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>The presence of hard defensive positions augmented by landmines and autonomous sentry guns allows South Korea to deter Northern aggression without having to ke

>The presence of hard defensive positions augmented by landmines and autonomous sentry guns allows South Korea to deter Northern aggression without having to keep up with North Korea's punishing and impoverishing level of military spending. And the presence of plenty of artillery pointed at Seoul has prevented anyone who doesn't want to see Seoul leveled as a result of their actions from taking aggressive action against North Korea. Knowing that if you do anything bad you will get whacked hard enough that it's not worth it is a powerful deterrent. >Like any weapon, robotic weapons are only a problem if you use them for evil. Because of the inherent defensive bias of the technology (stationary is easier than mobile, defending a known area is easier than entering an new area and figuring out what to shoot) robotic weapons are a bigger problem for those seeking to do or enable evil.

philwelch 8y ago
> Because of the inherent defensive bias of the technology (stationary is easier than mobile, defending a known area is easier than entering an new area and figuring out what to shoot) robotic weapons are a bigger problem for those seeking to do or enable evil. This is a crucial point. Another point is that most potential adversaries don't value the lives of their fighters as much as we value the lives of our military personnel. If half a dozen American troops die, it's national news. If a hundred die, it's a political scandal. People wonder why the US spends so much more on defense than other countries. That's partially because we're willing to spend lots and lots of dollars to save just a few lives. And, for that reason, I think the US in particular will eventually be willing to replace even its offensive military capacity with robots. And if it works, that means the US or any other technologically advanced state can, at great expense, continue a counterinsurgency campaign indefinitely. But, as you point out, any defender who can scrap a robot together will have an advantage in countering that ability. Hell, they might even be able to use open-source software to run them. And that's the good news. Orwell wrote, "...tanks, battleships and bombing planes are inherently tyrannical weapons, while rifles, muskets, long-bows and hand-grenades are inherently democratic weapons. A complex weapon makes the strong stronger, while a simple weapon--so long as there is no answer to it--gives claws to the weak."

philwelch 8y ago

> Because of the inherent defensive bias of the technology (stationary is easier than mobile, defending a known area is easier than entering an new area and figuring out what to shoot) robotic weapons are a bigger problem for those seeking to do or enable evil. This is a crucial point. Another point is that most potential adversaries don't value the lives of their fighters as much as we value the lives of our military personnel. If half a dozen American troops die, it's national news. If a hundred die, it's a political scandal. People wonder why the US spends so much more on defense than other countries. That's partially because we're willing to spend lots and lots of dollars to save just a few lives. And, for that reason, I think the US in particular will eventually be willing to replace even its offensive military capacity with robots. And if it works, that means the US or any other technologically advanced state can, at great expense, continue a counterinsurgency campaign indefinitely. But, as you point out, any defender who can scrap a robot together will have an advantage in countering that ability. Hell, they might even be able to use open-source software to run them. And that's the good news. Orwell wrote, "...tanks, battleships and bombing planes are inherently tyrannical weapons, while rifles, muskets, long-bows and hand-grenades are inherently democratic weapons. A complex weapon makes the strong stronger, while a simple weapon--so long as there is no answer to it--gives claws to the weak."