So the military is continuing down the totally inevitable path of computer-controlled autonomous robo-warriors capable of fighting deadly human battles on our behalf -- and out come the naysayers like U of Sheffield prof Noel Sharkey, who, at The Ethics of Autonomous Military Systems conference in London, decried the bots' self-determined killing abilities as "a threat to humanity" -- especially if they're captured and re-purposed by terrorists to do their evil bidding. Sharkey exclaimed that he's "worked in artificial intelligence for decades, and the idea of a robot making decisions about human termination terrifies [him]," but -- and we're just gonna throw this out there -- what if being oppressed by a race of automatons run amok were actually an improvement over our corrupt governments of men? Isn't that a possibility, too? We're certainly going to keep telling ourselves it is, thankful we've somehow managed to not be overthrown by our own creations. Thus far.
P.S. -We dare you, commenters, NOT to bust out the welcoming our robot overlords cliché.
posted February 28th 2008 1:18AM
Stupid americans with their top of the range weapons are more dangerous, also half of them never heard of a map :)
Sarah Connor Chronicles...Its becoming real!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOO
I've worked in being alive for decades and the idea of a squaddie making decisions about human termination terrifies me...
Just find the factory that's building them and then to blow it up! Then find out all you've done is delay the inevitable...wait that sounds familiar!
Hooray! Sheffield Uni got a mention at Engadget! I used to have lectures with Prof. Sharkey.... nice guy! DEFINITELY knows what he's talking about!
I think its fair enough to have autonomous control for things like movement, aim, trajectories, etc... but it should ALWAYS be a human making the decisions. Maybe a pilot of the future will be in control of a whole squadron of fighters. They fly themselves and he just chooses where to go/who to shoot at.
You should read the "Ender's Game" series of books.
I personally refuse to join the military, until participation is indistinguishable from a good game of StarCraft. Also, no Zergs or cheat mods should be allowed. I bet Al-Queda is totally into Zergs and cheats. I would totally report Al-Queda to a GM, and try to get their account kicked and blocked. That would be awesome.
I really hope our government would realize a Three Laws safe robot would make a really horrible soldier before spending billions of dollars making an army.
I agree that AI technology isn't yet capable of making life/death decisions, at least to my satisfaction. An advanced enough AI could probably navigate terrain, stalk, and kill a target to my satisfaction. Of course they'd probably give it all sorts of non-lethal weapons at least until it got the final go-ahead from a human controller.
Think of the sniper abilities. It could dig itself a hole, have a built in weather center so it can adjust it's perfect servo arms to compensate for a long-distance shot, then bury itself in a nearly off state for as long as necessary so it won't be captured.
Can't... restrain... self... from... saying... cliché. Self destruct imminent.
Ok... Soo this guy is saying that he doesn't want to see Johnny 5 out there on the front lines doing the dirty work but would be more comfortable with just Johnny.
"a robot making decisions about human termination terrifies [him]"?
I guessed someone watched a bit too many Terminator movies. Skynet isn't here and probably will never be here...
Skynet is already here LOL
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6434773.stm
All this does is allow a smaller group of elites control a larger group of people. Its perfect for a government so oppressive that the military would generally overthrow it. Obviously I don't think we are there now but its only a matter of time until Exxon/Mobile buys their own fleet of robots (it would probably be pretty easy to convert those gas pumping robots into flame thrower robots!).
I for one, welcome our cobot roverlorfs liché.
Sounds like something I'd order (and subsequently overpay) at an Asian fusion restaurant...
It's not a cliche unless you consider 'reality' a cliche.
The thing is, we need something to fight the zombie apocalypse. Human soldiers can't handle it, and would only strengthen the hordes. Killbots, so long as there is no preset kill limit, would safeguard us from that threat.
I for one would love to see an all robot government that rules us all with an 'iron' fist.
Couldn't resist that one.
Every war ever waged has had one side using captured weapons against the side it took them from. How would a killing robot be any worse than a tank, rocket propelled grenade launcher, or documents of troop movements taken off a dead officer or from an overtaken base?
Hopefully the Ctrl+Alt+Delete buttons on the killer robot are within easy reach. If so, then I've got a good chance to avoid termination. My reflexes for that salute have become pretty fast over the years.
Here's a thought, 50 years in the future, as autonomous killing machine "5" is about to strike a young terrorist yielding a bazooka launcher and aka-47, a 3-laws robot that was cleaning the house comes in to protect the "human life" of the terrorist. What ensues, a battle between Johny 5 and iRobot? Will J5 not attack iRobot because it is a civilian bot?
Sigh, when a robot does go rampant, then I'll be scared. I hate it when good ideas (taking soldiers off the front lines, preventing them from dying therefor) are shelved due to fear of change. EMP would take out the whole robot army, or a detonator switch that is running a set of explosives on each robot, that is independent from all other systems. That would do the trick.
While I'm all-for getting troops off the front lines, I don't think the very first thing we should be doing is going out and building robots that aren't 3-laws compliant. Seriously, we're talking about designing robots specifically for the purpose of breaking the first law here.
And to the person who said one day our wars would be fought solely between robots:
That may be true, but between now and then, a lot of people are going to be killed in battles with robots, until everyone gets their own robot army. Even then, third world countries will be at a disadvantage. And what happens when an invading robot army takes over an area? Surely they wouldn't just leave the civilians alone. It would be genocide, and the people who pushed the button wouldn't have any compassion because they're so removed from battle (much like modern day politicians are).
However, one thing is certain: We will bring about our own demise one day, whether it be through nukes, robot armies, or some other unforeseen way of killing hundreds of thousands of people in a relatively short period of time.
Are you suggesting that third world countries have a fighting chance today? A slaughter is a slaughter...
In a way, they do have a fighting chance. Today, using guerrilla warfare, they can often hold off a larger, invading army indefinitely. For example, Vietnam or, more recently, Iraq. So while Iraq is currently being occupied by the US, it is being occupied by humans. While humans do make mistakes, so far genocide has not been one of them (unless you count the deaths caused by sanctions (currently estimated at over 1 million Iraqis), but I'll save that one for another day).
If an army of robots was occupying Iraq, or any other country for that matter, all it would take is an unhandled exception/some other malfunction to start a genocide (remember, these would be made by the lowest bidder).
The invading country might not even intend it, but if the robots "decide" that everyone is a threat and start killing everyone, I would have to say that yes, we would be worse off than we were before before, and war would be even more of an atrocity than it currently is.
The day when ROB's walk (hover?) the Earth is soon at hand.
Wait, screw ROB. When can I buy my own HK-47?
wait until the transhuman movement gains more speed then you'll really be sorry.
i have no problem with humans living with robots as equals to each other. i DO have a problem with robots replacing human life and "mind uploading" what a perfect way to devalue life by saying if you can't compute the entire internet in 5 seconds your worthless in the eye's of robots. No robot is evil but someone is going to get greedy or power hungry and we are going to pay the price for their stupidity. Someone once said they were going to replace humans with robots and i didn't believe it at the time but now i realize "advancement" has destroyed us. Star trek will never happen now because people always have to say certain life is more important than others.