Those Job-Stealing Robots Are Going After the Navy’s Mine-Hunting Dolphins

It’s a textbook case of not appreciating what you have until it’s gone: the U.S. Navy plans to replace some of its mine-hunting dolphins with unmanned submersibles described as “12-foot torpedo-shaped robot[s]” by 2017. Were you even aware before this announcement that the Navy had a $28 million-dollar marine mammal program based in Southern California? Or that it began in the 1950s and at one point also included “killer whales and sharks”? If not, you must feel this loss all the more keenly. More »