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Very true although using robots in a combat situations is not necessarily bad. One nice thing about robot soldiers is that they can afford to ask questions, the
by en4bz 13y ago
Very true although using robots in a combat situations is not necessarily bad. One nice thing about robot soldiers is that they can afford to ask questions, then shoot later if necessary unlike humans who shoot first then ask questions.
Here is a great presentation on the subject:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASDkNdhUvuU&nofeather=True http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASDkNdhUvuU&nofeather=True
You are right that we should however acknowledge that robotics work does have military applications and that some ethical lines will have to be draw as we are reaching a point where we cannot ignore them any more.
- ENGNR 13y agoThey could ask questions perhaps if you had overwhelming superiority, such as when fighting an insurgency. In an actual modern war scenario however they'd have to use every sneaky trick in the book or would eventually lose the war via attrition. Firing high explosive shells into buildings to kill the sniper at the top and all that.
- andrewfong 13y agoIsn't insurgency an "actual modern war scenario"? It also tends to be the scenario where civilian casualties has the biggest propaganda impact. For a long time, the Pentagon lumped counter-insurgency under the term "operations other than war". That bugs me. Counter-insurgency is war! We spend a lot of time optimizing for potential near-peer conflicts with countries like China and Russia. Maybe it's prudent. But counter-insurgency has become, for better or worse, a big part of what we do. We should not be so bad at it.
- pixelcort 13y agoSadly with drones we're moving in the opposite direction of shooting before asking.
- andrewfong 13y agoWith flying drones lobbing missiles, yes. I would hope that robots on the ground are a little better.
- sitkack 13y agoThe standoff distance of flying drone is enormous, if we aren't doing it in the air we won't do it on the ground. Ground offensive robotics will get autonomous programming before aerial drones.