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> Words and meanings matter and it cannot mean whatever you want it to mean or it loses all capacity to communicate an idea. Words and meanings are not equally

> Words and meanings matter and it cannot mean whatever you want it to mean or it loses all capacity to communicate an idea. Words and meanings are not equally important. Words are only there to communicate meaning. You can communicate meaning without words, and you can even communicate the correct meaning with incorrect words. There's an interesting discussion to be had here, but "are landmines AI" isn't it.

chrisco255 6y ago
Fine I'll bite but I still think the conversation is asinine. Landmines are not placed randomly. They are intentionally placed to protect or guard an area. They don't make decisions about targets, they simply react. Of course there's a fundamental difference in strapping warheads to an AI controlled vehicle and allowing it to select and determine its own targets...and dumb switch based landmines. The latter will work as intended: if someone steps on the mine, the mine goes kaboom. There's no risk of the mine uprooting itself and carrying itself into an urban civilian population center.
- klodolph 6y ago
  > There's no risk of the mine uprooting itself and carrying itself into an urban civilian population center. And yet, landmines kill an estimated 15-20,000 civilians each year. About one in five are children. All because someone decided to defend an area. You say this is “working as intended”, but—how can this be the intended result? Automatic weapon systems allow you to make decisions about who lives and dies, and they let you escape responsibility by making those deaths occur at a different time/place from when and where you caused those deaths. If you were defending an area with teammates and friends’ lives on the line, you might be a little less careful about how your decisions affect the lives of civilians—especially the civilian deaths are uncertain and distant.

chrisco255 6y ago

Fine I'll bite but I still think the conversation is asinine. Landmines are not placed randomly. They are intentionally placed to protect or guard an area. They don't make decisions about targets, they simply react. Of course there's a fundamental difference in strapping warheads to an AI controlled vehicle and allowing it to select and determine its own targets...and dumb switch based landmines. The latter will work as intended: if someone steps on the mine, the mine goes kaboom. There's no risk of the mine uprooting itself and carrying itself into an urban civilian population center.

klodolph 6y ago
> There's no risk of the mine uprooting itself and carrying itself into an urban civilian population center. And yet, landmines kill an estimated 15-20,000 civilians each year. About one in five are children. All because someone decided to defend an area. You say this is “working as intended”, but—how can this be the intended result? Automatic weapon systems allow you to make decisions about who lives and dies, and they let you escape responsibility by making those deaths occur at a different time/place from when and where you caused those deaths. If you were defending an area with teammates and friends’ lives on the line, you might be a little less careful about how your decisions affect the lives of civilians—especially the civilian deaths are uncertain and distant.