• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

T R E 4 5 O N

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

He really is that stupid.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Second rate reporter says what?

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Science & Technology / Whuh

Whuh

by Tim F|  February 1, 201210:39 am| 51 Comments

This post is in: Science & Technology

FacebookTweetEmail

In order to take over the world, all these UPenn nanorobotcopters have to do is keep you mesmerized with their cool flying while another robot walks up behind and stabs you. Via io9.

Then again, if the UPenn guys ever look up Neural Robotics Inc. we are well and truly hosed.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « The Santorum Candidacy in a Single Picture
Next Post: Let Them Eat Safety Net, He Said »

Reader Interactions

51Comments

  1. 1.

    redshirt

    February 1, 2012 at 10:48 am

    Our future is going to be terrifying. Dystopia only begins to cover it.

  2. 2.

    JGabriel

    February 1, 2012 at 10:49 am

    As soon as I saw them flying in formation, I thought, “Oh, shit.”

    Anyone else?

    Edited to Add: Really a shame Alfred Hitchcock isn’t still around to do something with this.

    .

  3. 3.

    Yevgraf

    February 1, 2012 at 10:50 am

    The top vid was cool. The lower one, though, had an element of “hold muh beer and watch this” in it. It just occurs to me that strapping a full auto FN (or whatever the hell that is) with an electronic trigger on an unstable remote control rotating platform is a recipe for disaster.

  4. 4.

    Humanities Grad

    February 1, 2012 at 10:51 am

    I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

    I have to, they can probably trace my IP address. My momma didn’t raise no dummies.

  5. 5.

    jibeaux

    February 1, 2012 at 10:54 am

    Sent the top one to my ten year old, who tends to read articles about the latest advances in battery storage technology. Yes, I am hopeful that he’ll be able to support his mama in her old age.
    He is going to LOVE it.

  6. 6.

    John 2.0

    February 1, 2012 at 10:55 am

    Isn’t that the dog pod grid from Diamond Age?

    I think that’s an automatic shotgun in the second vid. I’d guess they used that weapon because it’s got some recoil-dampening system that wouldn’t mess with the control system of the drone.

  7. 7.

    redshirt

    February 1, 2012 at 10:56 am

    The insidious dynamic to all this is the motivations – from the scientist’s perspective, almost across the board and in the many fields necessary to contribute to these developments – they’re working on cool problems, for typical science reasons.

    It’s when these tools get combined, mass produced, and put in the hands of power will the trouble start.

    This of course is a long standing moral quandry in the science field. I have no easy answers as I feel we’ve crested a wave of inevitability, and only some major event can alter our course now.

  8. 8.

    MattF

    February 1, 2012 at 10:59 am

    I can just see a swarm of nanocopters spelling out a message– “OOPSIE…” With the dots, of course…

    Reminded a bit of Ian M. Banks ‘Culture’ series, where the warships are controlled by super-AIs and have amusing names, like ‘Gunboat Diplomat’ or ‘So Much For Subtlety’:

    http://www.saunalahti.fi/~mjhuur1/projects/banks/ships.html

  9. 9.

    Norwonk

    February 1, 2012 at 11:03 am

    Those choppers are very cool, but if those are nanorobots, then I’m a single-cell organism.

  10. 10.

    Beth in VA

    February 1, 2012 at 11:07 am

    Other than providing flying robot background dancers for music videos, what good are these things?

  11. 11.

    flukebucket

    February 1, 2012 at 11:07 am

    As Leonard Cohen once said, “I have seen the future brother and it is murder”

  12. 12.

    redshirt

    February 1, 2012 at 11:12 am

    @Beth in VA: Lots of things. Surveillance primarily.

    Imagine thousands of these guys flying over the streets of NYC, tailing cars, peaking in windows, following pedestrians.

    We’re entering the Panopticon.

  13. 13.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    February 1, 2012 at 11:15 am

    @John 2.0:

    Isn’t that the dog pod grid from Diamond Age?

    My thought exactly.

    I’m waiting for all of this to lead to my mech being finally built, maybe with a mustang mounted on top instead of a head.

    And for all of you who argued that putting people on other planets is a waste of time and money, the flip side is we can all sit here and wait for the terrible future you all seem to think is coming.

  14. 14.

    Tim F.

    February 1, 2012 at 11:19 am

    @Yevgraf: The copter is not RC. It is a robot. A user can tell it where to go, land and shoot, but he can just as easily plug in those coordinates in before flight. Either way the copter figures out how to make the commands happen.

    The auto-shotgun has a remarkable amount of recoil dampening. There is another vid of a 92-pound girl shooting it one-handed.

  15. 15.

    The Moar You Know

    February 1, 2012 at 11:20 am

    I’m an avid R/C pilot. All I can say about that first video is HOLY SHIT. Impressive hardly begins to cover it. Flying robots are here, and they’re getting small!

    I’ve seen the second video plenty of times. I believe the weapon is the AA-12 automatic 12 gauge shotgun, a fearsome weapon to be sure, but there’s nothing really groundbreaking from a remote piloting perspective. It’s all off-the-shelf tech that’s been around for at least thirty years.

  16. 16.

    JGabriel

    February 1, 2012 at 11:20 am

    flukebucket:

    As Leonard Cohen once said, “I have seen the future brother and it is murder”

    So … no change then from the past and present?

    .

  17. 17.

    superking

    February 1, 2012 at 11:21 am

    Let’s teach them to box!

  18. 18.

    PurpleGirl

    February 1, 2012 at 11:22 am

    I’ve read military science fiction for many years (along with space opera and fantasy). That doesn’t mean that I want to live in those future dystopias though.

    The technology may be way cool but the implications for society and culture are large and not in a good sense.

  19. 19.

    JGabriel

    February 1, 2012 at 11:24 am

    Speaking of “Whuh?”

    Via Thers @ Powder Blue Satan:

    CNN’s Erick Son of Erick: “Watching A Hippie Protester Get Tased Just Makes My Day”

    No, that’s not a shorter. And it’s not snark.

    Erickson actually and literally says, on national radio, “… watching a hippie protester get tased just makes my day.”

    Fuckin’ sociopath shitbag.

    .

  20. 20.

    John 2.0

    February 1, 2012 at 11:26 am

    Dibs on the Yellow Lion.

  21. 21.

    Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor

    February 1, 2012 at 11:29 am

    @Beth in VA:

    Other than providing flying robot background dancers for music videos, what good are these things?

    One big area is rescue missions: Send a flock of these down into a mineshaft, burning building, or any other place too unstable/radioactive/chemically polluted for humans. You could send a flock of these into the Fukishima complex, to take a look around. Or into a building known to contain enemy combatants, instead of having the Seals have to barge in without knowing what to expect.

    They could fly around a hospital or school, spraying disinfectants. Or fly around a disaster area, not just to look for survivors, but they could also deliver announcements over tiny speakers. Then park themselves at various locations, to set up an emergency wireless network to assist rescue personnel.

    Anyway, there’s a lot of applications, and the know-how and price point has reached critical mass. This will probably be the decade where coordinated/flocking robotic systems become mainstream (much like the 90s were the era when the internet went mainstream).

    Those afraid of excessive surveillance or other dystopian scenarioes need to realize that this stuff is coming, whether people want it to or not: You could no more stop this than your grandpa could stop the automobile or the airplane.

    Engineers just build the stuff. It’s up to voters, lawyers and governments to determine which uses are appropriate, and which are not.

  22. 22.

    jeffreyw

    February 1, 2012 at 11:30 am

    More than way cool. I can easily imagine a consumer version that could be sent aloft with a tiny video camera, sending pics back via wifi if fairly close, maybe through a cell tower if out of sight. Useful for hunting lost dogs, esp if it could home in on the dog’s collar and tell it to get home this instant. Or kids, telling them to get offa my yard, dammit.

  23. 23.

    flukebucket

    February 1, 2012 at 11:30 am

    @JGabriel:

    If you have seen one you have seen them all.

  24. 24.

    JGabriel

    February 1, 2012 at 11:32 am

    @flukebucket: It just amazes me how frequently Conservative reality exceeds our satire of it. It’s astonishing, really.

    .

  25. 25.

    The Moar You Know

    February 1, 2012 at 11:34 am

    “Watching A Hippie Protester Get Tased Just Makes My Day”

    @JGabriel: I can empathize with Gauleiter Erickson. I love seeing those Tea Partiers get their government-purchased scooters stuck in that crevice between the sidewalk and road while their oxygen runs out.

    Every time I see that, I think “should I help?” Then the words of Peggy Noonan come back to me and I heed them.

    Just walk on by.

  26. 26.

    JGabriel

    February 1, 2012 at 11:36 am

    @Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor:

    This will probably be the decade where coordinated/flocking robotic systems become mainstream (much like the 90s were the era when the internet went mainstream).

    Maybe. A lot of the smaller, co-ordinated robotic systems are still in prototype stages. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see it go mainstream in the latter half of this decade, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if it happens in the next decade, the 2020’s, instead.

    .

  27. 27.

    JGabriel

    February 1, 2012 at 11:44 am

    @The Moar You Know:

    I can empathize with Gauleiter Erickson. I love seeing those Tea Partiers get their government-purchased scooters stuck in that crevice between the sidewalk and road while their oxygen runs out.

    We’re not talking about verbal hijinks here. Perhaps I haven’t made that clear.

    Erickson is talking about watching actual video of someone being tased … and laughing.

    These are the so-called “small government” conservatives enjoying the unrestrained use of state force against unarmed activists. Tell me about their “principles” again?

    .

  28. 28.

    kindness

    February 1, 2012 at 11:46 am

    Thank the FSM it’s U Penn & not Penn State. I would be afraid of what those robots would be programmed for if it were the latter.

  29. 29.

    Rafer Janders

    February 1, 2012 at 11:48 am

    @Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor:

    Engineers just build the stuff. It’s up to voters, lawyers and governments to determine which uses are appropriate, and which are not.

    So we’re fucked, then, is what you’re saying.

  30. 30.

    PaulW

    February 1, 2012 at 11:49 am

    Oh great. We just designed Hunter/Killers for Skynet’s future use. Thanks a lot, tech guys!

  31. 31.

    Zandar

    February 1, 2012 at 11:50 am

    TINYCOPTERS IN MY ERRYWHERE.

  32. 32.

    redshirt

    February 1, 2012 at 11:50 am

    @Rafer Janders: We’re fucked, and plethora of ways.

  33. 33.

    Rafer Janders

    February 1, 2012 at 11:51 am

    @JGabriel:

    Erickson is talking about watching actual video of someone being tased … and laughing.

    You know, I never say “tased” or “tasered” or any of those terms. I say “electrocuted.” As in “the police electrocuted him” or “shocked him with painful electricity”. “Tased” is a euphemism, and its use covers up and hides the terrifying brutality of what is actually going on.

    Try it yourself: “Police tase protestors” versus “police electrocute protestors.” Which sounds worse?

  34. 34.

    CarolDuhart2

    February 1, 2012 at 11:55 am

    I have an idea. Use these things to detect and then later detonate, unexploded landmines or old ordinance. The way we do it now is pretty dangerous to people, and uncertain. This method would be safe and accurate, and since drones don’t get tired or stressed, fields can be repeatedly gone over until all traces were gone.

  35. 35.

    Neddie Jingo

    February 1, 2012 at 12:00 pm

    @jeffreyw:

    I can easily imagine a consumer version that could be sent aloft with a tiny video camera, sending pics back via wifi if fairly close, maybe through a cell tower if out of sight.

    Dude, we’re already there… And you control the damned thing with an iPhone! It’s not the “nano” tech on display in this post, but… dayum!

    Here’s a POV vid of a quadcopter in action. I really, really want one of these things….

  36. 36.

    PIGL

    February 1, 2012 at 12:06 pm

    Judgement Day is inevitable.

  37. 37.

    MariedeGournay

    February 1, 2012 at 12:07 pm

    @John 2.0: And I’ll form the head.

  38. 38.

    JGabriel

    February 1, 2012 at 12:13 pm

    @Rafer Janders: Good point. Thanks.

    .

  39. 39.

    Jamey

    February 1, 2012 at 12:23 pm

    In formation, the little guys look like the ur-video game, Space Invaders.

  40. 40.

    Jamey

    February 1, 2012 at 12:24 pm

    @JGabriel: Meh. Watching Erick Erickson get torn apart by trained animals would make my day. Guess it’s that kind of day…

  41. 41.

    The Other Bob

    February 1, 2012 at 12:29 pm

    I will just buy my own fleet of robotic copters with flyswaters to fight off the random robots that stray into my airspace.

  42. 42.

    Jeff Boatright

    February 1, 2012 at 12:40 pm

    @JGabriel:

    These are the so-called “small government” conservatives enjoying the unrestrained use of state force against unarmed activists. Tell me about their “principles” again?

    This is such a great distillation of the situation that I have decided that you WIN THE INTERTOOBES FOR THE DAY!!!

  43. 43.

    Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor

    February 1, 2012 at 12:43 pm

    @Rafer Janders:

    So we’re fucked, then, is what you’re saying.

    Well… if “they” can use it, so can you.

  44. 44.

    redski

    February 1, 2012 at 1:07 pm

    fuck this shit.

  45. 45.

    Xenos

    February 1, 2012 at 1:35 pm

    @The Moar You Know: As to Erik Erikovich, it makes my day when fascists get strung up on the lampposts. Good times.

  46. 46.

    dance around in your bones

    February 1, 2012 at 1:39 pm

    Haysus Freakin Crisco, didn’t these guys see The Terminator?

    That said, those formation flights and 3-D formations are pretty awesome.

  47. 47.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    February 1, 2012 at 2:27 pm

    That first video made me think of Half-Life 2.

  48. 48.

    Jay in Oregon

    February 1, 2012 at 3:58 pm

    @JGabriel:

    Erickson actually and literally says, on national radio, “… watching a hippie protester get tased just makes my day.”
    __
    Fuckin’ sociopath shitbag.

    The thing that surprises me is that they think — once they’ve managed to efficiently demonize liberals and “hippies” and poor people and gays and minorities and march them to their “final solution” — that those methods they use will magically disappear and never be turned on them.

    There’s no chance that a right-wing fascist society will simply find new enemies to demonize, is there?
    No chance that Catholics can become the new boogeymen?
    Swarthy people of any European descent?
    Will childless couples be persecuted?
    People from the West Coast?
    People who fail to sing “God Bless America” enthusiastically enough?

    Martin Niemöller was on the right track…

  49. 49.

    Scott P.

    February 1, 2012 at 4:03 pm

    It’s clear our feline overlords have finally succeeded in inducing their human slaves to make the world’s coolest cat toy.

  50. 50.

    THE

    February 1, 2012 at 7:59 pm

    You could write pointillistic nerdy Valentines to your significant other.
    This is February you know.

  51. 51.

    ruleoflaw

    February 2, 2012 at 12:32 am

    Are they being piloted by nano-shriners?

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Image by HinTN (5/22/25)

Recent Comments

  • mrmoshpotato on Thursday Evening Open Thread (May 22, 2025 @ 7:49pm)
  • NotMax on Thursday Evening Open Thread (May 22, 2025 @ 7:48pm)
  • Glidwrith on Update: Kilmar Abrego Garcia: ‘Keep Him Where He Is’ (May 22, 2025 @ 7:48pm)
  • Jay on Thursday Evening Open Thread (May 22, 2025 @ 7:46pm)
  • trollhattan on Thursday Evening Open Thread (May 22, 2025 @ 7:46pm)

PA Supreme Court At Risk

Donate

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
War in Ukraine
Donate to Razom for Ukraine

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Meetups

Upcoming Ohio Meetup May 17
5/11 Post about the May 17 Ohio Meetup

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Hands Off! – Denver, San Diego & Austin

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

PA Supreme Court At Risk

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!