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It seems pretty obvious to me this is a slippery slope, and humans won't be in the loop forever. When you're already using weapons to kill your enemies, it's p
by Judgmentality 6y ago
It seems pretty obvious to me this is a slippery slope, and humans won't be in the loop forever. When you're already using weapons to kill your enemies, it's pretty easy to justify killing them easier when your goal is just to kill them already. It even gives them plausible deniability over individual deaths (not that it should, but it will).
- SavantIdiot 6y agoThere's a funny Asimov short story about improving technology for guided missiles. The solution: put a pilot in each guided missle. The entire story is tongue-in-cheek, but characterizes the ebb and flow between ethics and military technology.
- owyn 6y agoBack in WW2 the US worked on pigeon guided bombs but it never got very far. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon
- beaconstudios 6y agoAnd the Japanese had torpedoes with actual pilots https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiten https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiten
- holbue 6y agoI didn't know about the story yet, but the reality was already very close to that terrible scenario: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachem_Ba_349 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachem_Ba_349 (One of the launch sites is quite close to where I live)
- ceejayoz 6y agoThat looks like the pilot was intended to survive. A better comparison would be the Japanese approach. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikaze https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikaze
- evgen 6y agoMore specifically, the Ohka: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokosuka_MXY-7_Ohka https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokosuka_MXY-7_Ohka
- vijayr02 6y agoIf people are interested, the story is “The Feeling of Power” [0]. I remember reading this as a child and feeling a profound feeling of sadness. Now I tell myself I’m older and more cynical, but being reminded of it brought a rush of those feelings back... human memory is a strange thing. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feeling_of_Power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feeling_of_Power