An Age of Magic

More Robot capers

It seems that with increasing sophisticated technology in the near future we will have ‘terminator’ type robots carrying out their own search and kill missions. Robot soldiers that can decide who to attack will soon be roaming the world’s battlefields if something isn’t done about the global ‘robot arms race’. This is a chilling prediction from scientists.

Robots could also become terrorist’s weapon of choice in the future. And the thing is the technology is already out there and being used and it will be fairly easy to copy. How long is it going to be before the terrorists get in on the act? Over 4,000 robots are currently deployed on the ground in Iraq and by October 2006 unmanned aircraft had flown 400,000 flight hours.  At the moment, humans can make the decision whether to attack or not but a recent policy shift in the U.S means that ‘intelligent’ autonomous attack robots will soon be given the power to decide who and when to kill.

Sounds very chilling to me. Smart robots without any feelings…you could write a Hollywood script about that.

Popularity: 14% [?]

A sign of the times

Not so long ago if the words bad credit risk applied to you that was just about the end of the road for you as far as getting access to anymore credit was concerned. But times have certainly changed and it is interesting to see how much attitudes towards such people have changed in the lending industry.

For instance, lenders now design special packages for those who have lost their credit ranking and even offer what are called bad credit credit cards to those who need access to a credit facility. Seeing as a credit card is an almost standard requirement for much of lifes needs these days this comes as good news if you need one and have had trouble getting one in the past. Take advantage of these new attitudes and changing standards.

Popularity: 11% [?]

What happened to the robots?

According to supposedly ‘clever people’ back in the 1950s and 60s, life in the future – or ‘now’ as we refer to it – was going to be easy. Computers would do the legwork, robots the housework and we’d be free to sit around and watch everything being done for us. So, while some of this is true in part and we rely heavily on computers and remote controls, what on earth happened to all those robots?

Apart from that wildy expensive must-have Robosapien toy from a couple of Christmases ago, nothing much happened. Until now… at last we have the robot vacuum cleaner!

Until recently robot vacuums cost £1,000 and so-so ones were £200-£300, which is far too expensive for something that is a bit of a gimmick. Now you can get a fairly decent one for less than £40.

It runs on rechargeable batteries and goes round a room in a few minutes, spiralling out from the middle. If it hits an obstacle such as a table leg it’ll vacuum round it and continue under the table and around each leg. It sucks up all the dust and crumbs and does the edges really well. I want one! apparently you can get these on Ebuyer – so there’s a tip.

Popularity: 13% [?]