MIT builds swarms of tiny robotic insect drones that can fly 100 times longer than previous designs (www.livescience.com)
from floofloof@lemmy.ca to technology@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 04:16
https://lemmy.ca/post/38927379

#technology

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double_quack@lemm.ee on 11 Feb 2025 04:21 next collapse

We all know where this is gonna end…

Fandangalo@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 04:23 next collapse

Surveillance drones everywhere.

double_quack@lemm.ee on 11 Feb 2025 04:31 collapse

Surveillance is the “nice” version of it.

Fandangalo@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 04:33 collapse

Anal probes everywhere.

double_quack@lemm.ee on 11 Feb 2025 04:35 collapse

Exactly! Flying, they are flying everywheeeaaahhhh!

Fandangalo@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 04:38 collapse

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/e52f8192-9586-4c70-9951-59eeaa6b21a0.jpeg">

adarza@lemmy.ca on 11 Feb 2025 05:32 next collapse

DilDrone™

jaemo@sh.itjust.works on 11 Feb 2025 10:23 collapse

Yeah I was gonna say like why are we even workshopping the name with a winner like that. Get this employee a bonus check!

Iheartcheese@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 07:45 next collapse

Neat a dildo and 4 rotating nipple toys

Cenzorrll@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 15:55 collapse
Thrashy@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 04:40 next collapse

I’ve low-key started to think the only reason we haven’t seen autonomous hunter-killer drones yet is that nobody’s willing to break the seal, and I’m scared for what happens when somebody finally does.

double_quack@lemm.ee on 11 Feb 2025 04:43 next collapse

My dear stranger, those already exist, and have been used in war to terminate key individuals.

We are living the dream.

metaStatic@kbin.earth on 11 Feb 2025 05:12 next collapse

key individuals

Such as Palestinian children

Thrashy@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 05:25 collapse

Point me towards systems that don’t have a human in the loop, particularly any that utilize fully-autonomous swarms, and I’ll agree. Scary as the former are, there’s a world of difference between a handful of FPV suicide drones, and a cloud of HL2-Manhack-esque things operating on face-recogniton-guided autopilot.

double_quack@lemm.ee on 11 Feb 2025 06:23 collapse

Oh, that’s what you mean… yeah, there are humans behind, but potato potato, swap one brain for another… anyway it is a killing machine that can get you anywhere in the planet.

mosiacmango@lemm.ee on 11 Feb 2025 23:31 collapse

The humans are using ai to pick the targets they kill anyway. They theoretically are supposed to parse out the bad targets, but we know from examples listed in the above, that for genocidal states like Israel, that review is intentionally ignored or minimized.

Erasmus@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 10:49 next collapse

Horizon Zero Dawn looking more eminent any day now.

skulblaka@sh.itjust.works on 11 Feb 2025 23:32 collapse

They are definitely super willing to break the seal, just nobody has built a good target ID system yet that won’t fire on civilians.

If you just need everyone in a 10 mile radius dead, you could send in the hunter bots, or you could just shell the area with heavy artillery from three countries away. We already have that problem solved. Once we have a reliable target ID system I guarantee you’ll start seeing unmanned equipment in war.

Iheartcheese@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 06:27 next collapse

Anal

Infernal_pizza@lemm.ee on 11 Feb 2025 06:57 next collapse

#BugsArentReal

rottingleaf@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 10:42 next collapse

And it sucks, when you think inside Star Wars, such small drones are used only in medical or expensive surveillance and military applications.

But in real life it can really be a swarm of things worse than scarabs in The Mummy.

Docus@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 11:22 collapse

There is no way these things could spread poison instead of pollen is there?

MisterNeon@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 04:24 next collapse

I’d rather just have bees.

ploot@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 11 Feb 2025 04:49 next collapse

But how can techbros get rich from bees? Bees just make themselves for free then serve the greater good, the little buzzing communists.

Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works on 11 Feb 2025 05:06 next collapse

Even birds are starting to seem acceptable

neons@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 12 Feb 07:34 collapse

oh so you think birds aren’t already flying robots? robot bees are just the next step.

/s obviously

MonkeyTown@midwest.social on 11 Feb 2025 15:13 collapse

I’d rather not have robot bees. I’ve seen hated in the nation (black mirror episode).

Cocodapuf@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 15:42 collapse

The MIT engineers agree. They said something to the effect of “If you could make a robotic bee, it wouldn’t replace bees. It would be a terrible idea to try to use them for pollination… Just put that same amount of finding into conservation and researching bees, you would have a much better result.”

Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee on 11 Feb 2025 04:33 next collapse

The new technology could increase crop yields dramatically without harming the environment.

That’s a surprisingly benign use case, I was expecting far worse.

_stranger_@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 04:35 next collapse

Plot twist: The crop is human misery.

Iheartcheese@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 06:28 collapse

Well then fucking harvest me and get it over with

TachyonTele@lemm.ee on 11 Feb 2025 04:35 next collapse

Humans are the crops.

double_quack@lemm.ee on 11 Feb 2025 04:44 collapse

*corps

0x0@programming.dev on 11 Feb 2025 10:40 next collapse

*corpses

0x0@programming.dev on 11 Feb 2025 10:45 next collapse

*corpses

0x0@programming.dev on 11 Feb 2025 10:47 collapse

*corpses

NaibofTabr@infosec.pub on 11 Feb 2025 05:02 next collapse

The public use case.

floofloof@lemmy.ca on 11 Feb 2025 14:58 next collapse

Without a doubt they will have those other use cases in mind too. Mentioning them is just not good for marketing in public.

AJ1@lemmy.ca on 11 Feb 2025 15:38 collapse

I guess I’m the only one thinking about how it’s inevitable that birds and other animals will mistake them for real insects and die from ingesting these things, god knows what kind of toxic materials they’re made of but I’m willing to bet it’s not safe to eat them

Someplaceunknown@fedia.io on 11 Feb 2025 04:50 next collapse

Nope, I’m out

Maeve@kbin.earth on 11 Feb 2025 05:24 next collapse

Bradbury called it in Farahenheit 451.

JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works on 11 Feb 2025 05:57 next collapse

Looks like they hovered for 1000 seconds. It was previously stress limited such that the joints would break after just a few seconds. I think they might still be tethered for a power source, I haven’t seen any of these micro flapping bots include a battery yet, and they didn’t mention that they did.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.adp4256

PiJiNWiNg@sh.itjust.works on 11 Feb 2025 06:21 next collapse

Because developing a replacement for bees is certainly a better solution then saving the bees…

floofloof@lemmy.ca on 11 Feb 2025 14:56 collapse

They think there will be more profit in it, especially since bees can’t be repurposed as weapons.

technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 11 Feb 2025 16:48 collapse

bees can’t be repurposed as weapons.

Capitalism will find a way.

cherwell.org/…/oxford-scientists-microchip-bees-w…

Doorbook@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 06:37 next collapse

In the latest video about this by veritasium, he asked the researcher about ethics concern. the researcher insist that they dont care as humanity can decide for itself.

Meanwhile:

The new report also details the extent of MIT’s partnerships with Israeli military contractors like Elbit Systems, which supplies 85 percent of Israel’s killer drones, and Maersk, one of the world’s largest shipping companies, that has sent millions of pounds of military goods to Israel since the start of the war on Gaza. The Israeli military also sponsored several of the MIT projects with funds provided by the U.S. Defense Department.

theintercept.com/…/mit-israel-military-funding-re…

shoo@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 09:53 next collapse

That researcher is a real life Dr. Hoenikker. Vonnegut is probably shrugging in his grave

Sammy@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 11 Feb 2025 14:01 collapse

-…his mother was completely consumed by robotic bees. So it goes.

0x0@programming.dev on 11 Feb 2025 10:38 next collapse

MIT also (indirectly) killed Aaron Swartz.

0x0@programming.dev on 11 Feb 2025 10:47 next collapse

MIT also (indirectly) killed Aaron Swartz.

remer@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 13:59 next collapse

“We are willing to ignore and downplay the ethical concerns as long as the money keeping coming in”

Feathercrown@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 15:50 collapse
Zier@fedia.io on 11 Feb 2025 12:59 next collapse

It wont be long now before the nanobots exist and the Borg can finally take over.
Resistance is futile.

prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 11 Feb 2025 23:20 collapse

the Borg

Sounds like communism…

Adulated_Aspersion@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 14:15 next collapse

I’ve seen this episode of Black Mirror.

Dicska@lemmy.world on 12 Feb 2025 01:27 collapse

Fall into me

And drown inside me

I know you will see

The beauty of me

Also, I’ve seen this episode of Tom Scott.

tunetardis@lemmy.ca on 11 Feb 2025 14:50 next collapse

How’s this for an obscure reference? This reminded me of an episode of Max Headroom in which the wunderkind Bryce invented a robotic fly with a spycam that could be used to literally bug a room. They send it on a mission to uncover an evil plot and everyone is excitedly crowded around the screen and heaping praise on it. Then it manages to sneak into the evil lair where it promptly gets swatted, leaving Bryce shocked and devastated.

Feathercrown@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 15:49 collapse

They also did this in Spy Kids

technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 11 Feb 2025 16:45 next collapse

Dear technology under capitalism… We just want healthcare, housing, etc… We don’t fucking need swarms of robot insects.

balder1991@lemmy.world on 11 Feb 2025 23:12 collapse

Just today I was watching this video:

How we came to hate technology

Drusas@fedia.io on 12 Feb 2025 02:09 next collapse

I think there was an X-Files episode about this.

rekabis@lemmy.ca on 13 Feb 23:21 collapse

Canada might need these sooner rather than later.

With the breakdown of democracy and the rule of law in America, the Constitution just became wholly unenforceable and therefore irrelevant. That means that Trump could make good on his fever dream of invading Canada.

And there are many Americans who would jump at the chance to obey his command to slaughter Canadians. With only 40M against America’s 334M - and 0.097M military personnel against America’s 2.1M - it would be absolutely no contest.

Our only way of making such a fascist act of aggression as painful as possible would be with asymmetrical warfare using tiny, hard-to-defeat drones that could act independently and strike without warning. Deploy 10k of these suckers onto a battlefield, and the only survivors would be those within sealed armour or flying at high altitude. Because even an A10 Warthog loitering low over the field can be taken out if it unexpectedly ingests a half-dozen of the explosive buggers.