Robopocalypse Report #4

I will probably not do this more than one per week in the future; however, we have a spate of interesting news this week.  So join me as we run through the heralds of the coming Robopocalypse and

A guy mounted a handgun on a little quadcopter and took it into the woods to shoot.  This has caused some controversy.  However, this should not be seen as new, so much as different in kind: the Russians trounced us with weapons armed quadcopters.  However, handguns are cheap and common whereas machineguns are not.  Hence, the outcry.  The day will come, folks, when there is a murder by drone. 

Speaking of drones, Flirtey's delivery service for the Wise County, Virginia fairgrounds is going ahead.  Flirtey teamed with NASA and the FAA granted the license.  I've mentioned it before, but this really does have the chance to be the Kitty hawk moment for US drone delivery services.  OTOH, this has the chance to be the proverbial turkey shoot if someone gets hurt, too.

In exoskeleton news, Rewalk has their next gen version ready.  The US Army Research Lab also has a new proof of concept exoskeleton for the purpose of improving soldiers aim.

OCRobotics has also produced a snake arm robot.  That'd be awesome - in a smaller form - for fishing keys out of tight places.  No exporting it to Japan though!

Normally, I focus on the robotic side of the Robopocalypse, but there's also a software side.  There are a lot of programs out there which will automatically do what people do today or will shortly.  Machine learning, big data and near real time analysis can have some serious impacts on the job market of the future.  It might also have a major impact on fashion trends as well.  If this were adopted, this could end up making fashion quite chaotic.  OTOH, I could also see a case where it might actually tamp down changes.  OTGH, I bet it will cause people to pick their clique and follow their separate trends: a filter bubble for the fashion trends!