DailyDirt: Cyborgs Animals To Do Our Bidding

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Thu, Jan 8th 2015 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Artificial intelligence is getting better these days, but before we had artificial neural net software and other fancy algorithms that could mimic animal brains, people tried using real animal brains to perform various tasks. Military projects have attempted to create various animal cyborgs -- mostly unsuccessfully. Perhaps someday there will be a truly impressive animal cyborg, but then again, we might regret such a creation.

The CIA had a program called Operation Acoustic Kitty in the 1960s to create a cyborg cat. The geniuses who came up with this idea apparently never owned a cat before. Seriously, how do you train a cat to do anything? [url]
The Navy has a robotic drone (okay, not a cyborg) that could be mistaken for a shark. Combat dolphins and other sea animals have been trained for military operations, so it isn't so surprising to see robot versions. However, these robots are probably pretty useless right now, but they'll improve. (And let's add some lasers to this robotic shark, Mr. Bigglesworth, okay? [/Dr. Evil voice]) [url]
During WWII, there was an ingenious idea to arm bats with tiny incendiary bombs to attack Japanese cities. The US spent $2 million on development, using thousands of bats, before cancelling the project. [url]

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Filed Under: ai, artificial intelligence, bats, biomimicry, combat dolphins, cyborgs, military operations, robot shark, robots, wwii

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alternatives(), 8 Jan 2015 @ 5:03pm

The geniuses who came up with this idea apparently never owned a cat before. Seriously, how do you train a cat to do anything?

Is it possible that the people who told upper management were just trolling upper management and then had to try to implement the trolling?
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Mason Wheeler (profile), 8 Jan 2015 @ 5:29pm

The geniuses who came up with this idea apparently never owned a cat before. Seriously, how do you train a cat to do anything?

Have you ever owned a cat? Yes, they're not as easy to train as a dog, because the average cat is more intelligent and more strong-willed than the average dog, but it's not all that difficult either, with a bit of patience...
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That One Guy (profile), 8 Jan 2015 @ 6:48pm

Doomed from the start
The CIA had a program called Operation Acoustic Kitty in the 1960s to create a cyborg cat.

As any good cyborg has a laser pointer of some sort somewhere on it, making cyborg cats would have been foolhardy, as they would have done nothing but run around in circles, ever chasing the elusive dot.
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Sheogorath (profile), 8 Jan 2015 @ 7:31pm

The CIA had a program called Operation Acoustic Kitty in the 1960s to create a cyborg cat.
Very forward thinking, then, weren't they? Just how many cyborg cats are out there already, each one with a microchip within it, bearing the details of where they live.
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Michael Ho (profile), 8 Jan 2015 @ 8:13pm

Re:
You got me.. I've never owned a cat myself. I like cats. I know they can be trained to do certain things.

But would I rely on a cat to do something critical like help spy on a foreign ambassador? Uh. No. Would you?
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lars626, 8 Jan 2015 @ 9:03pm

Bats
The thing with the bats actually worked. They canceled it because we got close enough for the long range bombers to carry a full payload and the army brass did not want to deal with anything that strange.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Jan 2015 @ 9:08pm

didn't the Russians plan on using dogs laden with explosives to blow up tanks in ww2 as a last desperate attempt?
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Ninja (profile), 9 Jan 2015 @ 1:45am

Re: Re:
Actually it could be great. Cats are independent and vary, very curious. Place a cyber-cat on the presidential window and if it is well disguised as a real cat nobody will take notice even if it stays there for hours lying down. At most somebody will check it and pat its head. Most other animals would be highly suspicious.
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Ninja (profile), 9 Jan 2015 @ 1:46am

Re: Bats
Actually, Batman sued using his patent.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Jan 2015 @ 3:48am

Re:
"plan"
No, they were actually doing that but things got bad when the dogs couldnt identify the tanks properly and they had a strong preference towards their own tanks.
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Mikael (profile), 9 Jan 2015 @ 9:43am

The geniuses who came up with this idea apparently never owned a cat before. Seriously, how do you train a cat to do anything?

I guess you've never seen the videos of cats using toilets and even flushing them when they are done.
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Guardian, 9 Jan 2015 @ 12:58pm

smart cats
my gf used to have this cat slept in same room , i gues it watched us get up at night ...open the door and goto the washroom....

one night i saw it jump up put a paw over top and use the other on side and turned and pulled the door open .....i was like WOW

now imagine that cat as a spy
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Sheogorath (profile), 10 Jan 2015 @ 5:21pm

Re:
The people who own those cats are the reason people without feline companionship are contracting toxoplasmosis (cat shit down toilet + mussels = public health disaster).
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