Real Life "Terminators"!!! - No I'm not kidding!!

[ddeclue]

This is straight out of Star Wars Episode III or the Terminator - robots that kill! So much for Isaac Asimov's three laws... this is a very dangerous development! This should not be allowed to happen!

Doug D.
Orlando, FL


http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2028236,00.asp?kc=EWGOVEMNL101106EOAD

War Robots Invade Washington
By Wayne Rash
October 11, 2006
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WASHINGTON—You know you're visiting a different kind of trade show when the signs for the new GUI on a product refer to an automatic weapon. You get a better idea when you find yourself standing beneath the main gun of the new Stryker mobile weapons system. But it really hits home when you visit the usually benign world of iRobot and find not Roombas, but instead autonomous killing machines.

That's right. There's nothing quite like having a friendly robot nuzzle up to you, only to look down on a pair of fully automatic, autoloading, remotely controlled 12-gauge shotguns swiveling around. A few feet away, more shotguns, and a little further away, a larger, diesel-powered, autonomous robot packing a 30-caliber machine gun set up for totally automated operation. "So," I ask iRobot Chairman Helen Greiner, who is showing me her collection of military hardware, "can you send the one with the shotguns out for a couple of ducks for dinner?"


Greiner said that while the new shotgun packin' robots probably could bag a waterfowl or two, they were really designed for more serious tasks. And indeed they were. The robots appearing at the Association of the Unites States Army show at the Washington Convention Center here Oct. 10 are designed, and in some cases being used today, to do jobs that soldiers would otherwise have to do. In the process, these robots save lives and help extend the effectiveness of the troops that use them.

Incidentally, if a few of these robots look familiar, it's because the same basic design is also used by iRobot when it makes those robots you see on television disarm bombs, fight fires or search for victims of a building collapse. We did not see, unfortunately, anything we could use to clean out the basement. Some tasks, it seems, are too much for even the most capable robot.

[whistle]

1. These are weapons which the neoconservatives fully intend to use

...on American civilians right here in the U.S. The taser was only a beginning

[FormerDittoHead]

2. I'm reminded of these guys...

Designed to squash urban uprisings and enforce RIAA copyrights...


If you think about it, it really ISN'T that much different from the real deal:
(ACTUAL ROBOT FROM ARTICLE)

[FormerDittoHead]

6. Come to think of it, they MUST be prototypes..

I mean, why would one have a STOCK on a gun on a robot?

Looking at it, it looks more like they bolted two plastic F16's to a jack and mounted a webcam in between.

Seems good for a $200,000,000 contract right there!

[jokerman93]

3. They appear pretty vulnerable

Don't look environmentally hardened to me; just a step up from ESPN's battle-bots. A grenade, small arms fire, or even an EM flash could probably disable any one of these overpriced toys. My guess is these bots are just proof of concept designs. Someone at iRobot has big green dollar signs in their eyes - jockeying for a fat pentagon contract no doubt - before the well runs dry and the warpigs get run out of D.C. on a rail.

I can just imagine the feverish pitch session though, with a roomful of redfaced christo-fascist generals and little Donny Rumsfeld in the corner drooling while groping himself furiously under the table at the mere idea of testing some of this kitsch robocop hardware on defenseless brown people somewhere in occupied Islamastan...
:woohoo:
:sarcasm:
J

[ddeclue]

4. Yeah but mass produced robots feel no pain and follow orders in cold blood

...they kill without conscience and are the ultimate expendable "universal soldier"... if I kill one, then another one can come after me...they are replaceable...I am not...

That they follow orders without regards to conscience is another scary aspect. Real soldiers, no matter how much discipline they are subjected to, always have a human soul and a human conscience and can always put themselves in their opponents boots. Not these robots...

See the problem?

Admittedly we already have missiles, predator drones, torpedoes etc. that do exactly the same thing - kill without remorse robotically but they've never been used to replace ground soldiers before.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

[jokerman93]

7. I think I know what you're getting at but

but there's always a human being pulling the trigger somewhere. The only thing that changes is the nature of warfare. Does it matter if you can see the shooter or not? The innocent will take the brunt of the violence anyway. That part never changes. They're just selling the idea of not using humans as weapon components in this case. Like I said though, this looks like an expensive gimmick to me. I'd be surprised if these gadgets have enough AI in them to make their own strategic decisions in a firefight. If they did, their cost would be enormous. They're more likely not true robots but remotely operated guns on wheels. That would be my first guess.

Anyway, it's almost as if you want to say there are degrees of soulfulness in the murder for profit scam. I say if we aren't stopping it, then we're all pulling the trigger.

J

[thingfisher]

5. irobot

I think it will still be awhile before homa sapiens sapiens is dethroned as the number one killing machine in the world. That being said, however, I'm sure that somewhere in the Pentagon there is a cost/benefits analyst hard at work on the issue. The Empire will need more and more lethal units on the ground as its ambitions play out in the world. These lethal units have to come from somewhere if the government remains averse to reinstituting the draft I guess it might boil down to how desperate the job situation gets. The military has always been the employer of last resort among the poor and disenfranchised.
Armed robots ae the perfect tool of a despotic government. It's only a metter of time.

[sutz12]

8. Sorry to bust your bubble.....

But Asimov's Three Laws were a fictional construct. There is absolutely no reason to program those instructions into any machine anywhere, other than a rather naive belief in "that's the way it should be." After all, we have the drones, which are basically flying robots used for reconnaissance, but some are armed. Currently, yes, there are humans at the "switch" but how long before they determine that is no longer necessary?

[unpossibles]

9. crazy

this is potentially pretty scary.

Much like the Metal Storm gun: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/1281426.html

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6231151348151074497&q=metal+storm

[donsu]

10. they also have made small drones that can look into windows and

can follow people on the street and talk to them, asking to see papers, etc. that the person holds up to the camera on the drone.

no I'm not nuts.

I've posted articles on this last yr. but I don't save any of the links.

[Touchdown]

11. Amazing how cultures differ with technology.

This is how the Japanese are making robots...









They dance, play violin, retrieve your e-mails, play cames with you, taste your wine, and be your pet when you can't have a real dog in your apartment.

How long before the Americans get these benign electronic "companions" and install guns on them.:eyes:

[jokerman93]

12. Yeah

I work for these guys (Japanese robotics). My company, like those pictured in your post - and whose name will not be mentioned, has advanced robotics on the horizon with the declared intent of enabling and helping humanity from medical assistants, mine detection and removal, environmental clean-up, to artificial human companions (:evilgrin: The Japanese are so imaginative).

These kinds of tech vision are the only viable choice if our civilization is to survive and go forward. The Japanese continue to move ahead of the West on many fronts technologically.

...Now if we can just get them to stop slaughtering other sentient animals to satisfy their epicurean vanity.

J