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>Lethal robots are not a technology that can really be regulated by ban. Bans aren't merely about regulating technology, they're about regulating human behavio
by harrumph 8y ago
>Lethal robots are not a technology that can really be regulated by ban.
Bans aren't merely about regulating technology, they're about regulating human behavior by introducing consequences. They're about a society making a choice to introduce legal sanctions against persons who do something unambiguously reckless and destructive, such as handing an autonomous device the power to kill.
Responses that boil down to a shrug of the shoulders underscore an important observation: enthusiasts for technology are precisely the wrong people to ask about the importance of recklessness and risk. It's on par with asking someone in software sales for a warts-and-all perspective on their product.
- dTal 8y agoOne thing I've noticed is that the type of hacker-person one often finds on HN - the kind of person who looks at the world in terms of what is technically possible - has a gaping blind spot when it comes to the distinction between "anyone could do this" and "everyone can do this". The infamous Dropbox announcement thread is instructive - your average hacker type poo poos it because it's trivial, but its existence still changes the world in meaningful ways. There is a huge qualitative difference between "anyone could put a gun on a quadcopter" and "everyone can buy a quadcopter with a gun on it".
- harrumph 8y ago>gaping blind spot when it comes to the distinction between "anyone could do this" and "everyone can do this" Agree. These are exactly the enormously important subtleties that are lost when education omits training in the humanities.