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Chinese Develop Remote Controlled Pigeons 238

Many readers sent us links to the story about Chinese scientists developing pigeons whose flight can be controlled remotely. The best coverage may be Wired's, both because they link to the English language version of the original Peoples Daily Online release, and because of the (disturbing) photos. The birds can be commanded to fly left, right, up, or down. Reader KDan writes, "A number of obvious uses jump out to me... the remote-controlled pigeons will finally allow us to create an efficient implementation of RFC 1149 and RFC 2549."
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Chinese Develop Remote Controlled Pigeons

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  • RFC 2549 (Score:4, Funny)

    by LiquidCoooled ( 634315 ) on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @06:03AM (#18179124) Homepage Journal
    Packet storm!

    Routing to the max.
    If you set the evilbit can you make your pigeon crap on specified targets?
    • Absolutely. The line eater also takes on an entirely different meaning in this implementation.
      • Re:RFC 2549 (Score:4, Interesting)

        by MindKata ( 957167 ) on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @06:27AM (#18179258) Journal
        "crap on specified targets"

        Why stop at crapping on targets?. I bet the American security services are worried. Now there's a real risk of using one of these Pigeons as a remote spying device. Imagine an innocent looking pigeon sitting on a window ledge, but really its fitted with a microphone and remote control. It would be ideal for spying.
        • Nothing that can't be handled by a Phalanx CIWS [wikipedia.org]! Just modify it to target birds.
        • What if you had 10 pigeons fitted with nuclear devices?...
          Now -that- would be scary.
          Maybe fitted with nuclear weapons AND microphones... =/
          -Pigeons of Death, able to record your screams of fear and anguish!
          • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

            by GTMoogle ( 968547 )
            Well, you need 10 kg of plutonium for critical mass. I'm not sure what would be harder, having them live long enough to reach the target, or getting them all to crash into each other at the same time.
            • See, the parent poster knows it's not a question of how 'e grips it. It's a question of weight ratios!
          • I'm still trying to figure out how King Arthur got a hold of those coconuts. They were in a temperate zone! Sparrows carried them my ass.
          • by tsa ( 15680 )
            No, I want pidgeons with freakin' "lasers" attached to their heads!
        • by kabocox ( 199019 )
          "crap on specified targets"

          Why stop at crapping on targets?. I bet the American security services are worried. Now there's a real risk of using one of these Pigeons as a remote spying device. Imagine an innocent looking pigeon sitting on a window ledge, but really its fitted with a microphone and remote control. It would be ideal for spying.


          This is an intel nightmare. Why? Because pontentially, you could use any animal other than just pigeons. Say cats, bats, or other animals that are actually native to you
          • Remote-controlled implants probably will not improve an animal's ability to get past a fence. Anything small enough to crawl through gaps in a chain-link fence will probably not have the range to get in and out of a base. And I would guess that the native bird population near Area 51 stays away pretty well. Any bird getting too close could be shot down. I think the "better countermeasures" you are looking for have been around a very long time. Great Wall of China, anybody?
    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      Be sure to implement suitable anti-virus to prevent transmission of Avian Flu.
    • by Yvanhoe ( 564877 )
      Maybe the avian flu will become the first biological virus to attack digital packets carriers then...
    • "General Chin, the top of President Bush's head is in range. Shall we have Heroic Pigeon #2459 unload its payload?"
  • yaaay! (Score:2, Funny)

    by apodyopsis ( 1048476 )
    I want simple controls:-

    left, right, forward and of course.... fire!

    get them to eat berries first for a full on multicolour pebble dashing.

    and wait until my neighbour is washing his car.

    (of course a small head mounted camera with crosshairs target scope would be good as well :-)

    ah, delight.

    • What happens on up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right?

      Will we see a Pokemon-genre game where you breed pigeons?

      A shame we will never know what this feels like for the pigeon. Is it really being forced to turn left against its will, or does the pigeon experience it as a sudden desire to turn left?

      In the TNG canon, did the Borg originate with pigeons?
      • by julesh ( 229690 )
        A shame we will never know what this feels like for the pigeon. Is it really being forced to turn left against its will, or does the pigeon experience it as a sudden desire to turn left?

        If it's anything like the way they did something similar to rats before, they do it by stimulating an impulse that has previously been trained to make the animal turn in a desired direction -- i.e., more like the sudden desire thing. They could, theoretically, break the training. In practice, I doubt it happens much (at le
      • Is it really being forced to turn left against its will, or does the pigeon experience it as a sudden desire to turn left?

        Were you forced to make that post against your will, or did you feel a sudden desire to post tenuously-connected comments?

        BEGIN free_will_debate
    • by zCyl ( 14362 )

      I want simple controls:-

      left, right, forward and of course.... fire!

      Heheh. Now I'm imagining a wiimote pigeon. :)
    • (of course a small head mounted camera with crosshairs target scope would be good as well :-)

      You're targeting camera may need to be closer to the, er, "payload delivery end" of the bird for higher accuracy. ;-)

      Cheers
  • by oddmake ( 715380 ) on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @06:12AM (#18179166) Journal
    Now,Communist Party of China can control Google [google.com] remotely!
  • by commisaro ( 1007549 ) on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @06:13AM (#18179174) Homepage
    Am I the only one who immediately thought of the Homing Pigeon bomb from Worms Armaggedon?
    • Militarization (Score:2, Interesting)

      by ebonum ( 830686 )
      You know, there might be something to the conspiracy theories on this one. Have you ever been to Shanghai? It's a really big city. 20+ million. Almost no pigeons. Can you think of any major western city without pigeons? It's not coincidence. The survival rate of a nice pump, juicy pigeon isn't that good in China. I'm a local, I know. The point being is that this has absolutely no practical use internally whatsoever. No sane mad scientist would every build a Franken-pigeon for use in China. Half w
  • by BigJim.fr ( 40893 ) <jim@liotier.org> on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @06:13AM (#18179176) Homepage
    Anyone who has played Worms is well aware of the weaponization potential of the homing pigeon. The future battlefield will be a bed of feathers...
  • by Profound ( 50789 ) on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @06:17AM (#18179200) Homepage
    Each pigeon would cost 2 million dollars and cities with many statues would be labelled as an imminent threats.
  • Philip Reeve (Score:2, Interesting)

    by aiwarrior ( 1030802 )
    Am i the only one that can see a potential weapon rather than an rfc? A fantasy writer called Philip Reeve already imagined such creatures in uses such as scouts or units of attack( imagine an army of pidgeon coming towards you ) Surveilance, and bioweapon delivery could also be a use for this enslaved beings
    • Exactly. Give them a particularly nasty lab-developed strain of bird flu, then fly them into Tibet or Taiwan. What are the odds?
      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by KDan ( 90353 )
        No, the bird flu aspect is the least important. Flocks of RC pigeons can do all sort of nasty stuff - most obvious (which I actually had in my story submission but which the /. eds removed) being to take down a plane or attack groups of people with lots of small explosive charges.

        Daniel
        • by kabocox ( 199019 )
          No, the bird flu aspect is the least important. Flocks of RC pigeons can do all sort of nasty stuff - most obvious (which I actually had in my story submission but which the /. eds removed) being to take down a plane or attack groups of people with lots of small explosive charges.

          Um the pigeons just want us to think that. In reality, if it was found out that birds were that kind of threat, we'd remove all flying wildlife from the US. It sounds difficult. I think we could do it in a very short amount of time
    • Re:Philip Reeve (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Alicat1194 ( 970019 ) on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @08:44AM (#18179890)
      Something similar was devised during WWII, but using bats instead of pigeons (and without quite the same level of control). Check it out here [wikipedia.org].
  • Something to feed to the acustic kitty. I wonder how soon before it is used on human?
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by arivanov ( 12034 )
      Today if you want. In fact yesterday. The only reason for this to be done in China is that in any civilised country the public will torch the lab doing this and they will be right to do so. In fact this will be one of the very few cases where I will happily side up with the animal rights people.

      To the point:

      The primary sensory and locomotor areas of the brain are very well mapped (and have been so for 20+ years now). It is trivial to implant electrodes into a sensory area which will cause you extreme pain p
      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by MadMorf ( 118601 )
        My first thought when I heard this on BBC yesterday was, Oh great...A way to control the masses...

        An Army of remotely controlled (or coerced) soldiers that can't defect or even take a piss without the right control signal...

        Has anyone else here read "Single Combat" by Dean Ing?
        • Re:Cool (Score:4, Interesting)

          by arivanov ( 12034 ) on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @07:11AM (#18179428) Homepage
          It is not at that level.

          It is just pain feedback (optionally with pleasure via thalamic stimulation) along with some trivial conditioning. I am fairly sure about this being so because we do not understand how a bird flies aerodynamically and do not have good enough mapping of second and higher level functions of the mammal brain to control it any better.

          This means that if this is applied to soldiers they can still do things their masters do not like, just get punished more and more if they do. Nearly impossible for an animal to override such conditioning, but achieveable for a human. Dune and the Bene Gesserit test comes to mind along with many "manhood" tests performed by South (using fire ants) and North American Indians.

          None the less, the only question I am interested is the longitude, latitude and altitude of this chap lab.
          • by arivanov ( 12034 )
            mammal brain. Sorry - meant to say vertebrate brain (too high blood level in the coffee subsystem).
        • More like the "zone implants" in the Gap Cycle [wikipedia.org]
      • I dont think a bird could fly normally if it was getting pain impulses.

        If someone was pricking your left leg with a pin would you turn? You'd probably flinch or something.
      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by bjourne ( 1034822 )
        Today if you want. In fact yesterday. The only reason for this to be done in China is that in any civilised country the public will torch the lab doing this and they will be right to do so. In fact this will be one of the very few cases where I will happily side up with the animal rights people.

        The exact same of research has been done in the State University of New York. See http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/05/05 01_020501_roborats.html/ [nationalgeographic.com]. Except the target animal was mice instead of pigeon. P
      • Re:Cool (Score:5, Informative)

        by julesh ( 229690 ) on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @09:06AM (#18180010)
        The only reason for this to be done in China is that in any civilised country the public will torch the lab doing this and they will be right to do so. In fact this will be one of the very few cases where I will happily side up with the animal rights people.

        This is presumably how come State University of New York [nationalgeographic.com] no longer has a biology lab. Wait. I missed that news. Perhaps it didn't happen.
      • I take it you're a vegetarian or, better yet, vegan? Otherwise you're a hypocrite.
      • by Andy Dodd ( 701 )
        If I recall correctly, something along these lines was done in Japan (or other country generally considered to be "civilized"), although the level of stimulation used was extremely low (as in, not consciously perceptible, and easy enough to consciously override, but someone not putting much effort into walking straight would wind up curving left.)

        I believe that rather than trying to use pain/pleasure to "nudge" a person, this particular approach involved skewing a person's sense of balance. Correcting the
  • by BetterThanCaesar ( 625636 ) on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @06:28AM (#18179262)
    We'll have to get the best of help! Somebody call Dick Dastardly and Muttley!
  • Finally! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by tehSpork ( 1000190 )
    RFC 2549 [ietf.org] combined with this routing upgrade should finally get me an Internet connection that is faster and more reliable than Comcast Cable! Granted that this isn't exactly a very high standard, but it's a start!

    So, when will I be able to sign up for IPOP in my area (IP Over Pidgeon)?
  • by gnool ( 1005253 ) on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @06:39AM (#18179314)
    This sounds horrible. I find the idea of overriding another animal's free will very disturbing. The words "won't someone please think of the pidgeons!" come to mind, but we humans are animals after all. I would definitely not want this kind of mind control implemented with humans, and I don't want it implemented on any self-aware being.
    • I would definitely not want this kind of mind control implemented with humans

      I doubt the Chinese Government sees it the same way. Imagine the benefit to the efficent movement of commuters, especially when there are distracting demonstrations slowing people down and wasting their time. Crowd dispersal with the press of a button.

    • by julesh ( 229690 )
      This sounds horrible. I find the idea of overriding another animal's free will very disturbing. The words "won't someone please think of the pidgeons!" come to mind, but we humans are animals after all. I would definitely not want this kind of mind control implemented with humans, and I don't want it implemented on any self-aware being.

      This is almost certainly not taking over the pigeon's "free will" (if it ever had any such thing), at least not to any greater extent than a normal training program would.

      Whe
    • I agree with the sentiment, but in fact I'm pretty sure that if pidgeons could talk they'd report the remote control directions as being due to their own free will, just as hypnotized humnan subjects "programmed" to stand up/open the window/etc on cue have in experiments reported their actions as being of their own free will (or rather offerered explanations of their own behavior - I wanted to stretch, it was stuffy in here, etc - when asked why they did it). Similarly humans report reactions (e.g. take han
    • > This sounds horrible. I find the idea of overriding another
      > animal's free will very disturbing.

      Oh... You are NOT going to like being part of Corporate America after college.

  • by BadMuN ( 1069580 ) on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @06:59AM (#18179380)
    pigeons control YOU.
  • by blind biker ( 1066130 ) on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @07:11AM (#18179426) Journal
    This might be the ultimate spying device: hook up a tiny camera or mike to a pigeon and command it to fly to the window of an embassy, the Pentagon, etc.

    Of course, political assassinations via C4 bombs delivered by pigeons might be a possibility, too. Or, biological/chemical agent delivery to otherwise protected areas...

    I am having some tiny chills running down my spine.
    • I predict a wave of spy photos of statues, downtown window ledges, trees over park benches, my car's hood, etc.
  • by T0mWil5on ( 251738 ) on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @07:14AM (#18179440)
    ...Hitchcock-style!
  • It is another step.
    Ugly and non-ethical, yes, but most details on animal experiments are like this one.
    Always wanted brain implant? - well, some research must be done.
    Like it? No? Me either, but at the end people will forget all ugly parts and will use direct brian computer interface.
  • PigeonRank! (Score:2, Funny)

    by cyrax256 ( 845338 )
    Now Google will finetune PigeonRank [google.com] to perfection!
  • Great. Not only are they torturing these creatures in order to do their evil bidding. But now people are going to go around slaughtering pigeons to prevent being spied on.

    How about we put chips in the heads of those so-called scientist to control their movement against their will, and see how they like it. They'd probably change their minds about this being such a great idea. Oh wait, they can't change their minds because we've taken away their free will by putting a damn chip in their brain!

    "Science" gets
  • Don't underestimate the value of a bird that can be commanded to go down at will...
  • I guess the only question is, do the birds have B and A buttons too?
  • How horrible and obvious to everyone now. Should have been obvious for a long time considering the work done on remote control of cockroaches. My first thought was C4 to office windows, another poster mentioned.

    There was a story a few days ago about light winged army bots that are useful in Iraq. If the other side adds pigeons we may need to have a large number of armed bots to secure a periphery around troops distant enough to keep them safe. This reminds me of Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age [wikipedia.org] (sounding l
    • Good points you make. Thanks.

      -kgj
    • P.S. by on a smaller scale I mean with the agents/weapons becoming progressively smaller in size. (Perhaps smaller agents in the air or on the ground will make them cheaper to deploy in quantity while evading detection better.) Which would imply that a given size (say pigeon size) will be escalated to faster speeds, and higher yields, at the same size, until a new smaller size weapon is realized in this race. Shades of Philip K. Dick.
  • Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right?
  • Japanese in the WW-II tried to use bats to carry bombs [wikipedia.org]. Another great idea they had was to release hot air balloons [axishistory.com] filled with incindiary devices and release them into the jet stream. Two or three such bombs actually reached US mainland, and the fact was classified to prevent panic in USA. Finally when they carried tiny airplanes with bombs [wikipedia.org] in their submarines to attack US mainland, they tried to bomb the forests. The Japanese military high command had such exaggerated reports of US and its forests, t
  • All they have to do is wire up the sphincter and they can play Potty Pigeon [answers.com] for real. Infect the birds with something and it doesn't even have to be a joke.
  • More weight! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by nastro ( 32421 )
    Remote controlled pigeons are fine, but they have one drawback -- they cannot carry beer.

    I'm still waiting on my remote-controlled beer fetching attack monkey. Keep at it, scientists!
  • look, ma, it's raining bones!

    look away, child, it's a hegemonist net surfer....
  • The pigeons of China today overthrew their human masters in a major political Coo!

    (from Miller/SNL/Ecuador sometime circa 1990)
  • Running the control the other direction [wikipedia.org] is actually more interesting.
  • I am surprised that this project [linux.no] implementing RFC 1149 has not been cited yet.

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