*I guess even pre-programmed artifical intelligence isnt strong enough to overcome the need to bond*

Tiny robots programmed to act like roaches were able to blend into cockroach society, according to researchers studying the collective behavior of insects.

Cockroaches tend to self-organize into leaderless groups, seeming to reach consensus on where to rest together.

For example, when provided two similar shelters, most of the group tended to gather under the same one.

Hoping to learn more about this behavior, researchers led by Jose Halloy at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium, designed small robots programmed to act like a cockroach.

The robots didn't look like the insects and at first the roaches fled from them, but after the scientists coated the robots with pheromones that made them smell like roaches the machines were accepted into the group, nesting together with the insects.

Given a choice, roaches generally prefer a darker place and the robots were programmed to do the same.

When given a choice of a darker or lighter shelter, 75 percent of the cockroaches and 85 percent of the robots gathered under the darker one.

Then, to see if the robots had really become part of society and could influence group decisions, Halloy and colleagues programmed them to prefer shelters with more light.

The result, the lighter shelter was preferred by the mixed group 61 percent of the time, while the cockroaches alone picked it just 27 percent of the time.

On the other hand, in 39 percent of cases the robots, despite being programmed to prefer a lighter shelter, joined the cockroaches under the darker one.

Cockroaches successfully nest with their robotic clones | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Great thread title.

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"Jesus said: I have cast fire upon the world, and behold I guard it until it is ablaze."
Gospel of Thomas

thanks did you know:

roaches are resistant to diseases, build up immunity to toxic chemicals, and are virtually radiation proof. You could hit them with enough rads to fry a human from the inside out and they'd keep going.

Also, they can eat just about anything. When food is scarce for most other animals, it is still plentiful for roaches. They can eat all sorts of things.. decayed leaves, cardboard boxes, dried glue, and much more.

Yeah, but you could hit them with the sole of a high-top Chuck Taylor and that'd be the end of that...

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Obama's New "57 State Patriotic Pin":




Sayeth John Drake - 10/13/08: "OK, you're right, I admit to LYING"

yeah true

Many roach species have strong mandibles that are capable of producing postmortem damage to human skin that resembles abrasions or chemical burns. In many cases these abrasions appear as small pits in the skin. Additionally, roaches often consume human hair, and may frequently remove entire hair shafts during their feeding. The roach species most commonly encountered in forensic investigations are the American, Australian, and the German.

This free-of-details version of the story kind of makes me want to be a glib jerk and speculate as to whether it was just bad programming.

This topic on a political forum leads me to believe there may be subtext, although this might be just because posters involved where MKULTRA a mind control operation, and Donkey, master of the key. LOL

Ok Ok I won't get started on this one

I smoked your uncle once...
Badump tsh.

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"Jesus said: I have cast fire upon the world, and behold I guard it until it is ablaze."
Gospel of Thomas

I never understood the concept of smoking unless it was to get some kind of high out of it

You have to catch him first...And then, his 50 billion great great grandchildren will come and crawl all over you each time you sleep...

... and eat your hair.

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This concept has enormous potential. We should introduce similar human-looking robots into the 2008 GOP convention and see what happens.

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Life only becomes meaningful at its extremes

-- S

would anyone notice the difference?