Suppa Hobbit Mage
10-19-2007, 01:05 PM
http://www.switched.com/2007/10/19/nine-killed-when-robot-cannon-flips-out/?ncid=NWS00010000000001 (http://www.switched.com/2007/10/19/nine-killed-when-robot-cannon-flips-out/?ncid=NWS00010000000001)
Robot-Cannon Kills Nine People
Posted Oct 19th 2007 8:46AM by Tim Stevens (http://www.switched.com/bloggers/tim-stevens)
Filed under: Computers (http://www.switched.com/category/computers/)
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.switched.com/media/2007/10/terminator-200.jpg (http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/18/1847231&from=rss)It's one thing to make (tasteless) jokes about exploding cell phones (http://www.switched.com/2007/07/05/cell-phone-battery-explodes-kills-worker/) being the ultimate cause of human extinction, but when a robotic device seemingly goes out of its way to kill its operators, then something may be up. According to a post on Slashdot, a bug or glitch caused a robotic anti-aircraft gun In South Africa to flip out and kill nine soldiers (http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/18/1847231&from=rss) (and injure a further 14).
Details are sparse, but a jam or internal explosion (http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/robot-cannon-ki.html) caused the gun to malfunction, resulting in it "wildly swinging" as it "sprayed hundreds of high-explosive 0.5kg 35mm cannon shells around the five-gun firing position," according to the post.
The gun is designed to automatically target aircraft, helicopters, and cruise missiles and fire when any targets come into range -- all without human intervention. The gun can even reload itself automatically when its magazines are emptied. As a result, the rogue robot gun could not be stopped before it completely ran out of ammunition, despite efforts from one brave artillery officer.
A disturbing reminder that our robotic minions are not always happy with their menial tasks and can strike at any time? Keep your eyes open, Roomba owners!
From Slashdot (http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/18/1847231&from=rss)and Wired (http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/robot-cannon-ki.html)
Robot-Cannon Kills Nine People
Posted Oct 19th 2007 8:46AM by Tim Stevens (http://www.switched.com/bloggers/tim-stevens)
Filed under: Computers (http://www.switched.com/category/computers/)
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.switched.com/media/2007/10/terminator-200.jpg (http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/18/1847231&from=rss)It's one thing to make (tasteless) jokes about exploding cell phones (http://www.switched.com/2007/07/05/cell-phone-battery-explodes-kills-worker/) being the ultimate cause of human extinction, but when a robotic device seemingly goes out of its way to kill its operators, then something may be up. According to a post on Slashdot, a bug or glitch caused a robotic anti-aircraft gun In South Africa to flip out and kill nine soldiers (http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/18/1847231&from=rss) (and injure a further 14).
Details are sparse, but a jam or internal explosion (http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/robot-cannon-ki.html) caused the gun to malfunction, resulting in it "wildly swinging" as it "sprayed hundreds of high-explosive 0.5kg 35mm cannon shells around the five-gun firing position," according to the post.
The gun is designed to automatically target aircraft, helicopters, and cruise missiles and fire when any targets come into range -- all without human intervention. The gun can even reload itself automatically when its magazines are emptied. As a result, the rogue robot gun could not be stopped before it completely ran out of ammunition, despite efforts from one brave artillery officer.
A disturbing reminder that our robotic minions are not always happy with their menial tasks and can strike at any time? Keep your eyes open, Roomba owners!
From Slashdot (http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/18/1847231&from=rss)and Wired (http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/robot-cannon-ki.html)