5 ms·

For me it was the Veritasium Micromouse video[0]. Hard to quote the video but from wikipedia[1]:"Micromice are among the highest-performing autonomous robots."

For me it was the Veritasium Micromouse video[0]. Hard to quote the video but from wikipedia[1]:"Micromice are among the highest-performing autonomous robots." Things like fans and ground effect being used to make these devices do 6g turns while mapping and solving a maze. Alternately, the world of quadcopters, face recognition (body warmth recognition required?), lidar will make for a terrifying battlefield. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMQbHMgK2rw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMQbHMgK2rw [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromouse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromouse

eru 2y ago
If the battlefield comes to be dominated by robots, face recognition will be useless? No human will be around to have her face recognised. Detecting heat via infrared will still be useful, any kind of engine gives off heat. Whether biological or mechanical. You can construct engine that have disguise their heat signature a bit, or that have a smaller heat signature. But that severely limits their capabilities, which might be a good enough outcome for the sides that use the heat detection.
- zztop44 2y ago
  Civilians will still be around, and presumably killing them will still be a military objective. Edit: and not everyone will have robots.
  - salamo 2y ago
    Hopefully the military will aim to minimize civilian casualties.
    - bigiain 2y ago
      And in the next invasion of Afghanistan/Iraq/Canada the local resistance will end up dressed as civilians (either duplicitously or as a consequence of there not being any military left with supply chains of uniforms) - and the actual civilians then all get targeted by the robots.
      - _carbyau_ 2y ago
        Seeing this already in Palestine. It's not pretty, but war never is. I am surprised at how people today can point at a war and be surprised that atrocities happen. World Wars, Korea, Vietnam let alone the immediate history of Israel. Serbia and Croatia anyone? It's not like we don't have plenty of historical sources. War is bad business and trying to claim that "civilians" should be exempt is not fooling anyone who's had even a precursory glance over such material.
  - bigiain 2y ago
    > and not everyone will have robots This kinda plays out already - where not every "side" has a military or soldiers, so the battle is fought between soldiers and "civilians". Any battle between a state with drone invading forces and one without, is going to be indistinguishable from an invading robot army indiscriminately killing all the civilians.
- swexbe 2y ago
  Depends on how technologically outmatched the opponent is. I.e. is this a vs China war ir a vs Taliban war.
- throwup238 2y ago
  The battlefield will always be where the people are until all industrial capacity is fully automated (if ever). Why would a robot army that finds itself at a disadvantage ever attack a superior army out in a field somewhere far from strategic targets? They will focus their attacks on logistics, manufacturing, C&C, and any civilian population that can actually influence enemy politics. It’d be nice if all wars were basically a simulated conflict with robots fighting each other far from any humans but the defector that turns their robots on human populations will always have an advantage in actually winning wars.
  - drited 2y ago
    Due to defence keeping them from strategic targets. Same reason large parts of human wars today occur in trenches in the middle of nowhere (witness Ukraine).
    - throwup238 2y ago
      Those trenches aren’t in the middle of nowhere. They’re dug around cities and other strategic targets. The fights in the middle of nowhere are fought by mobile combat units. Besides, these are wars of attrition where killing off the young men who fight wars is the entire point. A robot that takes a few months to manufacture instead of 18 years to raise changes the calculus entirely.
      - eru 2y ago
        > A robot that takes a few months to manufacture instead of 18 years to raise changes the calculus entirely. The robot could still take 18 man-years to manufacture.
      - jvanderbot 2y ago
        This whole thread is fun to think about, but misses something. War is largely about fear / intimidation. Yes, an RTS-like "destroy the assets" is how it's abstracted, but ultimately it's about intimidating a leader and population into submission. Keeping the attackers away from cities is very much part of that calculus, as is dropping long-range attacks on those cities. If both sides have robots that take months to manufacture, the goal would still be the same: "Keep their robots away" and visa-versa "Get into their population centers and seize power symbols". At this stage, with established defenders, the goal seems to be "seize ground yard by yard" And "outproduce them" aka "grind down their will" is still going to be a viable strategy.
- yreg 2y ago
  > If the battlefield comes to be dominated by robots, face recognition will be useless? No human will be around to have her face recognised. It could mean no revolution happens ever again and the currently established dictatorships stay as they are forever.
  - eru 2y ago
    Revolutions aren't the only thing that can end a dictatorship. For example, Adolf Hitler was toppled by losing a war. East Germany was toppled (partially) because their economy was broke, not because of lack of face recognition. > [...] the currently established dictatorships stay as they are forever. Stalin was toppled by death. There was still a dictatorship after him, but it did not stays as it was under Stalin. See also PR China under Mao and under Deng Xiaoping. Very different regimes.
    - yreg 2y ago
      Could be, could be. My country overthrew communism non-violently as well afterall - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Revolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Revolution But it seems to me, that it's going to be impossible to revolt against a party who controls an obedient killbot army. Hitler was a special case, since he played the dumb world domination game.
01100011 2y ago
Yeah I've said for years that "stabby the robot" drone is only as far away as the solution to the power problem. You don't even need AI to locate a jugular. Plain old computer vision and thermals will enable a slicing robot. Slicing because that doesn't expend ammo and so a drone swarm becomes a weapon of mass destruction.
drunkonvinyl 2y ago
Wow! I didn’t know about that channel. They went into a lot of great details. So many other videos to consume now. Thank you!
qingcharles 2y ago
That was a great little video, thank you :)

eru 2y ago

If the battlefield comes to be dominated by robots, face recognition will be useless? No human will be around to have her face recognised. Detecting heat via infrared will still be useful, any kind of engine gives off heat. Whether biological or mechanical. You can construct engine that have disguise their heat signature a bit, or that have a smaller heat signature. But that severely limits their capabilities, which might be a good enough outcome for the sides that use the heat detection.

zztop44 2y ago
Civilians will still be around, and presumably killing them will still be a military objective. Edit: and not everyone will have robots.
- salamo 2y ago
  Hopefully the military will aim to minimize civilian casualties.
  - bigiain 2y ago
    And in the next invasion of Afghanistan/Iraq/Canada the local resistance will end up dressed as civilians (either duplicitously or as a consequence of there not being any military left with supply chains of uniforms) - and the actual civilians then all get targeted by the robots.
    - _carbyau_ 2y ago
      Seeing this already in Palestine. It's not pretty, but war never is. I am surprised at how people today can point at a war and be surprised that atrocities happen. World Wars, Korea, Vietnam let alone the immediate history of Israel. Serbia and Croatia anyone? It's not like we don't have plenty of historical sources. War is bad business and trying to claim that "civilians" should be exempt is not fooling anyone who's had even a precursory glance over such material.
- bigiain 2y ago
  > and not everyone will have robots This kinda plays out already - where not every "side" has a military or soldiers, so the battle is fought between soldiers and "civilians". Any battle between a state with drone invading forces and one without, is going to be indistinguishable from an invading robot army indiscriminately killing all the civilians.
swexbe 2y ago
Depends on how technologically outmatched the opponent is. I.e. is this a vs China war ir a vs Taliban war.
throwup238 2y ago
The battlefield will always be where the people are until all industrial capacity is fully automated (if ever). Why would a robot army that finds itself at a disadvantage ever attack a superior army out in a field somewhere far from strategic targets? They will focus their attacks on logistics, manufacturing, C&C, and any civilian population that can actually influence enemy politics. It’d be nice if all wars were basically a simulated conflict with robots fighting each other far from any humans but the defector that turns their robots on human populations will always have an advantage in actually winning wars.
- drited 2y ago
  Due to defence keeping them from strategic targets. Same reason large parts of human wars today occur in trenches in the middle of nowhere (witness Ukraine).
  - throwup238 2y ago
    Those trenches aren’t in the middle of nowhere. They’re dug around cities and other strategic targets. The fights in the middle of nowhere are fought by mobile combat units. Besides, these are wars of attrition where killing off the young men who fight wars is the entire point. A robot that takes a few months to manufacture instead of 18 years to raise changes the calculus entirely.
    - eru 2y ago
      > A robot that takes a few months to manufacture instead of 18 years to raise changes the calculus entirely. The robot could still take 18 man-years to manufacture.
    - jvanderbot 2y ago
      This whole thread is fun to think about, but misses something. War is largely about fear / intimidation. Yes, an RTS-like "destroy the assets" is how it's abstracted, but ultimately it's about intimidating a leader and population into submission. Keeping the attackers away from cities is very much part of that calculus, as is dropping long-range attacks on those cities. If both sides have robots that take months to manufacture, the goal would still be the same: "Keep their robots away" and visa-versa "Get into their population centers and seize power symbols". At this stage, with established defenders, the goal seems to be "seize ground yard by yard" And "outproduce them" aka "grind down their will" is still going to be a viable strategy.
yreg 2y ago
> If the battlefield comes to be dominated by robots, face recognition will be useless? No human will be around to have her face recognised. It could mean no revolution happens ever again and the currently established dictatorships stay as they are forever.
- eru 2y ago
  Revolutions aren't the only thing that can end a dictatorship. For example, Adolf Hitler was toppled by losing a war. East Germany was toppled (partially) because their economy was broke, not because of lack of face recognition. > [...] the currently established dictatorships stay as they are forever. Stalin was toppled by death. There was still a dictatorship after him, but it did not stays as it was under Stalin. See also PR China under Mao and under Deng Xiaoping. Very different regimes.
  - yreg 2y ago
    Could be, could be. My country overthrew communism non-violently as well afterall - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Revolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Revolution But it seems to me, that it's going to be impossible to revolt against a party who controls an obedient killbot army. Hitler was a special case, since he played the dumb world domination game.

01100011 2y ago

Yeah I've said for years that "stabby the robot" drone is only as far away as the solution to the power problem. You don't even need AI to locate a jugular. Plain old computer vision and thermals will enable a slicing robot. Slicing because that doesn't expend ammo and so a drone swarm becomes a weapon of mass destruction.

drunkonvinyl 2y ago

Wow! I didn’t know about that channel. They went into a lot of great details. So many other videos to consume now. Thank you!

qingcharles 2y ago

That was a great little video, thank you :)