A Soldier and His Droid... (Full Version)

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losttreasure -> A Soldier and His Droid... (6/6/2007 4:46:39 PM)

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htmurph/articles/20070606.aspx

With advancements in artificial intelligence just on the horizon, it boggles the mind to consider the ethical questions we might face in the not so distant future...



caitlyn -> RE: A Soldier and His Droid... (6/6/2007 8:08:34 PM)

They are actually voting on these ethical questions, right now on CSPAN. The current vote is:
 
Republican 2 Democrat 2



Einzelganger -> RE: A Soldier and His Droid... (6/6/2007 8:21:15 PM)

I'd like to see what these droids look like...wheels, treads, legs...I'm guessing treads.  I'd also love to see what sort of weaponry with which they're equipped, if any...and if not, what their purpose may be, aside from detonating explosive devices...

-Einzelgänger



Real0ne -> RE: A Soldier and His Droid... (6/6/2007 8:30:27 PM)



remote controlled hummers LOL

terrorists around every corner!

i can see the headlines....

navy hummer stands accused of raping an army halftrack after opening his hood and flashing her!


hehe



Einzelganger -> RE: A Soldier and His Droid... (6/6/2007 9:05:07 PM)

It's sometimes amazing how close today's battlefield is to something like that of Battlefield 2142.  In that game, there are actually drones that follow you around and aid in target acquisition...some even have built-in open-bolt machineguns to help you take out said targets.  Then there's the automated defibrillator (already invented), auto-targetting sentry guns, as seen in Aliens (already invented), air-burst munitions for taking out targets behind cover (already invented), and last but not least, nearly every gun in the game has a holographic or red-dot sight permanently attached, similar to an H&K G36; this is already the case with the American military, and many others.  It seems like every time I see footage of what's going on in Iraq, I see red-dots on nearly every M16, M4, and M249 SAW.  Most of these items have been shown on the Discovery Channel show, Future Weapons.  Sorry if I'm ranting, but I think it's rather interesting when someone makes a science fiction story about the future, and things already seem to be heading in that direction.

-Einzelgänger



Real0ne -> RE: A Soldier and His Droid... (6/6/2007 9:53:32 PM)

believe it or not a lot of that stuff is really easy to build

that and most of that stuff has been around for years frankly



FirmhandKY -> RE: A Soldier and His Droid... (6/6/2007 11:06:04 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Real0ne

remote controlled hummers


Does using your hands on your subs head qualify as "remote control"?   [:D]

FirmKY



Sinergy -> RE: A Soldier and His Droid... (6/7/2007 12:38:06 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: FirmhandKY

quote:

ORIGINAL: Real0ne

remote controlled hummers


Does using your hands on your subs head qualify as "remote control"?   [:D]

FirmKY


Only if somebody else is getting the hummer.

Sinergy



Sicarius -> RE: A Soldier and His Droid... (6/7/2007 1:42:03 AM)

They're referring to TALONs and TALON-SWORDS.

For those who were curious as to what they look like, here are a few examples.

http://www.army-technology.com/contractor_images/foster_miller/SWORDS300dpi.jpg

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/images/talon-swords-02.jpg

http://www.pica.army.mil/PicatinnyPublic/news/images/highlights/SWORDSposter.jpg

http://www.pica.army.mil/PicatinnyPublic/news/images/highlights/robot1.jpg

In terms of the ethical questions we may face in the future, I certainly feel as though that's a given.  Generally speaking, these robots are controlled by human operators, but they do have automated functions -- I have seen videos of them hunting down human "targets" in a pack during training exercises.  Ultimately it is still the decision of the monitoring supervisor to "kill" or not.

To the best of my knowledge, I do not believe that we currently have any of the SWORDS variants serving in combat right now.  Most are reconnaisance models or EOD robots.  The combat variants will be entering service in the very near future, however.  I'm entirely in support of it as I feel it will put fewer soldiers at risk.

-Sicarius



Einzelganger -> RE: A Soldier and His Droid... (6/7/2007 3:51:05 AM)

Wow, that's quite a wide array of weaponry that thing can carry.  The only one missing is the one that fires the new biodegradable munitions.

Yes, that's right.  Biodegradable munitions.  It's all the rave these days in modern warfare.  After every war, there are thousands of tons of depleted uranium rounds scattered about the countryside.  Countless land mines and unexploded clusters from clusterbombs litter the landscape.

So, instead of clusters in the clusterbombs, they're beginning to pack stale donuts in there.  When the bomb reaches a maximum rate of rotation, it breaks open and showers a large area with its rock-hard, fat-laden payload.  As the projectiles are biodegradable, there's no damage to the environment after the war is over.

The same with potato cannons.  The new 'airburst' munitions are hollowed-out spuds with a small timed charge within.  They're fired from a rifled barrel made of PVC pipe to reduce weight.  They are excellent for neutralizing enemies behind cover; the fuse is set so that the round will detonate as it passes over the enemy troops' cover, say a wall for example, and sends potassium-rich fragments flying at near-supersonic speeds at everything within a 5 meter radius.  Very effective.

Well, I've been up for over 40 hours now, so I'm probably behaving a wee bit nutty.  But ask me sometime about the new banana bombs, known to our men and women in the field as the 'soft fruit of doom'.

-Einzelgänger



LadyEllen -> RE: A Soldier and His Droid... (6/7/2007 4:08:08 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: losttreasure

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htmurph/articles/20070606.aspx

With advancements in artificial intelligence just on the horizon, it boggles the mind to consider the ethical questions we might face in the not so distant future...


The great thing, au contraire, is that there are no ethical or moral questions when one has automated killing machines - the machines do exactly what they are meant to do without wondering about their task or questioning their commands. Equally, they cant be hauled up for human rights violations.

And if those pesky peasants at home start wondering and questioning, then the machines share no kinship with one's own peasants, as they didnt with the foreign peasants "accidentally" massacred last month.

E



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