Friday, May 30, 2008

Get Your Filthy Stinkin' Robot Paws Off Me, you Damned Dirty Ape! (with apologies to Charlton Heston)

If you listen carefully, you can almost hear the faint cries of the late Charlton Heston as he sobs "YOU DID IT... YOU FINALLY DID IT!!" Ok, so I'm NOT talking about a Planet where Apes evolve from men, but I did see a news story on Thursday that is deeply disturbing... Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh have created a "Robo-Monkey," capable of using it's mind to move a robot arm. The video speaks for itself:


Where there ARE enormous implications for improving the lives of amputees, quadriplegics, etc... I am VERY concerned about the proliferation of Robot Monkeys... If they can use their brain power to eat a marshmallow, can more sinister thoughts be far behind?
And what if this innovation were to fall into the wrong hands.. er, um.. PAWS? Can you imagine where humanity might be if Oliver, the Tupelo Monkey were to come into possession of this technology?!? The little guy is already a master at picking locks and self-trained in escape and evasion tactics... with a robot arm or two, we might easily lose Mississippi to an army of advanced primates... led by this little guy:


or, God forbid, one of these guys:




Robot Monkees... that IS scary!

Wow... all this monkey business (sorry) has almost made me forget about the really important issues of the day, like Severe Weather, what to do with Florida and Michigan's delegates, and the need for better toilets in outer space... I'd better lie down now.... (did anyone else just hear a whirring sound coming from the fruit basket in the kitchen?)

3 comments:

Terri Osburn said...

Hey, I happen to love the Monkees. That's right, I'm a believer.

Good to see you got that hobby.

Todd said...

Thanks... and the Monkees are cool...

MistyJo said...

After you put it that way, the Robot Monkey does raise some interesting thoughts. What if someone up for murder charges claimed that the robot armed malfuctioned because he/she never "thought" to pull the trigger?