Blog Heap of Links for the day 20 February 2009

Autonomous military robots that will fight future wars must be programmed to live by a strict warrior code, or the world risks untold atrocities at their steely hands. The stark warning — which includes discussion of a "Terminator"-style scenario in which robots turn on their human masters — is part of a hefty report funded by and prepared for the U.S. Navy's high-tech and secretive Office of Naval Research. The report, the first serious work of its kind on military robot ethics, envisages a fast-approaching era where robots are smart enough to make battlefield decisions that are at present the preserve of humans. Eventually, it notes, robots could come to display significant cognitive advantages over Homo sapiens soldiers.

last night the possibility of an extraordinary discovery had oceanographers and geophysicists captivated. ... The site lies 620 miles off the west coast of Africa near the Canary Islands - a location for Atlantis seemingly suggested by the ancient philosopher Plato. ... Last night Dr Charles Orser, curator of historical archaeology at New York State University - and one of the world's leading authorities on Atlantis - called it "fascinating".

Uniting Urantia mini wiki … where students of the Urantia Papers can come together and share thoughts and encouragement.

Attorney General Eric Holder described the United States Wednesday as a nation of cowards on matters of race, saying most Americans avoid discussing unresolved racial issues. In a speech to Justice Department employees marking Black History Month, Holder said the workplace is largely integrated but Americans still self-segregate on the weekends and in their private lives. "Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards," said Holder, nation's first black attorney general. [Oh, shut up.]