“On July 28th, 2009 Skynet achieved self-awareness …”

South Korea just unveiled the first generation of autonomous robots armed with lethal weapons. They’ll eventually be deployed to help secure their 155-mile-long border with North Korea, and they come equipped with rubber bullets and machine guns. According to the Associated Press:

The robot also can distinguish people from moving objects such as a vehicles from up to 1.2 miles away in the daytime, and half that distance at night, the ministry said in a news release.

It can identify an enemy up to 30 feet away through a password, the news release said.

It also probably thinks humans taste like “bacon”.

(Thanks to Robot World Online for this one!)


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I'm Clive Thompson, the author of Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better (Penguin Press). You can order the book now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Powells, Indiebound, or through your local bookstore! I'm also a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and a columnist for Wired magazine. Email is here or ping me via the antiquated form of AOL IM (pomeranian99).

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