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How Do You Build a Robot Army?

posted by Fnord666 on Friday February 17 2017, @09:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the I-for-one-... dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Ars Technica has a longer piece on how to build automated systems:

Depictions of the future in books and film are usually influenced by what's going on at the time, reflecting social malaise, impending armageddon, or economic anxieties. The robots in classic sci-fi usually resembled humans, as most authors assumed they would eventually assist us in the same tasks humans did.

Instead, however, today we find artificial intelligence doing some of our thinking for us, but it's more often solving problems that don't need intervention from self-contained humanoid robots. The promise of autonomous robots that matched our abilities has given way to a more specific focus on tasks that are fulfilled by armies of smaller bots controlled by machine learning and algorithms running in the cloud. Their scope is more complex, but a lot less dramatic than, say, Forbidden Planet's Robby the Robot, or the replicants from Blade Runner.

Not so long ago Ars Technica looked at the uses of robotics in retail and the range of different approaches, from wheeling shelves around giant Amazon warehouses, to Domino's forthcoming airborne pizza drones. The response to that story was very positive, so we decided that we would follow up with another piece that dives even deeper into the world of automation. The first story focused on what is being done with automation; now we're going to look at how you build an automated system.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Friday February 17 2017, @11:30PM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 17 2017, @11:30PM (#468403) Journal

    Depictions of the future in books and film are usually influenced by what's going on at the time, reflecting social malaise, impending armageddon, or economic anxieties.

    Two steps before profit:

    1. convince the adverse party to build the IoT
    2. make to your 'loyal' hackers an offer they can't refuse (e.g. work in Crimea if they behave, deport them in Siberia if they don't... eeerrrr.... whoops!)
    3 profit

    In case you don't believe me, maybe you'll believe Bruce Schneier. Here's what he has to say about the IoT [schneier.com] (with my emphasis):

    Last year [2016], on October 21, your digital video recorder -- or at least a DVR like yours -- knocked Twitter off the Internet. Someone used your DVR, along with millions of insecure webcams, routers, and other connected devices, to launch an attack that started a chain reaction, resulting in Twitter, Reddit, Netflix, and many sites going off the Internet. You probably didn't realize that your DVR had that kind of power. But it does.

    All computers are hackable. This has as much to do with the computer market as it does with the technologies. We prefer our software full of features and inexpensive, at the expense of security and reliability. That your computer can affect the security of Twitter is a market failure. The industry is filled with market failures that, until now, have been largely ignorable. As computers continue to permeate our homes, cars, businesses, these market failures will no longer be tolerable. Our only solution will be regulation, and that regulation will be foisted on us by a government desperate to "do something" in the face of disaster. [**]

    In this article I want to outline the problems, both technical and political, and point to some regulatory solutions. "Regulation" might be a dirty word in today's political climate, but security is the exception to our small-government bias. And as the threats posed by computers become greater and more catastrophic, regulation will be inevitable. So now's the time to start thinking about it.

    We also need to reverse the trend to connect everything to the Internet. And if we risk harm and even death, we need to think twice about what we connect and what we deliberately leave uncomputerized.

    [**] - Schneier goes to a bit of length looking into what this regulation-done-well would mean. I can't tell if he actually is a proponent of this kind of regulation or if he sees this regulation as inevitable (because of the politician's_syllogism [wikipedia.org]) and his suggestion is the-best-that-may-work-under-circumstances.
    But either way, what we'll be facing:
    - an "army of robots" that nobody cannot fully control, except that the other party has enough control to damage you
    - yet another regulatory body stepping on the toes of the others
    If this is not armageddon, I don't know what else is.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
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  • (Score: 3, Touché) by MostCynical on Saturday February 18 2017, @12:00AM

    by MostCynical (2589) on Saturday February 18 2017, @12:00AM (#468416) Journal

    Here is your Government Approved router.
    It must be connected directly to your internet connection before any wireless devices or other switches.
    It will keep you and your family Safe and Secure on the Internet.
    It will Prevent all illegal activity, and control your Connected Devices, preventing Bad behaviours.
    Also, in the next update, it wil have a "whitelist" of approved websites, improving your Safety, and further helping to keep bad people away from you and your family.note: disabling this whitelist or bypassing it is an Offence under the Safe Internet Act

    Twice in one day I can't tell if I'm being sarcastic or realistic. :-(

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday February 18 2017, @12:07AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 18 2017, @12:07AM (#468421) Journal

      Twice in one day I can't tell if I'm being sarcastic or realistic. :-(

      Living up to your nick anyway.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday February 18 2017, @12:56AM

      by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Saturday February 18 2017, @12:56AM (#468437) Journal

      Spying on all networks and ultimately computers would be a great way to prevent rogue coders/engineers from making their own strong AI. Anybody caught attempting such research will get an immediate Presidential kill order, ironically carried out by UAVs (and above rather than on American soil).

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday February 18 2017, @04:41PM

      by butthurt (6141) on Saturday February 18 2017, @04:41PM (#468629) Journal

      Fixed:

      February 2003

      Dear AT&T,

      Here is your government approved router. It must be connected directly to your Internet connection before any customer devices or other switches.

      Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.

      https://web.archive.org/web/20140328094710/http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/05/70908 [archive.org]