chi.mer.i.cal | 1. created by or as if by a wildly fanciful imagination; highly improbable
2. given to unrealistic fantasies; fanciful
cog.i.ta.tions |
1. thoughtful considerations; meditations
2. serious thoughts, carefully considered reflections
this one's more bizarre than amusing, but no less newsworthy. from the bbc once again.
i'm glad i'm not an american tax-payer. so. there are these 240 scientists, members, all, of a top-echelon organisation known as 'darpa', whose mission it is to maintain the technological superiority of the us army. these scientists are given us$2 billion. despite the budgetary constraints, these scientists, all 240 of them, working together, all 240 of them, as a team, all 240 of them, against all odds, manage to come up with an idea. if you are shameless enough to call it that.
their new-generation brainchild will, they claim, consolidate the military dominance of the united states despite the escalating arms race. while other countries evolve weapons of mass destruction, stockpile chemical and biological weapons, and develop and enhance their nuclear capability, darpa seeks an alternative path to ascendancy. as an added bonus, this path is also environmentally friendly.
2 billion us dollars and 240 scientists prove that money can't buyanything everything. what it can buy is the following thesis : insert a micro electronic mechanical system (mems. or, in short, a computer chip with a fancy name.) into pupa stage of metamorphing insect. process of metamorphosis will cause the insect to heal and grow around the chip. creating something somewhat akin to the six million dollar man. only this is a two billion dollar butterfly. insect with chip would then, theoretically, be able to be remotely controlled in order to do certain tasks.
interestingly enough, darpa has dabbled in an enterprise like this previously. they had tried to manipulate wasps. that experiment met with conditional success - the wasps were there, but occasionally the commands sent by these scientists were overridden in preference of certain other activities. such as feeding. and mating. and doing whatsoever they damned well pleased. oh, and although this isn't reported by the bbc, i suppose they eventually died (i refer to the wasps. unfortunately.), which i'm sure wasn't part of the script either.
in any case, this new plan proves that these scientists arenot just stupid enough to beggar belief, but are consistently stupid, and are too stupid to learn from previous acts of stupidity not discouraged by failure. indeed, it is laudable that they persevere despite recognition from a former director that "when we fail, we fail big."
if, however, darpa succeeds, their new-generation secret weapon can be expected to flit "within five meters of a target". this target must be "located 100 meters away". these insects will be able to capture various kinds of sensitive and valuable intelligence. for example, the insect will be able to tell its operator how the target smells. this insect will also have to be accompanied by a receiving dish in order for the micro-signals it emits to be picked up. this dish will be several feet in diameter, and have to be fairly close by. probably close enough for the operator to smell the target himself.
entomology expert dr george mcgavin, of oxford university, has proven conclusively something we have always suspected - that the british are smarter than the americans. "not all whacky ideas are without value. some do produce the goods. my feeling is this will probably not produce the goods," he said, lugubriously, before he ran out of diplomatic replies to the journalist and called the idea "ludicrous".
full article in comments.
in other news, at the recent national peoples conference, china announced a 14 percent increase in military spending. in response to strong american criticism, china claims its military expansion is part of a transparent, and purely defensive, military policy. part of the increase in budget has been allocated to the purchase of 9 million butterfly nets...
i'm glad i'm not an american tax-payer. so. there are these 240 scientists, members, all, of a top-echelon organisation known as 'darpa', whose mission it is to maintain the technological superiority of the us army. these scientists are given us$2 billion. despite the budgetary constraints, these scientists, all 240 of them, working together, all 240 of them, as a team, all 240 of them, against all odds, manage to come up with an idea. if you are shameless enough to call it that.
their new-generation brainchild will, they claim, consolidate the military dominance of the united states despite the escalating arms race. while other countries evolve weapons of mass destruction, stockpile chemical and biological weapons, and develop and enhance their nuclear capability, darpa seeks an alternative path to ascendancy. as an added bonus, this path is also environmentally friendly.
2 billion us dollars and 240 scientists prove that money can't buy
interestingly enough, darpa has dabbled in an enterprise like this previously. they had tried to manipulate wasps. that experiment met with conditional success - the wasps were there, but occasionally the commands sent by these scientists were overridden in preference of certain other activities. such as feeding. and mating. and doing whatsoever they damned well pleased. oh, and although this isn't reported by the bbc, i suppose they eventually died (i refer to the wasps. unfortunately.), which i'm sure wasn't part of the script either.
in any case, this new plan proves that these scientists are
if, however, darpa succeeds, their new-generation secret weapon can be expected to flit "within five meters of a target". this target must be "located 100 meters away". these insects will be able to capture various kinds of sensitive and valuable intelligence. for example, the insect will be able to tell its operator how the target smells. this insect will also have to be accompanied by a receiving dish in order for the micro-signals it emits to be picked up. this dish will be several feet in diameter, and have to be fairly close by. probably close enough for the operator to smell the target himself.
entomology expert dr george mcgavin, of oxford university, has proven conclusively something we have always suspected - that the british are smarter than the americans. "not all whacky ideas are without value. some do produce the goods. my feeling is this will probably not produce the goods," he said, lugubriously, before he ran out of diplomatic replies to the journalist and called the idea "ludicrous".
full article in comments.
in other news, at the recent national peoples conference, china announced a 14 percent increase in military spending. in response to strong american criticism, china claims its military expansion is part of a transparent, and purely defensive, military policy. part of the increase in budget has been allocated to the purchase of 9 million butterfly nets...
Pentagon plans cyber-insect army
By Gary Kitchener
BBC News
The Pentagon's defence scientists want to create an army of cyber-insects that can be remotely controlled to check out explosives and send transmissions.
The idea is to insert micro-systems at the pupa stage, when the insects can integrate them into their body, so they can be remotely controlled later.
Experts told the BBC some ideas were feasible but others seemed "ludicrous".
A similar scheme aimed at manipulating wasps failed when they flew off to feed and mate.
The new scheme is a brainwave of the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), which is tasked with maintaining the technological superiority of the US military.
It has asked for "innovative" bids on the insect project from interested parties.
'Assembly-line'
Darpa believes scientists can take advantage of the evolution of insects, such as dragonflies and moths, in the pupa stage.
"Through each metamorphic stage, the insect body goes through a renewal process that can heal wounds and reposition internal organs around foreign objects," its proposal document reads.
The foreign objects it suggests to be implanted are specific micro-systems - Mems - which, when the insect is fully developed, could allow it to be remotely controlled or sense certain chemicals, including those in explosives.
The invasive surgery could "enable assembly-line like fabrication of hybrid insect-Mems interfaces", Darpa says.
A winning bidder would have to deliver "an insect within five metres of a specific target located 100 metres away".
The "insect-cyborg" must also "be able to transmit data from relevant sensors, yielding information about the local environment. These sensors can include gas sensors, microphones, video, etc."
'Fiction'
Scientists who spoke to the BBC news website were unconvinced.
Entomology expert Dr George McGavin of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History said the idea appeared "ludicrous".
"Not all wacky ideas are without value. Some do produce the goods. My feeling is this will probably not produce the goods," he said.
"What adult insects want to do is basically reproduce and lay eggs. You would have to rewire the entire brain patterns."
Dr McGavin said it appeared impossible to connect the technology to the right places during the metamorphic phase, particularly with regard to flight.
Prof Andrew Parker, research leader at the Natural History Museum's zoology department and a specialist in bio-mimetics, said the concept was not too far fetched but had its limits.
Technology could help direct an insect to chemicals such as in roadside bombs, he said, but controlling full flight was "a long way off".
Entomology expert at the museum, Stuart Hine, agreed it was plausible to use insects to detect explosives.
But he added: "I feel that the reality of such cyborg fusion between insect and machine lies squarely in the realms of fiction."
To receive micro-signals from the insects would require a dish "quite close and several feet in diameter, rendering it a less than covert operation".
Darpa's previous experiments to get bees and wasps to detect the smell of explosives foundered when their "instinctive behaviours for feeding and mating... prevented them from performing reliably", it said.
Darpa was founded in 1958 to keep US military technology ahead of Cold War rivals.
Its website says it has around 240 personnel and a $2bn (£1.1bn) budget. Supporters say much of its work has been successful, but it has also drawn criticism for unusable "blue-sky" projects.
A former director said in 1975: "When we fail, we fail big."
I liked the part about butterfly nets!!