A Brave New Age of Nano-Assassins On the Way?

Devised by engineers at Harvard, an ingenious method for rapid fabrication of micro-bots may herald in a brave new day for mass-produced micro assassins.

In prototypes, 18 layers of carbon fiber, Kapton, titanium, brass, ceramic, and adhesive sheets have been laminated together in a complex, laser-cut design. The structure incorporates flexible hinges that allow the three-dimensional product—just 2.4 millimeters tall—to assemble in one movement, like a pop-up book.

The entire product is approximately the size of a U.S. quarter, and dozens of these microrobots could be fabricated in parallel on a single sheet. _Physorg

An inexpensive approach to the mass-fabrication of assassin micro-bots would put such tools of social engineering within the reach of even the most impoverished household. These tiny devices of empowerment may soon find their way into discount stores in every town.

Sreetharan, Whitney, and their colleagues in the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory at SEAS have been working for years to build bio-inspired, bee-sized robots that can fly and behave autonomously as a colony. Appropriate materials, hardware, control systems, and fabrication techniques did not exist prior to the RoboBees project, so each must be invented, developed, and integrated by a diverse team of researchers. _Physorg

Thanks to the new mass-production techniques devised by Harvard engineers, millions of micro-assassin bots can be produced in one production run. Programming the bot for its specific mission requires only a few minutes, and can be performed over a wireless network, using appropriate security protocols.

Harvard engineers say that they will soon be able to reduce the size of the killer bots to the point that they are no longer visible via the naked eye. Of course, invisibility of a sort is already achievable using other stealth tools recently devised across town at MIT.

MIT and Harvard have reportedly allied themselves in a microbot assassin war against Yale and Stanford. But before risking it all in total micro-war, the engineers are rumoured to be testing their killer bots via covert operations in Iran and North Korea.

According to one of the lead engineers on the project, the bots are almost indistinguishable from an insect or arthropod. Some of the bots have been designed to mimic small minnows and worms.

There is some speculation that the minnow bots and worm bots are meant to work their way up through the fish food chain until they have taken over the brains of sharks and barracuda. These borg-controlled fast swimming fish can then be used to carry high explosives into enemy naval installations, for either coordinated or stand-alone attacks.

It is clear that the intrepid engineers of Harvard have taken the concept of stealth assassins to an entirely new level. Widespread vengeance and vigilantism have never been so easy! It will be interesting to watch and see how this concept develops.

All images via Concept Art

Adapted from an earlier article published on Al Fin Potpourri

More weapons news: Shock, Awe, and Ow! at 100 Yards

Robot Doom? If You Can See Them You Can Fight Them

The fear of "robot apocalypse" is but one of the many fears of doom which trouble the dreams of modern humans. New speculations over the US Navy's development of swarm robots is feeding into this deep anxiety (Brian Wang has more details).

Out of dozens of US Navy technology solicitations, "N11A-T037 Desktop Manufacturing with Micro-robot Swarm" has been the focus of concern. One can almost imagine swarms of warrior robots pouring out of desk-top factories around the world, eager to fight and kill for robot conquest and glory.

Sure, some designs for swarm robots are quite benign and even beneficent, but anyone familiar with science fiction understands what can happen when mobile machines are made more powerful, as well as capable of reproducing themselves and coordinating action among themselves.

The actual danger will not come from hulking, clanking robots that you can see, however. Such robots require too much material and too much energy to create, maintain, and move to the kill zone. No, when robots decide to exterminate humans, the swarm that gets you will be the one you cannot see -- until it is too late.

You see, it will be far more economical and effective for self-assembling robot exterminators to come in the guise of wind- and water-borne micro-bots and nano-bots. Consider Josh Hall's wonderful vision of nano utility fog, but instead of creating a wonderful fantasy world for humans, the fog binds them, chokes them, shreds them, then uses their remains as raw material to make more fog.

Of course, it would be wasteful for nano-conquerors to commit wholesale genocide against groups of humans. It might be smarter for them select the humans likely to be useful, then simply perform nano-neurosurgery to make them more compliant to their overlordship.

Imagine invasive nano-fog which is capable of giving impromptu IQ and physical aptitude tests to any persons it finds, then passing instant judgment on them -- terminate or transform. Resistance is futile, if you can not see them coming.

Robert Freitas' inspiring conception of Nanomedicine reveals the optimistic side of human vision. But for every profound and competent optimistic visionary, there are hundreds of dull doomers and would-be doomers. And at least a few very bright dreamers who might be turned to the dark side with sufficient incentive.

The good thing about nano-weapons is that they are likely to have an expiration date. If you can outlast their destructive phase, you should be alright until the next swarm is unleashed.

Anyone who incorporates powerful networked molecular-level replicators or desk-top fabs into their technological vision, will always be vulnerable to an internal threat from devices that can always be tampered with or hacked.

Once "desktop manufacturing" or 3-D fabs become sophisticated enough, the programming for such "killer nano-fog" can be sent to the fab over the net from anywhere. As soon as a desktop fab can create an entirely autopoietic nano fog, there will no longer be a need for the fab. The fog can recreate itself using targeted raw material it comes upon in its wind- or water-borne travels.

If the very air you breathe and the water you drink is infested by nano-bots of doubtful provenance, where will you find safety? While you may think you will be safe in a deep underground bunker, you should remember how easily the Stuxnet worm penetrated Iran's deep bunkers.

Basing your survival upon the idea that "the commons" will always be free and safe, may not be the best plan. Humans are at the top of the survival chain in one sense, but they are badly outnumbered by insects and microbes. If swarm intelligences which can assume the sizes of insects and microbes get it into their minds to topple the homo king of the mountain, the slide to the bottom may leave you more than bruised.

Stuxnet Heralds a Brave New World of Sophisticated Weaponry

Natanz Nuclear Enrichment Defense Iran Stuxnet appears to have been developed in the US and refined in Israel, before being introduced into Iranian computers by shadowy import-export companies. More from Wired:

Suddenly, over a six-month period beginning late 2009, U.N. officials monitoring the surveillance images “watched in amazement” as Iranian workers “dismantled more than 10 percent of the plant’s 9,000 centrifuge machines used to enrich uranium,” according to the Washington Post. “Then, just as remarkably, hundreds of new machines arrived at the plant to replace the ones that were lost.”

Investigators described the effort as a feverish attempt to contain damage and replace broken parts, suggesting the centrifuges had indeed been operational when they broke....One other piece of information suggests Iran’s nuclear program was the target of Natanz. Last week security firm Symantec released a report revealing that the Stuxnet attack targeted five organizations in Iran that were infected first in an effort to spread the malware to Natanz.

Because Natanz’s PLCs are not connected to the internet, the best hope of attacking them – short of planting a mole inside Natanz – was infecting other computers that could serve as a gateway to the Natanz PLC. For example, infecting computers belonging to a contractor in charge of installing software at Natanz could help get the malware onto the Natanz system.

Symantec said the companies were hit in attacks in June and July 2009 and in March, April and May 2010. Symantec didn’t name the five organizations but said that they all “have a presence in Iran” and are involved in industrial processes._Wired

No one will shed tears for the Iranian nuclear weapons program, nor for the international companies which are illegally aiding the Iranians. But this attack is just the tip of the iceberg, and a mere suggestion of the wave of more sophisticated forms of sabotage, espionage, and covert warfare which is on the way.

Targeted acts of sabotage disrupt, but the real pay-off comes from identifying the human and technical links in the chain of command. Observing who responds – and when – to worm-driven destruction helps illuminate who really runs Iran’s nuclear infrastructures. Real-world Iranian responses offer critical clues as to which scientists, administrators and engineers are trusted and who is suspect. The chance to monitor Iran’s response would be of great interest to Mossad, the International Atomic Energy Agency, America’s CIA and/or Britain’s GCHQ.

Crafting a worm that generates potential insight into all those issues represents an intelligence coup. It is as potentially revelatory as a WikiLeaks data dump. That is why interpreting Stuxnet as desperate stop-gap or one-off intervention almost certainly misunderstands its purpose. Sabotage here is a means to an end; it is a gambit to make Iran’s nuclear processes more transparent.

Iran’s nuclear elite and Ministry of Intelligence know this. It is no secret now to the mullahs that their responses to the Stuxnet breach were closely monitored by external intelligence agencies. Their internal security is furiously trying to assess what information might have inadvertently been revealed. _FT

Stuxnet's sophistication is considered to be unprecedented. But from now on, Stuxnet will be the benchmark against which future spyware and malware will be gauged.

Mr Salem [of Symantec] said new technology and new approaches are needed.

"I run the largest security company in the world. I get up and people say I have a vested interest (in pushing this line). But my job is to protect and provide security and when we say critical infrastructure is under attack, it is real."

Mr Salem mapped out a number of strategic steps that need to be taken to guard against the next major cyber attack. They include an early warning system, better intelligence on what attacks could happen, better protection, the ability to anticipate what any threat could look like and the ability to clean up after an attack.

He also pointed to a role for government that might involve a counter attack or strike.

The idea of a kill switch to allow the government to switch off the internet if it is under attack is one he did not seem overly enthusiastic about.

"The ability for us to turn something off like that and not cause other massive disruption would be very hard. We are becoming more and more dependent on the internet. There are better approaches than trying to shut off the internet. _BBC

This growing dependency on the internet can be seen at all levels of every society in the advanced world. It represents a growing vulnerability -- given the revelation of what malware like Stuxnet can do -- and needs to be addressed now, before societies move to depend upon an even more vulnerable "smart grid" power system. We should not make it easy for malicious outsiders to turn out our lights.

The threat is real, and the threat is now. The US government is one salient target, with large corporations and city/state governments also being notable targets.

More than 100 foreign intelligence agencies have tried to breach United States defence networks, largely to steal military plans and weapons systems designs, a top Pentagon official said. _NZHerald

Consequently, the US Pentagon is seeking half a billion US dollars to develop new cyber technologies -- including powerful new defenses to guard agains the powerful new cyber-attack threats.

The $500 million is part of the Pentagon’s 2012 budget request of $2.3 billion to improve the Defense Department’s cyber capabilities. At a Pentagon news conference yesterday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the research money, to be spent through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, “big investment dollars, looking to the future.”

The military is reaching out to commercial companies for the latest technologies and technical experts to safeguard the Pentagon’s computer networks from attacks and espionage, Lynn said. The effort is part of a “comprehensive cyber strategy called Cyber 3.0,” he said. _Bloomberg

The djinn is long out of the bottle, wreaking havoc on uranium enrichment centrifuge cyber systems. Similar djinns will soon fly out, based upon similar advanced cyber technology, with wider mission profiles and less selective targeting.

But regular readers of Al Fin blogs will understand that this cyber threat -- for all its potential for disruption and destruction -- is only the visible and more imaginable problem. More creative and malicious destructors are on the way, as advanced sciences and technology merge with unimaginably sophisticated hardware and software.

This is the start of the long war, which may either result in humans sinking to a pre-technological level for hundreds or thousands of years, or in humans transcending their monkey natures on the way to the wide-open next level. Watch and see.

Excerpted from an article at abu al-fin

Stay up to date on the hidden war of cyber attack at Infowar.com

For the military side of things, stay current with StrategyPage.com

One of the deepest threats will come from "nano guns, nano germs, and nano steel".

It is not unreasonable to assume that a computer virus sent from across the world could program the assembly of a deadly human virus inside an unsecured university research lab located inside a friendly country. Tight connections to the internet by conventional research DNA and RNA (and protein) assembling equipment, will allow such stealth long-range hybrid cyber/bio warfare.

The same approach could lead to the programming of deadly stealth nanoweapons, and even macro-weapons, utilising 3-D printing devices connected to the net.

If you can imagine it, so can someone else with more malignant intent. Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

Killer Robots Change Face of Future War

We are entering the age of military robots, where killer robots become ever more lethal as they inch toward autonomy.

Attack drones and bomb-handling robots are already common in battle zones.

Robots not only have no compassion or mercy, they insulate living soldiers from horrors that humans might be moved to avoid.

"The United States is ahead in military robots, but in technology there is no such thing as a permanent advantage," Singer said. "You have Russia, China, Pakistan and Iran working on military robots."

There is a "disturbing" cross between robotics and terrorism, according to Singer, who told of a website that lets visitors detonate improvised explosive devices from home computers.

"You don't have to convince robots they are going to get 72 virgins when they die to get them to blow themselves up," Singer said. _France24

The US has a head start in the use of robots by land, sea, air, and space -- but Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, and soon North Korea will have their own killer bots. Perhaps even equipped with nuclear warheads. To each of those tyrannous regimes, North America and Europe represent obstacles to the goal of conquering the world. Better to use robots to clear out the populations, so that your own people can move in and settle the land.

So why hasn't the US done this with Mexico, to make room for southward expansion in the face of the coming Ice Age? The US has not thought in terms of expansion for many decades. But the US is changing, and new imperatives may arise in the face of a changing global economy and demographics. The next violent cross-border incursion by Mexican military forces may trigger something big -- something robotic? Who knows?

Big, destructive robots may not be the biggest threat. Tiny, nano-robots, that can be targeted like the hunter-killers of Dune -- but are too small to be seen -- are soon to arrive on the scene. Carrying a tiny dose of highly lethal toxin or microbe, such nano-assassins would be virtually unstoppable. I can think of several other ways -- easy ways -- that invisible nano-machines could kill. Better not to say more.

Nanotech plus biotech plus infotech will make for potent changes in military strategy and tactics. But robotech will be quite enough, for now. Although now I must go, in the name of the baroque bloggers association, let me say, I'll be Bach!

Nano-Weapons of the Near Future

Nano-weapons are coming soon. No one knows exactly when, but you can be sure that they will see you before you see them!

Nano-Weaponry – Testing the Limits

Here are just some of the possibilities:

1.) Nano-Scouts – Using technologies that effectively “lives on” and controls live insects, the proverbial “fly on the wall” may have literally hundreds or even thousands of parasitic nano-scouts living on its exterior....

2.) Nano-Poisons – Most people instantly think of poison as a tool for killing someone. But nanotechnology, with its ability to trigger specific brain functions, will provide a whole new menu of poison options. As an example, a liar-poison will make it impossible for someone to tell the truth. A kleptomaniac poison will make it impossible for the person to stop stealing things. An alcoholic poison will make a person unable to stop drinking alcohol. The obesity poison will cause a person to eat themselves to death. And my favorite - - we’ll call it the “frontal lobotomy poison,” - - will make a person incapable of being angry or mean.

3.) Nano Force Fields – Any field powerful enough to keep the bad guys out is also capable of keeping the bad guys in....

4.) Nano Mind Erasers – Neutralizing a person’s memory can often be a more powerful defense than killing them. Micro fields flaring up in a succession of unnoticeable tiny brain bursts may wipe sections of a brain clean without anyone ever noticing. Alzheimer’s in a can.

5.) Nano Needles – Invisible to the human eye, nano diameter needles will be shot like clusters of bullets from great distances to “pin” people to a wall or freeze their physical movement. Nano needles, because of their tiny diameter, will be the ultimate non-lethal weapon, leaving no visible wounds and causing no permanent damage.

6.) Water Bullets – As a different kind of non-lethal weapon, self-contained water balls, formed around an elevated surface tension containment system, will be used to knock people down, temporarily rendering them harmless.

7.) Desynchronized Energy Fields – Binary power, created by the intersection of two otherwise harmless beams, has the ability to disrupt the energy fields in an individual. A person with desynchronized energy fields will feel extremely fatigued, and pushed to a more extreme level, will drop unconsciously to the ground. A new form of stun-gun.

8.) Nano Heart-Stoppers and Stroke Inducers – ... nano-blood flow restrictors that induce excruciating pain and reduce the victim to a fraction of who they once were, over a long period of time, have the side benefit of telling the world “don’t mess with me” or you’ll end up like this guy. __FS__via__FutureScanner

A future of nano-dust spies, sentinels, assassins, and defensive weapons, is one that most of the world's military specialists are unprepared for--to say nothing of the average world citizen. Yet most of these weapons are far closer and easier to devise and build, than the molecular nano-assembler--the horn of plenty that most people think of when they think of a nanotechnological future.

Nano-weapons combined with bio-weapons, chemical weapons, and genetic weapons, provide the budding world religious or ideological dictator with far more ultimate power than a few nuclear weapons.

Of course, every measure has a counter-measure. But not everyone will have the resources to obtain counter-measures, when the means of deadly attack becomes nearly ubiquitous. Have you thought lately about what I said regarding minimum viable population?