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Drones (and Robots)


Monroe

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Is it against the law to shoot a robot yet ? ... in self defense someday, should it become necessary. At this time (2016) ... I suppose it's safe to say nobody anywhere in the world is on trial or sitting in a jail or prison for shooting a robot and maybe "killing" it.

Now what exactly does that mean ... "killing a robot".

The robot is down on the ground and no longer breathing or all electronics are dead and there is "no sign of life". If this is the case and someone is arrested ... are they released once new electronics are installed and the robot is up and "walking around" again.

Robots to OUTNUMBER humans as ‘swarms’ of machines are unleashed

Scientists say we'll soon be able to control vast armies of robots using our SMARTPHONES

by Jasper Hamill

21st July 2016

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1481650/robots-to-outnumber-humans-as-swarms-of-machines-are-unleashed/

Human beings are set to be “outnumbered” by robots as massive armies of intelligent machines move into the home and workplace.

That’s the claim from leading American robotics experts, who are trying to work out how humans can control the vast numbers of intelligent machines which are expected to be unleashed in the coming years.

A team based at the University of Texas have unveiled a system which allows them to use “any device with a web browser to access and control a humanoid robot” – which means machines designed to act like real people.

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The "allows them" should be read as "allows them or any three or more letters government agency and/or a vast number of hackers as long as they have an internet connection".

And "humanoid" actually means "looking similar to a human being" or "having the looks of a human being", not "acting like real people" (BTW I would hope that robots - humanoid or not - would be acting/behaving better than real people ;))

jaclaz

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Actually ... I was thinking of a humanoid type robot in my first post. I should have added that in my earlier post. Some of these are already looking pretty realistic in 2016. However, think what they will be like in five or ten years as each generation becomes even more real in human looks and thoughts.

So I have this in my mind ... this urban community somewhere ... a nice quiet street ... maybe 10 to 20 homes. Someone has one of these "humanoid robots" several doors down. It's a dark, moonless night ... maybe foggy and the robot ... for whatever reason ... a malfunction or just a human feeling of wanting to go for a walk. Takes the walk ... decides to head back home ... gets disoriented (lost) and goes to the property or porch of another house.

The people inside have no idea what's going on ... feels threatened and blasts the human looking thing off the porch.

You know this is going to happen one day, as more of these things begin to populate in areas.

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I just remember when I first posted or started this thread ... maybe 2013. There wasn't much in the way of drone news ... whatever there was at the time was mostly government stuff. Then in a few months it seem to just explode and drones were suddenly in the news everyday.

They have become both a help to people and a real nuisance to many people from neighbors spying around property, looking in windows and such.

So as these humanoids develop in the future ... will they become criminals ... or be programmed to be criminals? Maybe with a shortage of (real) doctors and nurses in the future, these humanoids will become replacements. Can they be trusted with giving shots ... they maybe will be hacked to give someone the wrong medicine or shot ... with the purpose of killing them.

Perhaps they won't have to be hacked ... they will become smarter and just decide to end the life of someone. As they talk with other humanoids ... who knows what ideas will be discussed as we the humans have no idea what is being plotted. So "The Twilight Zone" has arrived.

Say twenty years from now ... you are in the hospital and someone comes in to give you a shot or a dose of medicine ... are you going to be 100% OK taking that pill or shot? ... so you are not sure who's actually standing there ... a human or a humanoid.

This is not going to be fun in the future ... especially when the first human somewhere is killed or murdered by a "harmless humanoid".

Just like the drones started off just a few years ago ... more or less as a novelty until it all became serious stuff. So we have a new novelty in 2016 ... humanoid robots. What will this all be in 3 to 5 years. It all seems to be a joke for now ... mostly dealing with "sex robots" ... but in the future as these things populate and maybe become a threat to humans in some way ... what will be happening ??? ... who will have the law and police on their side ... the humans or the humanoids? Especially as more humanoids are programmed to be police officers ... saving the "human police" from being shot and killed. When the "humanoid police force" grows larger ... who will they protect and arrest? ... humans or humanoids ???

Correction: It looks like this topic might have been started around Oct 2014 and not in 2013 ... however, I still think it could have been 2013. This topic has been renamed and had some changes made ... I think more than once, just not sure anymore when this was first started.

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Edited by monroe
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29 minutes ago, monroe said:

Say twenty years from now ... you are in the hospital and someone comes in to give you a shot or a dose of medicine ... are you going to be 100% OK taking that pill or shot? ... so you are not sure who's actually standing there ... a human or a humanoid.

I would be more worried TODAY if the (surely human) someone is distracted or plainly got the wrong medicine from the pharmacy.

If you prefer are you more worried on what WILL happen when all people will be driving Tesla's with "autopilot" watching Harry Potter or about what can happen today because of (human) people are playing Pokemon GO while driving? :dubbio:

jaclaz

 

Edited by jaclaz
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There was in 1992 a new TV show that was ahead of it's time ... Mann & Machine. I guess it was just "too far" in the future. It was a great show but was cancelled after nine episodes. It was developing a following and still has one today.

A very beautiful police detective who was an android ... I think that term was used then. It also had a nice twist with the show title ... "Mann & Machine" ... she became the partner of Det Bobby Mann and she (Eve) was the machine.

from Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mann_%26_Machine

"The series starred Yancy Butler as Sgt. Eve Edison, a beautiful police officer who is also a sophisticated gynoid robot capable of learning and emotion. She is partnered with Det. Bobby Mann (David Andrews), a human officer who holds disdain for robots. Rounding out the regular cast was S. Epatha Merkerson as Capt. Claghorn, Mann and Edison's superior officer.

The series focused on Mann and Edison's criminal investigations in a Los Angeles of the "near future"—sometime around the beginning of the 21st century though the exact year is never stated. An ongoing subplot of the series focused on Eve's continuing education about what makes humans tick, and her ever-growing capacity for emotion, highlighted by the penultimate episode "Billion Dollar Baby" in which Eve is placed in charge of caring for an infant, activating unexpected maternal feelings.

Although Butler received good reviews for her performance in one of her first major roles, the series was criticized heavily, with many comparing it to a failed 1970s comedy series with a similar premise, Holmes & Yo-Yo. The series was pulled from NBC's schedule after only four episodes. The remaining five were aired as a summertime filler."

.... It was never released on DVD or VHS (to my knowledge) ... but some DVDs have been made from VHS - TV copies ... I really liked the show in 1992 and did years later get a DVD set of the nine episodes from a seller on the internet. The episodes are TV copies ... not great but not bad ... always hoped the show would be released on a good DVD set.

There are some videos listed at YouTube ... one is just over 1 minute and the other is almost 9 minutes ... a chance to see what the show really was ... ahead of it's time.

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=Mann+and+Machine

Mann & Machine - IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103486/

In the near future, cop Bobby Mann is teamed with a voluptuous robot partner, Sgt. Eve Edison. He's a brash, wise-cracking maverick; she's serious, naive, by-the-book and tends to take things literally. In this hour-long series, the two detectives learn from each other, while solving a variety of crimes.

 ... there is a picture of a 5 DVD set release showing ... never been able to locate it but I don't think it's an official release ... probably like the one I got ... with TV - VHS recordings ... OK but could be better with a release from the network.

added: I just checked the YouTube links on the Google search page ... the video quality is not very good. There are a few other video parts listed to the right and they are not much better ... just terrible. Usually YouTube videos are better but the show is pretty old from 1992 TV. I didn't do a complete search on YouTube ... there may be better videos posted.

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Edited by monroe
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Very good jaclaz ... yes, we have to worry right now about doctor and hospital mistakes. So now we have "human" mistakes but in the future we will have "human and humanoid" mistakes ... there is no hope !!!

There are more Google auto cars crashing over the last month or so ... I read about the Tesla crash earlier in the month.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just a few short years back ... this thread/topic was started and it was more of a curiosity at the time, these things were just a novelty of sorts ... about little insect type drones buzzing around, maybe only for a minute till the power ran down. Then various types of drones were being built for the masses ... with more power and cameras.

So the old saying from so long ago ... "the genie is out of the bottle" ... says it all. I went to Google to get a definition or the real meaning of that line or those seven words.

Phrase - If you say that "the genie is out of the bottle" ... you mean that something has happened which has made a great and permanent change in people's lives, especially a bad change.

These are the beginning three paragraphs from the news article below:

"Police are having to investigate a fourfold rise in the number of crime reports involving shop bought drones – including allegations they are being used by paedophiles over children's playgrounds, peeping toms spying through bedroom windows, burglars scoping out people's properties, and even cash point scammers recording PIN numbers.

An investigation by The Independent has found that the number of incidents reported to the police involving drones surged by 352 per cent in a single year as the public became increasingly aware – and suspicious – of the machines.

Reflecting the rapid uptake of the flying robotic devices, which can be fitted with cameras, reports to police surged from 94 in 2014 to 425 in 2015. The projected figure for 2016 is set to be even higher, with 272 reports recorded up until May this year."

Here is the article from England but it could be from somewhere else also.

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Massive rise in drone-related crime reports amid paedophile fears

Peter Yeung

7 August 2016

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/drones-police-crime-reports-uk-england-safety-surveillance-a7155076.html

Exclusive: An investigation by The Independent reveals shop-bought drones have endangered commercial airliners, caused fights between neighbours and been used by criminal gangs to transport drugs into prisons.

Police are having to investigate a fourfold rise in the number of crime reports involving shop bought drones – including allegations they are being used by paedophiles over children's playgrounds, peeping toms spying through bedroom windows, burglars scoping out people's properties, and even cash point scammers recording PIN numbers.

An investigation by The Independent has found that the number of incidents reported to the police involving drones surged by 352 per cent in a single year as the public became increasingly aware – and suspicious – of the machines.

Reflecting the rapid uptake of the flying robotic devices, which can be fitted with cameras, reports to police surged from 94 in 2014 to 425 in 2015. The projected figure for 2016 is set to be even higher, with 272 reports recorded up until May this year.

The figures were obtained from Freedom of Information requests, with 21 of the UK's 45 police forces responding.

The numbers also include reports of drones endangering commercial airliners of them causing fights between neighbours, and also of them being used by criminal gangs to transport drugs, often into prisons.

The majority of the reports, 257, were listed as a concern for public safety and under suspicious circumstances, but five cases involved acts of violence, 13 related to burglary, 14 to dangers posed to transport – largely related to air space – and seven made reference to drones in the vicinity of young children.

One remarkable incident recorded by the Police Service of Northern Ireland in June last year revealed a drone allegedly being used to film a cash point in Templepatrick as people entered their pin codes. The witness told the police that when the drone was spotted it flew off and crashed into a taxi. The police said a male suspect had been forced to pay compensation to the taxi driver, but officers had been unable to prove the footage was being taken with criminal intent.

Drones, quadcopters and multi-rotor helicopters already equipped with 360 degree 4K video cameras, more than twice the quality of HD, are currently available to buy without any registration or permit. Speeds range as high as 70 mph for mass produced drones, while potential altitudes up to 10,000 feet make them a threat to aircraft flying in or out of airports.

Many also offer image transmission to a handheld device, such as a mobile phone, and others include night vision.

Sexual offences involving a drone were reported in both London and South Wales, with the Metropolitan Police referring to case of "voyeurism" and the Welsh force revealing a drone had been used to record footage of a young woman undressed in her apartment.

In Leicester, a pedestrian claimed to have seen a drone falling from the sky, while in Sutton Coldfield another fell and damaged to roof of a BMW, as regulation of air space has become increasingly demanding with unprecedented new risks.

Reports of disturbances to flight paths around Birmingham, Stansted and Luton airports were also provided, raising wider concerns for public welfare and potentially the threat of terrorism. In April, Elstree Aerodrome Air Traffic Control noted that a drone had been seen five miles Northeast of Elstree by a pilot whose aircraft was at 6,000ft.

Greater awareness of privacy concerns has also led to some direct confrontations. In South Wales, one homeowner threatened to a drone out of the sky. Dozens of other reports related to surveillance. A similar incident in Bedham, Sussex, saw one person firing a shotgun at a neighbour's drone. The pair were said to "loathe" each other.

In Spennymoor, County Durham, a fight broke out over a drone, with one disgruntled bystander pushing a man and throwing his remote controller into a bush.

Elsewhere, a drunken man was found to be “causing distress to livestock” after using a drone to fly close to cows in Plymouth.

There are also fears that drones could be used by paedophiles, with reports of drones flying over children’s areas in Kingswinford, Dudley, and schools in Hemel Hempstead and Northumbria.

David Dunn, a professor at Birmingham University who has led research into UAVs, said there needed to be more regulation.

He told The Independent: "What you have is a massive proliferation of easy access to the air from machines that have the capacity to cause nuisance, to carry out surveillance, to cause potential injury and to frighten people and cause collisions with cars and airplanes.

There needs to be regulation. We are lacking accountability or a deterrence.

"There needs to be regulation and there needs to be systematic attempts to educate the public. At the moment, you can buy one of these things in a supermarket without any safeguards. We are lacking accountability or a deterrence.

“The police are being forced to use laws that were designed before the invention of drones fit in terms of personal safety and privacy, but actually what we need is a Drone Bill through the House of Commons to address the technological challenges.”

Mr Dunn said the terror threat was a “massive concern” to law enforcement agencies, adding: "These machines have the ability to actually deliver drugs into prisons, to deliver sim cards into prisons.”

Corroborating previous reports, the data reveals a significant number of sightings of drones around prisons. At HM Prison Leicester, legal highs and a mobile phone were caught in netting around the perimeter – a measure used across UK prisons to counteract smuggling devices such as drones – and drugs were also found attached to a machine by Sherwood Prison. The Mount prison in Bovingdon was the centre of a high number of interceptions, alongside institutions in Exeter, Bedford and Greyfriars.

Anyone found using drones to smuggle contraband into a prison can be given a sentence of up to two years.

A spokesman for the Prison Service said it was working to ensure the “right tools” are in place to tackle the problem of drones.

He added: "We take a zero tolerance approach to illicit material in prisons and work closely with the police and CPS to ensure those caught are prosecuted and face extra time behind bars."

Steve Barry, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for Unmanned Aerial Systems, told The Independent: “Both the Police and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) are aware of the ever increasing use of drones by members of the public and are keen to ensure that people are aware of the rules that apply to their use.

“We have issued guidance to all forces on how to respond to drone misuse by the public. Work is ongoing to better understand the threat posed by drones, and to develop an appropriate technical response.

“We are working with the Home Office on how drones might be used to enhance operational capability in law enforcement, including for support for emergency response or for public order events.”

The public have serious concerns about drone use but the safeguards around them are flimsy and obscure.

Sara Ogilvie, policy officer for Liberty, told The Independent: "As the use of drones by both individuals and the police continues to soar, the need for thorough public debate and robust regulation of this shadowy industry becomes all the more obvious and urgent. As these figures show, the public have serious concerns about drone use – but the safeguards are flimsy and obscure.

"Drones have the potential to serve as incredibly intrusive spying tools – and their capacity for violating people's privacy will only increase as the technology improves. Our authorities need to wake up fast to the stark implications for our privacy and safety."

The figures also reveal a large amount of investment in drones by some UK police forces as a new way of tackling crime and helping with other investigations.

Last year alone, Sussex and Surrey Police spent £413,000 in a joint initiative, training 38 officers to fly the remote controlled aerial cameras. They now have five drones – more than any other force in the country.

The drones are being used in missing person searches, forensic collision investigations and airport security, as well as patrol teams and neighbourhood response units.

Mr Barry, who is also assistant chief constable of Sussex Police, said in a statement: "Our drone operations will be overt, open and transparent, and we will use all outlets available to us to ensure the public are informed of our drone use.”

Police forces in Devon, Cornwall and Dorset are also testing the use of drones for missing people searches and photographing of crime scenes.

In September, Nigel Wilson became the first person in England to be prosecuted by the CPS for illegally flying drones.

The 42-year-old from Bingham in Nottinghamshire admitted nine breaches of filming footage over football grounds and tourist attractions.

Amazon, the world's biggest online retailer, last month agreed a partnership with the Government to start using drones for deliveries by 2017.

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Edited by monroe
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