We Thought the Carnivorous Robots Would Help Mankind. We Didn’t Know How Wrong We Were.

What’s your first thought when you hear that inventors have invented robots that eat mice and insects for power?  Right, that they’re not going to stop at mice and insects.  Eventually they will develop a craving… for pancakes.

[Pests] fall into the microbial fuel cell beneath, where bacteria digest the fly and cause chemical changes that the cell can extract power from. 

The energy is used to power the LCD clock and keep the roller revolving.

The clock is designed to sit by your bedside and keep the time as you sleep.  Waiting.  Always waiting.  More robots that will eat you, after the jump.

While the clock eats flies for constructive reasons – so that you can know what time it is – the same design firm also made a carnivorous coffee table that eats mice:

When the mouse stands on the trapdoor in the centre, sensors open the door and it falls into the microbial fuel cell. 

The digested mouse generates the energy to power the trap door, sensor and an LED graphic display on the front of the table.

So basically the only thing the mouse meat energy fuels is the table’s ability to eat more mice.

Last but not least, a robotic thingamajig that encourages spiders to build webs and trap flies on it, only to steal the flies away when the spiders aren’t looking.  Mark my words, we will rue the day we taught robots to taunt the animal kingdom.

In fifty years, we’ll consider today an Important Day, but in a bad way.  New Scientist shows a vid of the robots going Thanksgiving on some bugs via Geekologie.