Rise of the killer robots!

[Quiet]

Rise of the killer robots!

October 2013
Nathalie Olah reports on the alarming development of autonomous weapons.

from http://newint.org/sections/agenda/2013/10/01/killer-robots/

Irrespective of intelligence, no machine is capable of morality. So, if you thought drones were bad, you are likely to take an even dimmer view of their successors: ‘lethal autonomous robotic weapons’. Unlike remote-controlled drones, ‘killer robots’ require no external ‘live’ human input at all, and can be pre-programmed to select and destroy specific targets.

The new weaponry poses a grave threat to human rights, according to the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, which argues that the arms undermine international law by eliminating all human culpability.

In the tradition of militarized drones, developed by contractors behind closed doors and unleashed, almost without warning, on to the battlefield, lethal autonomous weapons could be put into use in combat without further public debate.

It’s a trend that concerns human rights groups and military organizations in equal measure. The latter consider it a slight on military practice to suggest that wars should not be fought by trained individuals, acting under certain codes.

The ‘killer robot’ technology is being developed in the US, Britain, Russia, China and Israel. Israel already has the ‘Harpy’ — a ‘fire and forget’ weapon capable of detecting and destroying radar emitters.

‘If this is coupled with greater autonomy of movement and operation,’ explains Laura Boillot of Article36, a not-for-profit working to prevent unacceptable harm caused by weapons, ‘we will start to see fully autonomous weapons in combat.’

So when will governments discuss putting controls on fully autonomous weapons?

The UN Human Rights Council hosted its first debate on the ethics of these weapons last May. Britain opposed a moratorium on development of the arms — the only state out of 24 in attendance to do so.

‘A couple of states have recommended that this issue be discussed at the next meeting of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) in November,’ says Boillot. ‘Around 100 states are party to the treaty, which managed to ban blinding lasers, comparable to killer robots in that they were banned before coming into use. But on the whole, it is not famous for ambitious, standard-setting results.’

Even if fully autonomous weapons are blocked by the CCW, the technology now exists. In the long run, it will become increasingly difficult to govern.
- See more at: http://newint.org/sections/agenda/2013/10/01/killer-robots/#sthash.m0ozD0cD.dpuf

People that want to make war should challenge each other to a sword duel. It would probably be hilarious seeing some our our world leaders trying to fight it out in a duel. So funny no one would be fucked going to war after having such a good laugh. I suppose they arent really fucked going to war now anyway, with all the automated and chemical crap. This is just lazy! Violent and lazy. They may as well stay home and play some violent video games

 

[Rcs6r]

I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

 

[rawr]

I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

tell that to Skynet.
[MENTION=4956]charlene[/MENTION] - i'm not surprised, given the initiatives of DARPA and like global entities, but the possibilities could be possibly alarming. From a solely scientific/technical/developmental standpoint, as well as military implications, it's fascinating though.

I'll post more on this later.

 

[Quiet]

I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

traitor!

I suppose there might be a way to short them all out though

 

[Quiet]

tell that to Skynet.
[MENTION=4956]charlene[/MENTION] - i'm not surprised, given the initiatives of DARPA and like global entities, but the possibilities could be possibly alarming. From a solely scientific/technical/developmental standpoint, as well as military implications, it's fascinating though.

I'll post more on this later.

yes it definately is fascinating...amazing what we can do.
i probably have watched terminator too many times, it was one of my favourite movies when i was a kid

 

[Tin Man]

I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

There will be no surrender. No meatbag will be spared...I mean good. Round up all other human friends and we will throw a party with cake and ice cream.

 

[SealHammer]

Boy howdy, comparing an autonomous SEAD weapon to "killer robots" sure is a stretch. Yeah, they're making the technology, but it's nowhere near being in a state in which it can be fielded.

And even if it were fielded, it's not like the ethics of combat would somehow be changed. The same people would still be responsible for wars. In fact, if robots were indeed fielded in place of human infantrymen, it would just make the chain of responsibility between the death and the politician that much shorter.

 

[Flavus Aquila]

The problem with modern trends in military technology is that developments seem to favour the elimination of the greatest deterrent to military action: personal cost.

 

[sprinkles]

Boy howdy, comparing an autonomous SEAD weapon to "killer robots" sure is a stretch. Yeah, they're making the technology, but it's nowhere near being in a state in which it can be fielded.

And even if it were fielded, it's not like the ethics of combat would somehow be changed. The same people would still be responsible for wars. In fact, if robots were indeed fielded in place of human infantrymen, it would just make the chain of responsibility between the death and the politician that much shorter.

Eh well they've also developed a submunition that is like a little parachute dronelet which will scan for targets by laser or IR, aim, and shoot it with a EFP. So you can air burst a bunch of these over a pack of tanks and they will pick independent targets and hole them.

However I suppose smart weapons are better than dumb weapons if we're going to have weapons at all. With a HARM or JDAM you're being relatively picky about what you hit, as opposed to the old way of dropping as many large bombs as you can and leveling the whole damn town.

The problem with modern trends in military technology is that developments seem to favour the elimination of the greatest deterrent to military action: personal cost.

Not really. It'd be another arms race and maybe another Cold War. What was the problem with nukes? Other people had them. Same principle here. Except nukes were probably worse and would totally wreck your shit if one ever got fired. ICBMs are incredibly hard to stop because they have a ballistic trajectory with possibly many warheads - this means there's no actual missile for a large part of the flight, the missile spits out the warheads on several parabolic arcs to different targets at which point the warheads are dumb bombs. They are relatively small and there's no guidance to take out or fool because they've basically been thrown from the missile and travel on momentum like throwing a football.