in having the rest of us still hanging around though...
We are so screwed.
The stakes for having good government go up, with the increasing power of technology to monitor, control, destroy and replace.
The people operating, instructing and regulating the robots will be a much greater danger than robots themselves - like it is with guns or nuclear weapons.
None of us make it to 2025.
You’ve found the killer app!
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