Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...
MRB_Doom

P.W. Singer: Military robots and the future of war

Recommended Posts

Very interesting.

Food for thought: If these machine are increasingly similar to video games, in terms of interface, and input operation, are gamers the contract-killers/mercenaries of tomorrow?

Share this post


Link to post
Kontra Kommando said:

Very interesting.

Food for thought: If these machine are increasingly similar to video games, in terms of interface, and input operation, are gamers the contract-killers/mercenaries of tomorrow?


I wouldn't mind making a few bucks, but at what cost?

Share this post


Link to post
Kontra Kommando said:

Very interesting.

Food for thought: If these machine are increasingly similar to video games, in terms of interface, and input operation, are gamers the contract-killers/mercenaries of tomorrow?


It gives hope to us nerds lol.

I could see it happening with Kinect Mocap and Oculus rift

I find it scary how casually thinks this could be bigger than the atomic bomb and how it could become like a video game and then they go straight to Deus Ex-like augmentations. It's kind of surreal, maybe it's intended.

Can't wait for gggmork to post here.

Share this post


Link to post

I don't feel like paying much attention to speakers who say things like, "robots see things differently to people; to them it's just ones and zeroes." I always suspect such people of either knowing nothing about computers or of putting too much faith in human "souls" to be unique.

Share this post


Link to post
Aliotroph? said:

I don't feel like paying much attention to speakers who say things like, "robots see things differently to people; to them it's just ones and zeroes." I always suspect such people of either knowing nothing about computers or of putting too much faith in human "souls" to be unique.

Yeah, that's like saying, "Humans see things differently... to them, it's just a jumble of electrical impulses." Actually, that's my big fear regarding the "robot uprising" scenario so common in sci-fi. I don't think that human-level AIs would simply revolt to dominate, I think it would come because we'd treat them like they were inferior.

Share this post


Link to post
Aliotroph? said:

I don't feel like paying much attention to speakers who say things like, "robots see things differently to people; to them it's just ones and zeroes." I always suspect such people of either knowing nothing about computers or of putting too much faith in human "souls" to be unique.


Yea, but while you're busy talking about semantics, he's up there behind a podium in front of high-powered individuals, and you're some guy in an internet forum. He's just a speaker, he's not the one developing these machines.

Share this post


Link to post

It seems useless to develop such weapons when the worlds' most powerful nations have already possessed something far more superior in destructive firepower and deterrence for decades -nuclear weapons.

Then again there always was a need to wage "isolated", "low intensity", "surgical" etc. war without burning everything to a crisp or a glass desert, and possibly with lower costs than waging another Vietnam war. As Heinlein would've put it, "The Mobile Space Infantry turns war into a personal issue, like a punch to the face".

Then again, even in these modern, supposedly "low intensity" warfare, the so-called "shock weapons" still find their uses, but everyone is (still) extra-careful not to use actual nuclear weapons (though hearsay of the possible use of "small", tactical nuclear weapons "of just a few kilotons" has not been entirely ruled out, even in this very 21st century).

Edit: here's the Heinlein quote in its entirety:

There are a dozen different ways of delivering destruction in impersonal wholesale, via ships and missiles of one sort or another, catastrophes so widespread, so unselective, that the war is over because that nation or planet has ceased to exist. What we do is entirely different. We make war as personal as a punch in the nose. We can be selective, applying precisely the required amount of pressure at the specified point at a designated time . . . .

We are the boys who go to a particular place, at H-hour, occupy a designated terrain, stand on it, dig the enemy out of their holes, force them then and there to surrender or die. We're the bloody infantry, the doughboy, the duckfoot, the foot soldier who goes where the enemy is and takes him on in person. We've been doing it, with changes in weapons but very little change in our trade, at least since the time five thousand years ago when the foot sloggers of Sargon the Great forced the Sumerians to cry "Uncle!"

Maybe they'll be able to do without us someday. Maybe some mad genius with myopia, a bulging forehead, and a cybernetic mind will devise a weapon that can go down a hole, pick out the opposition, and force it to surrender or die--without killing that gang of your own people they've got imprisoned down there. I wouldn't know; I'm not a genius, I'm an M.I. In the meantime, until they build a machine to replace us, my mates can handle that job--and I might be some help on it, too.

Share this post


Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×