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> The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In any case,

> The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In any case, most actual fighting will be done by small robots, and as you go forth today remember your duty is clear: to build and maintain those robots. https://youtu.be/oazwTDeqF54 https://youtu.be/oazwTDeqF54

yowzadave 3y ago
Without realizing this was a quote from the Simpsons, I read this totally seriously and accepted it as a scarily plausible scenario for the future: a competition for the first power to achieve dominance in the field of robotic war. And once the winning robot army has liquidated their competition, the war can be effectively over—no need for any human lives to be lost…just to surrender to the superior technological force.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- ChatGTP 3y ago
  Except we still have nuclear deterrence, there won’t be any surrender, there will just be MAD.
- keithasaurus 3y ago
  Isn't this what we have sports for? I think what your describing would basically be a robot team sport.
  - laputan_machine 3y ago
    I think there's a fairly big caveat: when one team beats another team, they don't take over the opposing team's stadium.
- stevenwoo 3y ago
  Philip K. Dick wrote an interesting (if one is only familiar with the books turned into movies) short story called The Defenders about this. It doesn't have the dire conspiracy theories or corporate run worlds we associate with his more famous work.
  - Teever 3y ago
    Dick also wrote the fantastic short story 'Second Variety'[0] which has a similar theme, but involves autonomous, self-replicating robots that serve as a sort of intelligent mine field that separates warring factions on a the moon or an alien planet in the 1995 movie with the same name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Variety https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Variety
    - actionfromafar 3y ago
      That movie is very underappreciated and gets more salient over time.
    - stevenwoo 3y ago
      I love this story and when I first read it I kept thinking - this is the inspiration for Terminator 1/2, then get to furious web searching after finishing it and find out the intro/setting was used for a different movie and Harlan Ellison's supposed connection to Terminator seems much more tenuous than PKD and Second Variety.
- CrampusDestrus 3y ago
  >just to surrender to the superior technological force. this is ancient warfare in a nutshell: a couple of battles where you clearly see who has the better army and the side which starts losing a bit too much surrenders the country
- jeffreygoesto 3y ago
  Reminds me of a fantastic (in many senses) book of Stanislaw Lem... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/88313.Peace_on_Earth https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/88313.Peace_on_Earth
  - anst 3y ago
    Definitely. The Invincible would fit as well https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invincible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invincible Big time for Lem.
- mattlondon 3y ago
  How did that work out in Afghanistan et al? US + Allies had clearly superior technological force, but still "lost" to some pretty irregular forces. I don't think it is so black and white. If Russia/china/pick-your-bogey-man-of-choice invaded your country tomorrow with a robot army and started taking away your way of life (eradication of your native language, your native currency, your media, history, certain foods, schools etc), how do you think that would go down? You'd just roll over and accept everythingyou know and love about where you live being permanently removed because their robots were better? It is the same reason that we can't just have a game of chess to decide it all: when it comes down to trying to force someone to do something against their will, the ultimate and final fall back position is physical force and so sadly violence one way or another.
  - actionfromafar 3y ago
    The US + Allies lost because they didn't have the will to obliterate everything. As horrible as the Afghanistan war was, it would have been even worse if they had just carpet bombed everything. Add robotics, and it quickly enters nightmare fuel worse than the Terminator movies.
    - paganel 3y ago
      > didn't have the will to obliterate everything. Had they "obliterated" everything then the US + Allies (or what allies they might have still got left after said obliteration) would have lost even more on the grand scale of things compared to a remote war in Central Asia. No amount of Hollywood + Western Media white-washing would have managed to get that stink off.
      - actionfromafar 3y ago
        This is thankfully still true.
        Filligree 3y ago
        I hope this is true, but we’ll see how people treat Russia in a decade.
- islon 3y ago
  Unless you have an EMP. Then the people with sticks win.
- Silverback_VII 3y ago
  > no need for any human lives to be lost… This assumes that human lives will be more valuable than war robots. However, humans may be used as cannon fodder to distract enemy robots from targeting valuable equipment.
georgeg23 3y ago
6 months after that Simpsons episode: https://www.science.org/content/article/decades-after-reagan-s-star-wars-trump-calls-missile-defenses-would-blast-warheads-sky https://www.science.org/content/article/decades-after-reagan...
- jpm_sd 3y ago
  That episode is from Simpsons season 8, in 1997 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_War_of_Lisa_Simpson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_War_of_Lisa_Simpson
- dmix 3y ago
  Brilliant Pebbles seemed to have always been a legit idea, probably the only real solution to the MIRV/glide threat. Something that can respond to the launch immediately close to the launch site. It's just always been crazy expensive and diplomatic kryptonite having weapon systems floating over countries 24/7.
amelius 3y ago
Can also be molecular biology-scale robots.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

yowzadave 3y ago

Without realizing this was a quote from the Simpsons, I read this totally seriously and accepted it as a scarily plausible scenario for the future: a competition for the first power to achieve dominance in the field of robotic war. And once the winning robot army has liquidated their competition, the war can be effectively over—no need for any human lives to be lost…just to surrender to the superior technological force.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
ChatGTP 3y ago
Except we still have nuclear deterrence, there won’t be any surrender, there will just be MAD.
keithasaurus 3y ago
Isn't this what we have sports for? I think what your describing would basically be a robot team sport.
- laputan_machine 3y ago
  I think there's a fairly big caveat: when one team beats another team, they don't take over the opposing team's stadium.
stevenwoo 3y ago
Philip K. Dick wrote an interesting (if one is only familiar with the books turned into movies) short story called The Defenders about this. It doesn't have the dire conspiracy theories or corporate run worlds we associate with his more famous work.
- Teever 3y ago
  Dick also wrote the fantastic short story 'Second Variety'[0] which has a similar theme, but involves autonomous, self-replicating robots that serve as a sort of intelligent mine field that separates warring factions on a the moon or an alien planet in the 1995 movie with the same name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Variety https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Variety
  - actionfromafar 3y ago
    That movie is very underappreciated and gets more salient over time.
  - stevenwoo 3y ago
    I love this story and when I first read it I kept thinking - this is the inspiration for Terminator 1/2, then get to furious web searching after finishing it and find out the intro/setting was used for a different movie and Harlan Ellison's supposed connection to Terminator seems much more tenuous than PKD and Second Variety.
CrampusDestrus 3y ago
>just to surrender to the superior technological force. this is ancient warfare in a nutshell: a couple of battles where you clearly see who has the better army and the side which starts losing a bit too much surrenders the country
jeffreygoesto 3y ago
Reminds me of a fantastic (in many senses) book of Stanislaw Lem... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/88313.Peace_on_Earth https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/88313.Peace_on_Earth
- anst 3y ago
  Definitely. The Invincible would fit as well https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invincible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invincible Big time for Lem.
mattlondon 3y ago
How did that work out in Afghanistan et al? US + Allies had clearly superior technological force, but still "lost" to some pretty irregular forces. I don't think it is so black and white. If Russia/china/pick-your-bogey-man-of-choice invaded your country tomorrow with a robot army and started taking away your way of life (eradication of your native language, your native currency, your media, history, certain foods, schools etc), how do you think that would go down? You'd just roll over and accept everythingyou know and love about where you live being permanently removed because their robots were better? It is the same reason that we can't just have a game of chess to decide it all: when it comes down to trying to force someone to do something against their will, the ultimate and final fall back position is physical force and so sadly violence one way or another.
- actionfromafar 3y ago
  The US + Allies lost because they didn't have the will to obliterate everything. As horrible as the Afghanistan war was, it would have been even worse if they had just carpet bombed everything. Add robotics, and it quickly enters nightmare fuel worse than the Terminator movies.
  - paganel 3y ago
    > didn't have the will to obliterate everything. Had they "obliterated" everything then the US + Allies (or what allies they might have still got left after said obliteration) would have lost even more on the grand scale of things compared to a remote war in Central Asia. No amount of Hollywood + Western Media white-washing would have managed to get that stink off.
    - actionfromafar 3y ago
      This is thankfully still true.
      - Filligree 3y ago
        I hope this is true, but we’ll see how people treat Russia in a decade.
islon 3y ago
Unless you have an EMP. Then the people with sticks win.
Silverback_VII 3y ago
> no need for any human lives to be lost… This assumes that human lives will be more valuable than war robots. However, humans may be used as cannon fodder to distract enemy robots from targeting valuable equipment.

georgeg23 3y ago

6 months after that Simpsons episode: https://www.science.org/content/article/decades-after-reagan-s-star-wars-trump-calls-missile-defenses-would-blast-warheads-sky https://www.science.org/content/article/decades-after-reagan...

jpm_sd 3y ago
That episode is from Simpsons season 8, in 1997 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_War_of_Lisa_Simpson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_War_of_Lisa_Simpson
dmix 3y ago
Brilliant Pebbles seemed to have always been a legit idea, probably the only real solution to the MIRV/glide threat. Something that can respond to the launch immediately close to the launch site. It's just always been crazy expensive and diplomatic kryptonite having weapon systems floating over countries 24/7.

amelius 3y ago

Can also be molecular biology-scale robots.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]