From: jimmyw836@gmail.com   
      
   On Thursday, December 15, 2022 at 3:37:46 AM UTC-5, MrPosti...@kymhorsell.com   
   wrote:   
   > Something that may be relevant to "encouraging people to go up to    
   > landed flying objects". At some point you have to think of your    
   > legal liabilities when you build stuff and have people use it, especially    
   > if you tell them it's "OK" to use it in certain ways for certain things.    
   >    
   > The Kill Switch    
   > ===============    
   >    
   > At one time I was interested in robots. Building robots.    
   > I got pretty deep into the tech and built a few kits and experimented.    
   > I pulled some strings with contacts and managed to get some    
   > contract work building robots.    
   >    
   > The most successful was a "truck bot" with a stable platform on it.    
   > The specification for the machine was to safely carry a $30,000    
   > camera at high speed through the Australian bush and desert,    
   > follow some small running animal like a lizard or rat up to 40 mph,    
   > and avoid smashing the camera or hitting a tree.    
   > If possible improve the quality of the images by providing extra    
   > image stabilisation. At 40 mph they had found radio-controlled cars    
   > had been too bumpy to get anything useful. The camera had both    
   > electronic and mechanical stabilisation built in, but the bumps    
   > running across normal ground -- even sandy desert -- was too much.    
   >    
   > After some experiments I build a big truckbot about 1m x 1m by 1/2m    
   > high that could run around at 45 mph. 2 big elec motors to propel it.    
   > Battery+P/S that could give 500W for a short while. :)    
   > A simplified stable platform on top (upside down pyramid with    
   > pivot around the apex and actuators at each corner). Small car computer    
   > (x86 "atom") to run my old BSD version of Unix with vision s/w to control   
   it.    
   > Some pre-built learning algorithms to navigate it around simple    
   > terrain with bushes and the occasional tree maybe. It had different    
   > down-loadable s/w for desert, light bush, thin forest. It could not    
   > handle full forest but there isn't much of that where it was going.    
   >    
   > I have a youtube page under my name -- I no longer am active with it much --    
   > showing "truckbot" and a few other robot projects from 10-20y back.    
   > I went blind a few years back.    
   >    
   > A production company back then eventually used it to make a few nature    
   > documentaries. It's possible you have seen footage of camera    
   > chasing a lizard or rat and the camera is real steady and didnt hit    
   > a tree. That might by Truckboti 1.0. :)    
   >    
   > I know this is a long boring story. But there is a real point. Here it   
   comes.    
   >    
   > At the time it was fairly standard practice to try to make robots    
   > safe around people. Especially if they maybe could move at 40 mph.    
   > If something weighing 100 kg hits you at 40 mph you know about it.    
   > There were some bad accidents in factories when e.g. "security robots"    
   > started chasing people they thought were intruders and ran them over.    
   > Can get nasty if they are a company exec.    
   >    
   > So sometimes it was REQUIRED to have a safety switch clearly mounted    
   > on the top of a robot. If it started acting funny anyone nearby    
   > could hit the big red button without getting hit by the thing    
   > and all power to the robot was immediately cut and it stopped.    
   > It was required for some industry robots. It was required for some    
   > robot-fighting situations they had in the UK. It was required for robot    
   > competitions at e.g. CMU. It was anyway a good idea in general.    
   >    
   > Here comes the point.    
   >    
   > Maybe 2 mn years ago humans suddenly came down from the trees    
   > and started exploring. For some reason not fully understood they    
   > developed big brains unlike 99.9% of other creatures on the planet.    
   > They got so good at planning and understanding what they saw    
   > they became the dominant species on the planet. That they knew of, anyway.    
   >    
   > It has been speculated some places this did not happen by pure luck.    
   > Some people think "help" was required to build some of the big    
   > ancient architecture we see surviving today. Some even speculate    
   > maybe the human species had "help" coming down from the trees.    
   > We are currently experimenting with genetic engineering and some    
   > of the results can be pretty amazing. It seems a very powerful toolbox.    
   >    
   > Now it would seem to be a very good idea when you are building    
   > some kind of new species -- stop me if you've heard    
   > Rutger Hauer say this in some movie -- you put in a kill switch.    
   > Like the kill switch people maybe put on robots today.    
   > Sometimes it is even REQUIRED before "authorities" will let the thing    
   > out in public.    
   >    
   > In human-built robots sometimes you want the kill switch to be easy    
   > to access. So even a kid could hit it, if they need to.    
   > But in a new species you probably want the kill switch to be    
   > easy to activate for you, even your kids, but you don't want it to keep    
   > getting hit by accident. You don't want the new species switching each other    
   > off all the time. You don't want them falling down or getting chased    
   > by a tigar and switching themselves off. But you want it to be easy to   
   switch    
   > off the thing. Just not by accident. There might be some requirement    
   > that it should not allow anyone to just switch the things off maliciously.    
   > Maybe there is some kind of password or fingerprint recognition security on    
   > the kill switch. It's a balancing act.    
   >    
   > In the UFO folklore there is a concept called "missing time".    
   > It's all very mysterious. But some people say all they have to do it    
   > *look* as some odd hunk of junk hovering in the sky and they suddenly    
   > wake up and its 1 hr later.    
   >    
   > Easy to switch off. But not by accident.    
   >    
   > So, really, I would not be thinking you can go up to some kind of    
   > odd craft that just landed in the park down the road as if it was a rock.    
   > The wrong kind of people or buggy version of their planetary exporling    
   > s/w in that think they might just switch you to "idle mode" and no amount    
   > of hardening of your cell phone alert system is going to save you from    
   > getting snatched and/or ate.    
   >    
   > These ideas flashed before my eyes one morning.    
   >    
   > I was out in one of the yards on my semi-rural property.    
   > That yard has a few nice big trees in it. I sometimes like to sit under   
   them.    
   > This early morning I was hoping to see some odd things in the sky.    
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)