Comments on: Fox News: Military Robots Will Kill Everyone [Reckless Fear-Mongering]

By: CDsDontBurn

CDsDontBurn — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:01:46 +0000

When i think of this kind of stuff, the first thing that comes to mind is human “population control” like those seen in the movies Terminator (1/2/3/4), The Matrix, and I-Robot. Although in I-Robot the robots failed at controlling people.

Something like this though would first come from the military to replace soldiers with robots to minimize the loss of human life. I would imagine if something like this were to happen, it wouldn’t be for many more years. At the minimum 10 years though.

By: steve

steve — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:31:07 +0000

Bad news people … the future is already here.
It would seem that the US military is further ahead in the development of an autonomous military weapons system than we thought possible. They have already built and are testing what apparently is an autonomous, mobile weapons platform that is similar in shape to hollywood’s “transformer” or sci/fi’s “mek”.

By: Bob Jenkins

Bob Jenkins — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:43:21 +0000

It’s fear-mongering to suggest that fully autonomous machines armed to the teeth are dangerous? Ever seen code more complex than pong that didn’t require bugfixes or a patch? This is a horrible idea. Butlerian Jihad anyone? Too bad we can’t choose to opt out of makind’s stampede to mass suicide.

Think about it…wars will not be fought with machines once we reach this point, they will be fought with the ability to sabotage the enemies’ machines. If the robot can receive a command wirelessly it will be vulnerable to sabotage.

By: Stephan

Stephan — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:04:08 +0000

I agree with ironman.
But furthermore, it is also the point when to end a war – when one has no resources to build robots anymore?
It is easy with people. At some point there are none left, or those who are surrender.
It would be best just to play a game of chess and find out who would have won the war that way … or better, build robots for playing chess to find out …

By: ironman

ironman — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 19:44:38 +0000

yes with correct testing and training they could become effective tools of the military and be perfectly harmless in the correct situations.

however the argument that can be said against this is that it removes humans farther away from conflict, making it easier to go to war.

not much to do with robots, more with human motivation behind war.

By: Evan Ackerman

Evan Ackerman — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:21:17 +0000

That’s a fair point, but again, it’s one of those things that you can design and program to minimize. Like, if the robot is not actively engaged in combat, it has redundant software safeties enabled, redundant hardware safeties enabled, must not have a loaded weapon, etc. Basically, the same sorts of standards that apply to human soldiers as they pass through a town.

Part of the point is that I was trying to make is that we’ve already got this kind of thing going on all the time. There are tons of semi-autonomous systems out there that depend on a human for the final authorization to fire, and any number of minor malfunctions could potentially bypass that, but it just doesn’t happen, because safeguards are in place.

By: Troy

Troy — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:55:27 +0000

While I’m not worried about autonomous drones using the intelligence they don’t have to rebel, I am kinda worried about, say, a minor malfunction that causes the robot to fire wildly into a crowd as it passes through town.

By: Evan Ackerman

Evan Ackerman — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:47:54 +0000

But see, that’s exactly what they’re trying to do, and it’s why articles like this piss me off so much. It’s not a fair and balanced look at the technology, it’s a heavily biased presentation designed to frighten you, not inform you. Personally, I’m more scared of humans than of robots… In general, I know what a robot is going to do, and why. I know that it won’t get emotional or react under pressure. Humans, on the other hand, are much more unpredictable, and hence in some ways, they can be more dangerous than a robot could ever be.

By: nickjohnson

nickjohnson — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:40:37 +0000

Wow,

I’m a computer scientist. I typically disagree with Fox News. But you know what?

Autonomous killing machines scare the crap out of me.