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Is this thing been developed to kill humans?
by whatfor 13y ago
Is this thing been developed to kill humans?
- krapp 13y agoWas the Jeep? It just seems to be a proof of concept for an agile quadrupedal machine. I see no reason to assume it's going to be used to kill people.
- whatfor 13y agoTo me it seems far from only a proof of concept, specially in light of who is financing it and the rest of Boston Dynamics' robots. As inventors, I would say it's high time we start to think about the consequences of our tech "innovations".
- krapp 13y agoYes but the US military already has armed robots. I could see this maybe being used as a transport but even that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be used to kill people. Though granted if the people it's transporting have guns that's a moot point.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- turing 13y agoDARPA also financed the Internet. I think we can expect similar public benefits to come out of this research one day.
- whatfor 13y agoExcellent example. But we also failed to build the necessary safeguards to prevent using the Internet as a massive surveillance machine. When will we learn something from our past failures?
- mturmon 13y agoOur past track record is pretty uneven, that's for sure. One starting point is here: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/horvitz/AAAI_Presidential_Panel_2008-2009.htm http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/horvitz/AAAI_P...
- whatfor 13y agoThanks, interesting initiative.
- majurg 13y agoI guess you could strap a bomb to the thing and send it off towards the enemy. I could see it carrying ammo or other supplies to soldiers scattered on a battlefield.
- Game_Ender 13y agoDARPA is funding the early development of technology they think will some day be useful to the military. Similar to how the DARPA Grand/Urban challenges helped plant the seed for fully autonomous ground vehicles. So this specific robot is not meant to kill humans, but a robot in the future based on it's technology might. Currently the military has a large aversion lethal autonomous systems, so I don't think it's going to happen.
- whatfor 13y agoCurrently the military has a large aversion lethal autonomous systems Humm... what about the drones?
- potatolicious 13y agoThe drones aren't autonomous - they are remote-piloted. Think of them like R/C aircraft... that kill. In any case, all "trigger pulling" is done by a human. The military, as of yet, has had an aversion to robots that can decide to pull the trigger on their own.
- whatfor 13y agoThanks for clarifying.
- wmf 13y agoTheir weapons aren't autonomous.
- gaius 13y agoOnly in the sense that lots of them get "flight pay" presently.