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Cops will be using these to crush protestors in 10 years.

jakear 6y ago
And the engineers involved will have had no idea such a thing would happen. After all, they only had the best of intentions, right? And if they didn’t do it someone else would have, right?
- imtringued 6y ago
  Cops manage to permanently injure or kill people with rubber bullets. I'm not really sure I can agree that the malice is in the tool and its creator. No matter how benign the tool you create, someone's going to abuse it. Should fishing companies feel responsible because someone out there used fishing line to strangle people to death?
  - jakear 6y ago
    You don’t actually see no differences between making fishing line, making less-lethal bullets, and making next-gen weapon-hosting kill machines for the military.
creato 6y ago
Why would they do that when they can just use a horse or a wheeled/tracked vehicle?
- est31 6y ago
  Horses need to be trained (usually they don't like trampling people) and have high maintenance cost. As for the wheeled vehicle, it can be prevented access with roadblocks. Also it can't enter houses. Something that can walk over piles of rubble would be clearly very useful.
- gimboland 6y ago
  Because it's utterly terrifying?
- aeyes 6y ago
  Because you need a human to control it. A robot however could just be sent on patrol and its AI would do the rest leaving no one to blame.
- bildung 6y ago
  Because then suddenly it's a tragical accident caused by a software fault, with no human responsible - just as most data breaches are framed as "cyber attacks" instead of what they actually are: negligence.
danielheath 6y ago
And the first “is a robot a human” test case will be when a protestor kills a police bot and they charge them with murdering an officer.
- kyuudou 6y ago
  IIRC similar rules apply for some police K9 dog units, as in killing one is akin to killing a human one. I love dogs and all but... I think that's a negative precedent.
tomp 6y ago
So? Better than using tanks! The solution to police/state violence is political, not (anti-)technological.
- guerrilla 6y ago
  > Better than using tanks! In what way is it better? The results seem identical and processes sufficiently similar to be isomorphic.
deleted 6y ago
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And the engineers involved will have had no idea such a thing would happen. After all, they only had the best of intentions, right? And if they didn’t do it someone else would have, right?

imtringued 6y ago
Cops manage to permanently injure or kill people with rubber bullets. I'm not really sure I can agree that the malice is in the tool and its creator. No matter how benign the tool you create, someone's going to abuse it. Should fishing companies feel responsible because someone out there used fishing line to strangle people to death?
- jakear 6y ago
  You don’t actually see no differences between making fishing line, making less-lethal bullets, and making next-gen weapon-hosting kill machines for the military.

creato 6y ago

Why would they do that when they can just use a horse or a wheeled/tracked vehicle?

est31 6y ago
Horses need to be trained (usually they don't like trampling people) and have high maintenance cost. As for the wheeled vehicle, it can be prevented access with roadblocks. Also it can't enter houses. Something that can walk over piles of rubble would be clearly very useful.
gimboland 6y ago
Because it's utterly terrifying?
aeyes 6y ago
Because you need a human to control it. A robot however could just be sent on patrol and its AI would do the rest leaving no one to blame.
bildung 6y ago
Because then suddenly it's a tragical accident caused by a software fault, with no human responsible - just as most data breaches are framed as "cyber attacks" instead of what they actually are: negligence.

danielheath 6y ago

And the first “is a robot a human” test case will be when a protestor kills a police bot and they charge them with murdering an officer.

kyuudou 6y ago
IIRC similar rules apply for some police K9 dog units, as in killing one is akin to killing a human one. I love dogs and all but... I think that's a negative precedent.

tomp 6y ago

So? Better than using tanks! The solution to police/state violence is political, not (anti-)technological.

guerrilla 6y ago
> Better than using tanks! In what way is it better? The results seem identical and processes sufficiently similar to be isomorphic.

deleted 6y ago

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