Shape-shifting, organ-probing chembots coming soon
By Tim Stevens 
posted July 1st 2008 1:28PM
posted July 1st 2008 1:28PM
The current generation of robots, whether they're the gun-carrying or child-coddling variety, come in all sorts of shapes and sizes to suit their intended purpose. But if research going on at Tufts University comes to fruition, future robots might feature designs that are rather more flexible. Scientists at the school are working on so-called "chemical robots" with no solid parts. Chembots could squeeze under doors, slither through cracks in walls, and even squirm into your orifices, performing internal diagnoses before slowly dissolving away, leaving nothing more than a feeling of creepy violation behind. What about assuming the shape and voice of John Connor's adopted mother? We're hoping that's still a few years off.
I read that "shapshifting colon probing robot" D :
I for one welcome are new shape shifting overlords.
These "chembots" would probably make very efficient delivery systems for biological or chemical "agents". Welcome to a new frontier in the assassination & warfare business.
Got a new tech that threatens the oil cartel? Enter: a chemical goo that seeps through your window sill and deliveries chemicals into your body imitating a brain anyerism. After checking your vitals (dead) it dissolves into a puddle of water at the foot of the bed...
Live in an area targeted for predatory capitalism (corporate-friendly "democracy" building)? Enter: you see (barely) a plane high up in the sky forming a con(chem)trail, and soon after it starts raining. Next thing you know the puddles of water are moving, FAST, toward you and every other living thing around you. You run inside, but it follows you under your door! Next thing you know you can't move. You,re paralyzed. Now you can't breathe! The last image you see, through the window, is a street littered with stiff, wide-eyed bodies, as you fall to the floor, suffocating...
I personally thought it said "organ-probing fembots"
Oh god, Judgement Day
Come with me if you want to live.
It's just a matter of time before it becomes self aware.
The Terminator: [impersonating John's voice] Hey Janelle, what's wrong with Wolfie? I can hear him barking.
T-1000 impersonating Janelle: Wolfie's fine, honey, Wolfie's just fine. Where are you?
The Terminator: [hangs up the phone] Your foster parents are dead.
The Terminator: [impersonating John's voice] Hey Janelle, what's wrong with Wolfie? I can hear him barking.
T-1000 impersonating *John Conner*: Wolfie's fine, honey, Wolfie's just fine. Where are you?
The Terminator: [hangs up the phone] Your foster parents are *already* dead.
organ probing eh?
I wager they'll probe yah with their diabolic sword arms while you're drinking some milk.
^^ Who died and made you moderator?
So Alex Mack was actually a theoretical prediction?
And remember folks, it hates, ABSOLUTELY hates when you drink milk in front of it.
YEAH...first it killed a guy drinking milk, and then a guy drinking coffee.
The coffee had MILK in it !
i personally don't care about judgment day, i just hope it can shape-shift into a hot chick. that will keep me happy for a loooong while.
if they look like Kristanna Loken I'll take 2...
it will keep you happy for the rest of your life.
though it might be a short life
Wolfie's fine, dear, Wolfie's just fine. Where are you?
Your foster parents are dead.
WTF are the odds that I quoted the same thing you did.
Strange.
I wouldn't say Lowest Odds, but maybe Low Odds.
I'd say the odds are pretty good, since you did it an hour after he did.
Call Ripley
No seriously guys, I know I like to joke about the robot uprising but seriously? ChemBots? They go through any crack, under any door? Im starting to get legitimately worried about our future...
"adopted"?
Did I miss an important scene in that movie, or has the unwatched series changed the story?
Sarah Connor was in a mental institution, so John had a foster family.
Wow you must have missed a good 20+ minutes of the movie...
She tried to blow up a computer factory or some shit. She's a complete psycho. Like some German metallic endoskeleton under living tissue dude is going to just come out of nowhere on a Harley-Davidson Fatboy and save me from some shiny goopy guy.
duh. I'm failing epically today. (see below for my out-of-thread reply)
1. Foster is correct, not "adopted"
2. The correct term would be "adoptive", anyway
adoptive
Adjective
1. acquired or related by adoption: an adoptive father
...I'd trust MIT with this way more than I'd trust a place called Tufts...
Just send it a few stops down the red line.
Man...this is awesome! it would be cool if one of these things gets inside somebodies body and then the person could do the same cool stuff!
But when skynet becomes self aware it's going to be a pretty sick and disturbing exit from your body O_o.
Odo's cousin
Knives and stabbing weapons
Oh yes.. now I remember. Sorry - its only 2:15 in the afternoon here on the east coast.
"Come with me if you want to Live"
*Runs off to stock up on liquid nitrogen and to invest in a pool of molten metal*
Everyone here is so negative. I for one embrace our future liquid-metallic overlords. Hail the superior beings!
And so continues the path of technology both amazing and scaring the living shit out of me...well done sirs.
If you can squeeze both into 40mm grenades you're sorted!
Comment system am fail. This is meant to be a reply to Jherez.
The joke isn't lost one me, but seriously, are any of you really afraid of this kind of technology?
Technology beyond our imagination exists out there in both the hands of good and evil. There is always something to fear, but this type of tech is nothing to fear. Nobody is talking about self-aware chembots. I envision this doing more good than harm after successful study. Anything can be turned to evil if used the right way and technology is only capable of what we make it capable.
*on
Agreed, self awareness is still a far stadium.
You mean like... No fate but what we make for ourselves
Engadget could have used the cover of one of the Rama books to illustrate this as well.
so, is this the realization of this prediction? http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/22/robots-to-be-our-lovers-by-2050-not-just-in-massachussetts/
pffffffffffffttt chemical robots!? whats next cyborgs with metal endoskeletons covered by real human tissue with huge pecs and dark shades? silly humans.
These "chembots" would probably make very efficient delivery systems for biological or chemical "agents". Welcome to a new frontier in the assassination & warfare business.
Got a new tech that threatens the oil cartel? Enter: a chemical goo that seeps through your window sill and deliveries chemicals into your body imitating a brain anyerism. After checking your vitals (dead) it dissolves into a puddle of water at the foot of the bed.
Live in an area targeted for predatory capitalism (corporate-friendly "democracy" building)? Enter: you see (barely) a plane high up in the sky forming a con(chem)trail, and soon after it starts raining. Next thing you know the puddles of water are moving, FAST, toward you and every other living thing around you. You run inside, but it follows you under your door! Next thing you know you can't move. You,re paralyzed. Now you can't breathe! The last image you see, through the window, is a street littered with stiff, wide-eyed bodies, as you fall to the floor, suffocating.