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US Military
The Pentagon is drowning a "data deluge" from drones such as the one pictured here and other intelligence gathering activities. It has put out a call for a mathematical language to make sense of it all.
The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has sharpened its focus on a future where machines do most of the dirty work — and a good deal of the thinking, too.
Last week, the military think tank kicked off a program called Mind's Eye, which is aimed at developing "a visual intelligence capability for unmanned systems." This week, it sent out an announcement that hints at the agency's plans for a mathematical language that would give data-collecting sensors the ability to speak to each other, think for themselves, and take action with scant human interference.
The Mind's Eye program essentially ups the ante for camera-equipped unmanned vehicles by giving them not just a processor for collecting visual information, but a "visual intelligence, enabling these platforms to detect operationally significant activity and report on that activity so warfighters can focus on important events in a timely manner." That would take boots off the ground and free data analysts from their chairs.
DARPA watchers have also pointed out an announcement calling for proposals to participate in the Mathematics of Sensing, Exploitation, and Execution program, or MSEE. The announcement says MSEE's mission is to find new ways to handle a "data deluge."
"The amount of data collected by Department of Defense sensor systems far outstrips the ability of both human analysts and current automated decision systems to extract actionable information," it reads. In other words, all the data coming in from drones and satellites taking pictures and making videos, plus tapped phone lines and who knows what else, is simply too much. Instead of being helpful in stopping the bad guys, it's a hindrance.
MSEE seeks a unified mathematical language that can teach sensors what data to collect as well as how to interpret and act on it. The agency's call for proposals says the goal of the program is "to capture the economy and efficiency that derives from an intrinsic, objective-driven unification of sensing and exploitation." To get there, "all proposed research must describe a unifying mathematical formalism that incorporates stochasticity fundamentally."
Wired.com's Spencer Ackerman notes that in about three and a half years, the agency wants prototypes to "furnish sensor output products" from imagery and video, communications intercepts and the tracking of a moving target.
"If your algorithm can train those very distinct sensors how to determine for themselves what relevant data is, you'll have gone a long way to draining oceans of data into a customizable kiddie pool for military analysts," he writes.
Skynet, anyone? Feel free to weigh in with your comments below.
John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by hitting the "like" button on the Cosmic Log Facebook page or following msnbc.com's science editor, Alan Boyle, on Twitter (@b0yle).
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skynet
Watch out, the world of the "Terminators" is right around the corner.
Watch out, the world of the "Terminators" is right around the corner.
This is more than a system of recognition and categorization. They want a system that can determine subject INTENT. A much tougher nut to crack. Yes, an advanced sensor system can identify individuals and groups. It can even track them over time, given enough data (which DOESN'T seem to be the problem). However, deducing the subjects INTENT is an entirely different animal!
Exactly! Hence the highly apropos Terminator comparisons up above. When an independant drone is given the capability to sense objects and people, deduce their intent and then determine actionable response, that's gonna be a little more than frightening if ya ask me.
nothing wrong with ada, just needs some good programmers directed by some competent planners to assemble a system that is transportable across different platforms, the bigger issue is assembling a standardized set of sensors that modurlarize everything, right now everyone wants their own proprietary rtos system to be the king and collect royalties whilst the rest do the real leg work...personally, they could take it a bit slower, like so many other things they want it ALL then they can seive it themselves rather than just competently deciding ahead of time what information will be important and just focusing on that.....robotics will progress at it's own pace, for instance none of us are rushing out now to buy robotic vacuum cleaners, floor scrubbers or lawn mowers because a lot consider it junk for the price, put another way neato but not full duty....on the other hand self parking cars are slowly and quitly finding themselves a given in new cars....left to natures pace we will all have robotic floor and lawn tendering machines in a few decades but at the rate we and other countries are deploying smart drones alarming problems are already coming to light, like the mexican drone that recently crashed in texas...smarter is not always more faster better....it is often less, conservative and minimal...just an engineering perspective there darpa.....
Watch Jeopardy next month for the question to the answer. :)
Yup..skynet came to mind right away...art immitating life?
Or life and engineering imitating science fiction, which has been happening since Jules Verne wrote 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in 80 Days.
Hey no shame in that warlord...Our military grade satellite system could not spot the biggest asset bubble in human history but it could be your thought/dream/suicide machine. As long as your are in BTK mode my cowardly bitch, why not fall back to little puppies? Maybe Von Braun is walking one of them right now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXa_YreEFEs
There is safety in overwhelming numbers and apparently the evil agenda here is to try and cut thru that protection to pick off individuals shielded by millions of other civilians.
I'm happy to hear that 10's of millions of emails are clogging up the resources by utterly evil US agencys to read, scan, sort, store and digest in some sense of reasoned and timely manner.
A great many scientists rounded up for the Nazi war effort chose to either not cooperate or they chose to purposely sabotage the projects BECAUSE they knew full well the enormous depravity and karmic debt those weapons would be used on and for. Such morals and sense of ethics is rarely found nor even taught in a great many public schools in America where DARPA and other military agencys routinely use college graduates to work on segments of farmed out biological and software problems which would on it's face be likely used for an entirely evil agenda.
When super high resolution Recon Spy Satellite photos were given to the Mumbai, India terrorists training inside Pakistan only Russia and America at that time had that capability, all then and current commerical satellite photo agencys cannot produce super high resolution photos and are under strict export laws on what and who obtains the lower resolution photos they produce. Russia after Pakistan was used as a staging base to fight the Soviet Army in Afghanistan would NEVER help a terror group attack India's civilians and Russia is a long time ally of India. America however has a long Bush Family CIA connection with Pakistan and the Pakistani ISI agency is literally a clone of America's CIA. It entirely appears the CIA provided Pakistan with the super high resolution spy satellite photos of each of the Mumbai, India target sites which the terrorists used to plan their attack and strategy from. Some of those photos were found in one of the ships those terrorists hijacked after killing their Indian crews and used to enter into the Mumbai harbor. Whoever in the US Space Recon command that took those photos and gave them to the CIA knew damn well how they would be used. The CIA that provided those to the Pakistani ISI who in turn supplied them to the Mumbai terrorist knew damn well how those would be used. WHERE is the accountability? Over 100 Indian civilians were slaughtered in that terror attack, what happened to the morals and ethics in America's military and intelligence agencies?
Scientists need to begin saying NO WAY to such DARPA projects and programs, knowing full well the cross hairs is likely to be American civilians as well as civilians around the world those weapons systems would be gunning for. Sadly the programmers that created CARNAVOR and other invasive programs to break into your emails, text messages, cell calls didn't stop and think about the morality and ethics of the work they were employed to conduct. Such individuals that sell out the human race for a handful of coins is no worse than the scientists that attempted to do the same in Nazi ruled Germany, thankfully they failed and hopefully those that are persuaded to assist DARPA in it's depraved evil agendas will FAIL ALSO.
Concider the origins of the following:
The Internet, NASA or space exploration in general, GPS.
Technological advancement when made by the military is not inherently evil. Why don't you go bash some country that already has a history of oppressing its citizens.
Irony: Using a system developed by DARPA to complain that DARPA is evil (e.g. the Internet).
lgc,
the United States has a long and rich history of oppressing it's citizens, or are you conveniently leaving out the slaves and the native Americans because they're somehow not "citizens"?
The point of Smith's post, which I think is right on, is that it is intent which matters most. NASA is inherently a peaceful space exploration program. It's true that the missiles and rockets which have been developed are also used to launch nuclear warheads. Thankfully we're not talking yet about imbuing the nuclear defense system with Mind's Eye artificial intelligence and "actionable systems" decision making authority. When that happens the movie comparison switches to Matthew Broderick in War Games. Can you spell WOPR?
In reference to all of the e-mail snooper programs, cell phone trackers, TSA scanners, and the rest of the personally invasive technology that we have somehow now apparently accepted as normal in this day and age of the War on Terrorism, I am reminded of a famous quote from, I believe it was Ben Franklin, "Those would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither."
"the United States has a long and rich history of oppressing it's citizens, or are you conveniently leaving out the slaves and the native Americans because they're somehow not "citizens"?"
Native american tribes are distinctly NOT citizens. They've never been under US jurisdiction. By NO rational definition of citizen are the tribes citizens. Slaves are a greyer subject since they were under US jurisdiction but if "slavery" is your entire case(and don't cite native american nations again or I might fall out of my chair laughing at you) for the US being oppressive to it's citizens you really need to build a stronger case.
A. Smith...you need to get back on the meds and quickly.
This guy doesn't need just meds. He needs supervision.
"Terminators"...that is funny and highly entertaining. I think you forgot to add D.A.R.P.A. created the internet and as for hacking into e-mails and such anyone can do it, even you, that is given the time, patience, and education; but, what average citizen wants to go to jail. As for cell phones, they are nothing more than encrypted cb's or walkie talkies on a better frequency, you remeber those huh. America Nazi is contradictory. America is too diverse of a country to be of Nazi intent and plus we are oversighted too much by the UN, civil right laws, human right protestors and such. I suggest researching Nazi stuff and see that a country has to be anti-miscegenation (a nation that is not mixed, like all white, jewish, or black marriages not mixed) to be a Nazi nation; thus, i beg to differ about places such as China and Iran, who's intent maybe of Nazi intent. Being a Nazi is simply this: a nation that hordes resources, induces slavery, preaches crazy idealogy about being the "great breed race", political elitism (the political and military wing controls the life and death of their people ((American republicans and China have something in common in that instance )), and death squads. As for freedom and rights in America, please don't live with the assumption that the "American Government" is watching you because they are and so are other countries that mean you, I, and every American harm;however, your government is just doing it's job of protecting you because there are some oppressed people slaving over a computer by some other government like those mentioned above that would love to behead all Americans and take over this country. As for me, I know for a fact my government is watching me and a lot of other people, I really don't care, as long as I can do what I want within the framework of Our Constitution and some other state bylaws. So why are you ragging on your own country? I rather have stars and strips flying over head instead of swastikas. If America wanted us all dead we would have been dead back in the 1950's,60's,70's,80's,90's and so forth by nuclear,chemical, or biological means; but as I see it we are freely blogging our thoughts and such without anyone looking over our shoulders and if someone is staring over your shoulder they are just nosey like nosey neighbors that have no business of their own and like looking at your pretty nose because their life is un-exciting and their noses are ugly. I read all the Nazi junk and such, even had a run in with a few, even visited the countries where it all down (WW1 and 2) and guess what, I am one of the most profiled races with a Jewish last name and I'm not of Jewish ethnicticiy (skin color). Yeah, America can be a real harden frigid b!@#$ sometimes, but there is no country more free than America, though we have to advocate what we (American people and such) want our government to do for us, even though they don't at times.
" Get back on the meds and quickly" lmfao
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Sure they need smarter machines. IQ's are going down. People are getting dumber with PS3, XBOX360 and nintendo. Thinking is not part of life anymore.
Consider this:
Our Internet was largely a DARPA project. It failed because of one thing, the phone lines used then were largely unreliable. And prone to EMP. That's caused by exposure to the shocking energies present at a normal nuclear blast. The other was that the military refused to believe it had any significance to their work. The things Cliff saw his curious pest looking for were once such availability, there are countless others.
By the time of Cliff Stoll's famous book everything had started to expand, but we were not at the level most of us are now. Now there's a darned good reason why DARPA needs such hardware. One such individual is the computer named Watson working for IBM Research, he happens to be a fan of Jeopardy as well, and a coming contestant.
The skynet technology of the Terminator timeline probably won't happen at all, but at least they will approach it with even smarter UAVs out and more capable troopers because of it. The other important thing to consider is that we are here now doing this because of our interesting, and at times rewarding history.
And this is a good thing.
This is a common problem not just for the military, Police have the same problem tracking felons; Traffic systems have the same problem tracking flow patterns, even geologists have a data flow problem tracking plate tectonics - It's all too much random info. For the military since it deals with people they should include natural human rhythms such as circadian cycles etc...
Taking a different tack on this. I'm a UFO buff, so if a alien culture was, say, oh 1,000 years ahead of us think of the possibilities for their spacecraft. Many UFO believers believe UFOs are piloted by living, breathing aliens. Maybe not. Perhaps they are very sophisticated, intelligent machines gathering data, but able to respond to external stimuli, giving the impression that someone is at the "helm", for lack of a better word.
they should use this upcoming tech for border control as well as military and law enforcement applications. they have the uavs that run on solar power and run on battery power at night. patrol the borders, detect illegals, report location, and let the humans intercept the invaders.
Put multiple shutoffs, backdoors, and overrides in this thing.
Pretty please.
Thank goodness for this. As long as we can keep advancing ahead of the Chinese...