Battlestar Galactica Blood & Chrome (Off shoot movie in the Battlestar Galactica Universe)

I was in town wondering around my local supermarket when I saw a swivel stand with cheap DVDs. Also, to my surprise, was a couple of sides donated to cut price blu-ray movies. These were selling at £5.

I noticed several that I might like being a Sci/Fi and historical fan.  On the historical front, I could only see two which was Braveheart and Gladiator. Gladiator is fantastic, but I already have it and unfortunately, I can't stand Braveheart because it is about a load of Sweaty Socks winning against the English. I'm English and can't stand the Sweaties winning anything. Even if its a football match, so Hell can freeze over before I would even give Braveheart a viewing again. 

What I did get was Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator - a peach of a movie and one called Battlestar Galactica - Blood & Chrome. I watched all of the new t.v. series and enjoyed, so for £5, I thought I might give the off shoot movie a go.

It was a sort of b-movie made for t.v. relying on some special effects that one might see in a video game, but the plot moved along fast and the small group that the story centred about worked well. The plot progressed in several stages of adventure while our heroes went upon a quest. 

It was not the best movie I've ever seen, but then I did not expect it to be. It was, however, pleasantly surprising because I found it a little better then my expectations. It also had a great ending for me. 

The Cylons were not overplayed either. The viewer is aware of them more as an unseen enemy for most of the movie. We get glimpses of them at a distance, in the beginning, and the unseen knowledge of them works too. Off course they make an appearance towards the end, but the entire story works well without them for most. I can't believe how enjoyable this little modest movie was.

I would say it is well worth a buy if you see it going cheap in the supermarket. A good story with some good action sequences. The film moved at a nice pace and did not get bogged down along the way. It flowed well and the effects worked. I would give it a 7.5 out of 10. 

Could An Army Be Replaced with Robots Instead of Human Soldiers?

Sometimes the pace of advancement is so rapid, I can't keep up with it. It never fails to excite and dazzle me. These new innovations concerning robotic soldiers are just the tip of the ice berg. This is another article from EEEA Spectrum - a leading magazine/blog online where all sorts of grand ideas can be found. What if all these robots went rouge or some mad dictator got hold of them? It does have shades of Terminator about it all. I'm sure we'll develop ways of combating these robots too, or a new type of combating science will evolve for such a thing. Counter measures bring about counter, counter measures and so the ever expanding circle continues.

U.S. Army Considers Replacing Thousands of Soldiers With Robots

By Evan Ackerman

Posted 22 Jan 2014 | 17:05 GMT

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Photo: Boston Dynamics

Boston Dynamics designed the LS3 "robot mules" to help soldiers carry heavy loads.

Last week at the Army Aviation Symposium, in Arlington, Va., a U.S. Army officer announced that the Army is looking to slim down its personnel numbers and adopt more robots over the coming years. The biggest surprise, though, is the scale of the downsizing the Army might aim for.

At the current rate, the Army is expected to shrink from 540,000 people down to 420,000 by 2019. But at last week's event, Gen. Robert Cone, head of the Army's Training and Doctrine Command, offered some surprising details about the slim-down plans. As Defense News put it, he "quietly dropped a bomb," saying the Army is studying the possibility of reducing the size of a brigade from 4,000 soldiers to 3,000 in the coming years. To keep things just as effective while reducing manpower, the Army will bring in more unmanned power, in the form of robots. From the Defense News story:

“I’ve got clear guidance to think about what if you could robotically perform some of the tasks in terms of maneuverability, in terms of the future of the force,” he said, adding that he also has “clear guidance to rethink” the size of the nine-man infantry squad.

“When you see the success, frankly, that the Navy has had in terms of lowering the numbers of people on ships, are there functions in the brigade that we could automate—robots or manned/unmanned teaming—and lower the number of people that are involved given the fact that people are our major cost,” he said.

The thing to keep in mind about initiatives like this is that the army personnel who are actually flying airplanes or shooting guns or disarming bombs don'tmake up the majority of the army. There's a concept called tooth-to-tail ratio, which is the ratio of soldiers directly involved in fighting missions (tooth) to those involved in supporting activities (tail). A typical ratio is about 1/3 tooth to 2/3 tail, which means that you're spending a lot of resources on logistics, supplies, and other efforts to support the actual combat operations. According to Gen. Cole, the Army sees that as an opportunity to become more efficient. "Maybe it’s one-half to one-half," he said. "The point is you get to keep more tooth, more folks that actually conduct operations on the ground and less supporting structure."

And one way of becoming more efficient is by using support robots—a trend we're seeing not only in the Army but other U.S. armed forces as well. Robots will likely include autonomous vehicles that can transport supplies,autonomous aircraft that can transport supplies, and other autonomous robots that can transport supplies (like the LS3 "robot mule," pictured above). As you may have noticed, there's a theme here, but most of those support robot programs are in the early stages and whether they'll prove effective, only time will tell.

Robots Will Become House Hold Appliances

On YouTube there are examples of advanced prototype humanoid robots that can walk about and have perfect balance. One was an Asimo Honda model that had perfect coordination and balance. Its movement was very fluid and it could side step as well. Then another model appeared at a conference show. It was made by Kawanda and was taller and leaner looking than the Asimo model. I could not believe how advanced these Robots were and how well they moved. The Kawanda model began posing upon the stage as though it was at a Mr Universe contest, showing various arm movements then stretching out its arms, standing on one leg with perfect balance. It was incredible.

Robotic engineering is increasing at mind boggling rates. How long before we have such things as domestic appliances? How quickly will the new upgrades start coming out as we quickly replace them the way we do mobile phones or computer tablets?

I can imagine them with their own mobile phone systems. You'll ring home and it will answer. You'll tell it what you want for dinner and it would have done all the chores. We will become lazy. They might have agricultural ones ploughingfields and picking crops. Where will it stop and what will we do? Devote ourselves to scientific or artistic past times? Yes everything sounds Hunky Dory or will it be?

Even out in Space they could be used. We were talking about mining asteroids and using them as vehicles in space or extracting minerals from them. Rather than use astronauts in such a hazardous enterprise, how about robots? We could reduce the risk and it all seems very probable that this type of solution will be used.

Again, robotics makes the possibility of many tasks we perform even more remote. The benefits of such machines could be tremendous. The amount of unemployed looks even worse however. A vast amount of the population will need to be motivated or we could all drift into a state of apathy.

When I watched part of the Robotic display I found it exciting and also potentially scary. I was not afraid of the actual machines, but more by what their integration will do to mass population employment. All the science fiction notions of machines doing the work become frighteningly more plausible. Multi millions of these machines will become common domestic appliances like a hover or washing machine. Every household will have one. I sincerely believe this will happen and possibly in my lifetime. I think if we do not adjust ourselves to the potential pit falls, we could ruin our society for some considerable time.

I have an image of me driving along the motor way with these humanoid things litter picking. They might be used by councils for waste disposal in town centres or be traffic wardens. The potential is limitless and the mass of people becoming unemployed is even more ominous. Sometimes technology advances at a pace we can’t keep up with. I was truly shocked by how advanced these humanoid robots could move.

Out on the fringe of society these robots would be great; like mining or space exploration in hazardous areas. This I see as positive, but that trend of domestic reliability is the one that makes me wobble. The manufacturers need to get them into domestic reliability to create a popular demand and enable them to lower costs of mass purchasing these robots. However, if lots of people are unemployed how will the economics for upgraded models come about?

We are going to have to radically change our society to motivate large sections of our population because we might struggle to adapt quick enough.