An interesting thought on automation from Bob Work, who heads the Pentagon's long-range planning for robotics and automation on the battlefield. I don't know th

An interesting thought on automation from Bob Work, who heads the Pentagon's long-range planning for robotics and automation on the battlefield. I don't know that it's true or how broadly it applies, but it's something to think about regarding how automation is conceived of in different cultures: I will make a hypothesis: that authoritarian regimes who believe people are weaknesses ... that they can not be trusted, they will naturally gravitate toward totally automated solutions. Why do I know that? Because that is exactly the way the Soviets conceived of their reconnaissance strike complex. It was going to be completely automated. We believe that the advantage we have as we start this competition is our people [1] The Pentagon's research and current planning is that human-computer teams are much more effective than either alone, in many situations. [1] http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2015/12/pentagon-nervous-about-russian-and-chinese-killer-robots/124465/ http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2015/12/pentagon-nervous-a...