December 17, 2009.05:45 ROBOTICS: Can Robots Make Ethical Decisions?
Isaac Asimov's famous fundamental Rules of Robotics are intended to impose ethical conduct on autonomous machines.Issues about ethical behavior are found in films like the 1982 movie Blade Runner. When the replicant Roy Batty is given the choice to let his enemy, the human detective Rick Deckard, die, Batty instead chooses to save him.
A recent paper published in the International Journal of Reasoning-based Intelligent Systems describes a method for computers to prospectively look ahead at the consequences of hypothetical moral judgments.
The paper, Modelling Morality with Prospective Logic, was written by Luís Moniz Pereira of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, in Portugal and Ari Saptawijaya of the Universitas Indonesia. The authors declare that morality is no longer the exclusive realm of human philosophers. http://www.livescience.com/technolo...t=Google Reader
December 08, 2009.05:45 SPACE: Rutan and Branson make a giant leap for space tourism
The intergalactic entrepreneurs unveil the VSS Enterprise, the world's first commercial passenger spacecraft. Tests are expected to start early next year
November 19, 2009.05:31 HISTORY:World War 2 Japanese Super-Submarine Found In Hawaii
According to Dr Hans Van Tillburg, "[the I-201 submarine] was nothing like anybody had in the Second World War. It had a streamlined body and conning tower and retractable gun." They just found it in Hawaii.
August 22, 2009.08:10 FOR REAL: Plasma-powered flying saucer
Pass a current or magnetic field through a conducting fluid and it will generate a force. Numerous aerospace engineers have tried and failed to exploit this phenomenon, known as magnetohydrodynamics, as an exotic form of propulsion for aircraft. But perhaps attempts so far have all been too big.
A very small design could have a better chance of taking off, says Subrata Roy, an aerospace engineer at the University of Florida, Gainesville, US.
With a span of less than 15 centimetres, his aircraft qualifies as a micro air vehicle (MAV), but it has an unconventional design to say the least. It is a saucer shape covered with electrodes that ionise air to create a plasma. This plasma is then accelerated by an electric field to push air around and generate lift.
Roy says the machine can be filled with helium to reduce its weight, and is efficient enough to be powered by onboard batteries. Its ability to hover and generate lift electronically means that it is particularly robust against gusts of wind that send other MAVs off course, says Roy.
