4 ms·

Just my personal opinion, but I think Boston dynamics robots show a lot of potential in the near future for military uses, however seeing big dogs in the battle

by msl09 11y ago

Just my personal opinion, but I think Boston dynamics robots show a lot of potential in the near future for military uses, however seeing big dogs in the battle field could generate pretty bad PR for Google, a company whose motto is, still, do no evil.

increment_i 11y ago
I'm inclined to agree. Google probably does not want to be the company that creates Terminators for the Pentagon. Watching the last BD demo on YouTube, watching that humanoid stomp through the forest, I couldn't help but joke how terrifying it would be to see one of those things holding a machine gun.
- BinaryIdiot 11y ago
  > I couldn't help but joke how terrifying it would be to see one of those things holding a machine gun. Funny thing is I would be far less terrified of it than a human if it were holding a machine gun because its human-like movement is so incredibly slow I would feel like I actually had a chance (even if I didn't). However, if they embedded the machine gun into the bot itself (which I think is far more likely) then you could have instant targeting which shifts the terrifying back to the bot. It would also not look like it even has a gun depending on how they incorporated it and it could fire in multiple directions at once. Ah, the future of war. So efficient and terrifying.
  - Kliment 11y ago
    There are already automated "click to kill" turrets. They have a thermal camera and a gun, do automated target detection and automated killing. It's only due to customer demand that they have a human in the loop clicking the kill button. Having been within the firing range of one of those, it's a really terrifying feeling.
    - hellbanner 11y ago
      Which company makes these?
      - sirkneeland 11y ago
        I think Samsung has a division that makes them for the ROK military (not being facetious, but possibly being incorrect)
        onetimePete 11y ago
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AKZC-5dFWQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AKZC-5dFWQ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_SGR-A1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_SGR-A1
archgoon 11y ago
> a company whose motto is, do no evil Actually, it was 'don't be evil'. They've emphasized the difference in the past; but in any case, Alphabet replaced it with "Do the Right Thing"[1]. But yeah; Alphabet is probably unlikely to want to be associated with the US military. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil
- krapp 11y ago
  They're already associated with the US government, it makes little sense for them to want to distance themselves from the military.
tenpies 11y ago
> Google, a company whose motto is, still, do no evil. Seems to have been changed to "Do the right thing" to some extent when they changed to Alphabet [1]. Interestingly enough, I think that restructure also helps obfuscate where Google products are used. It's unlikely that any military robots would be Google branded. Instead they would probably fall under a relatively obscure Alphabet company that the average person would never relate back to Google. --- [1] http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/02/alphabet-do-the-right-thing/ http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/02/alphabet-do-the-right-thi...
SahAssar 11y ago
That's not their motto anymore, now it's "Do the right thing" which is more ambiguous in my opinion... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil#The_End_of_.22Don.27t_Be_Evil.22 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil#The_End_of_.22...

by msl09 11y ago

increment_i 11y ago

I'm inclined to agree. Google probably does not want to be the company that creates Terminators for the Pentagon. Watching the last BD demo on YouTube, watching that humanoid stomp through the forest, I couldn't help but joke how terrifying it would be to see one of those things holding a machine gun.

BinaryIdiot 11y ago
> I couldn't help but joke how terrifying it would be to see one of those things holding a machine gun. Funny thing is I would be far less terrified of it than a human if it were holding a machine gun because its human-like movement is so incredibly slow I would feel like I actually had a chance (even if I didn't). However, if they embedded the machine gun into the bot itself (which I think is far more likely) then you could have instant targeting which shifts the terrifying back to the bot. It would also not look like it even has a gun depending on how they incorporated it and it could fire in multiple directions at once. Ah, the future of war. So efficient and terrifying.
- Kliment 11y ago
  There are already automated "click to kill" turrets. They have a thermal camera and a gun, do automated target detection and automated killing. It's only due to customer demand that they have a human in the loop clicking the kill button. Having been within the firing range of one of those, it's a really terrifying feeling.
  - hellbanner 11y ago
    Which company makes these?
    - sirkneeland 11y ago
      I think Samsung has a division that makes them for the ROK military (not being facetious, but possibly being incorrect)
      - onetimePete 11y ago
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AKZC-5dFWQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AKZC-5dFWQ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_SGR-A1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_SGR-A1

archgoon 11y ago

> a company whose motto is, do no evil Actually, it was 'don't be evil'. They've emphasized the difference in the past; but in any case, Alphabet replaced it with "Do the Right Thing"[1]. But yeah; Alphabet is probably unlikely to want to be associated with the US military. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil

krapp 11y ago
They're already associated with the US government, it makes little sense for them to want to distance themselves from the military.

tenpies 11y ago

> Google, a company whose motto is, still, do no evil. Seems to have been changed to "Do the right thing" to some extent when they changed to Alphabet [1]. Interestingly enough, I think that restructure also helps obfuscate where Google products are used. It's unlikely that any military robots would be Google branded. Instead they would probably fall under a relatively obscure Alphabet company that the average person would never relate back to Google. --- [1] http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/02/alphabet-do-the-right-thing/ http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/02/alphabet-do-the-right-thi...

SahAssar 11y ago

That's not their motto anymore, now it's "Do the right thing" which is more ambiguous in my opinion... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil#The_End_of_.22Don.27t_Be_Evil.22 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil#The_End_of_.22...