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He makes some good points, and it's interesting that soldiers who operate drones remotely (from the US) suffer higher rates of PTSD than soldiers actually in Ir

by endtime 18y ago

He makes some good points, and it's interesting that soldiers who operate drones remotely (from the US) suffer higher rates of PTSD than soldiers actually in Iraq...but I felt like there was also a bit of dramatization, perhaps because he doesn't (seem to) understand robotics/AI very well. For example, he says that robots see an eighty year old woman in a wheelchair the same way they see a T80 tank - just "zeroes and ones". But that's like saying that humans see them the same way - just stimulus on rods and cones. I cringed at that.

queensnake 18y ago
Do you see his point if you substitute 'digital blob' for 'ones and zeros'? Sure we see 'blobs' also, but we see the 'meaning' of the granny just about inextricably too; a computer won't.
- endtime 18y ago
  No, substituting "digital blob" doesn't help at all. Have you ever heard of computer vision? I don't see any reason why a computer shouldn't be able to distinguish a tank from an old woman.
  - queensnake 18y ago
    How about, '/Things like/: old women, dogs, decoy tanks, captured tanks, someone cutting up a dead tank for scrap..'.
- jerf 18y ago
  There may be a generation or two of robot that is deployable in some battlefield scenario in some autonomous capacity, but can not make that determination as well as a human. That will, however, be an anomaly that is rapidly corrected, followed immediately by it making the determination better than a human. (It should be pointed out that we are hardly perfect at recognition tasks. When discussing robot/computer vs. human capabilities, people often slip in the assumption that humans are perfect at the task in question, usually unconsciously. That is never true. Humans have error rates too.)
radu_floricica 18y ago
Then "some" soldiers actually in Iraq. And I cringed there too. The guy seemed to have gathered a decent amount of information, it's too bad he didn't organize it a bit better.

by endtime 18y ago

queensnake 18y ago

Do you see his point if you substitute 'digital blob' for 'ones and zeros'? Sure we see 'blobs' also, but we see the 'meaning' of the granny just about inextricably too; a computer won't.

endtime 18y ago
No, substituting "digital blob" doesn't help at all. Have you ever heard of computer vision? I don't see any reason why a computer shouldn't be able to distinguish a tank from an old woman.
- queensnake 18y ago
  How about, '/Things like/: old women, dogs, decoy tanks, captured tanks, someone cutting up a dead tank for scrap..'.
jerf 18y ago
There may be a generation or two of robot that is deployable in some battlefield scenario in some autonomous capacity, but can not make that determination as well as a human. That will, however, be an anomaly that is rapidly corrected, followed immediately by it making the determination better than a human. (It should be pointed out that we are hardly perfect at recognition tasks. When discussing robot/computer vs. human capabilities, people often slip in the assumption that humans are perfect at the task in question, usually unconsciously. That is never true. Humans have error rates too.)

radu_floricica 18y ago

Then "some" soldiers actually in Iraq. And I cringed there too. The guy seemed to have gathered a decent amount of information, it's too bad he didn't organize it a bit better.