War Machines: Recruiting Robots for Combat

[swecker]

From a technology perspective that's pretty cool. From an ethics perspective, I don't think it really makes a difference, or will impact the future of war. It will definitely impact the art of war, but not on how much war we'll have. There were technically arms races throughout all of history and technology cannot change that about us. I can imagine a bunch of Englishmen sitting around thinking about the ethics of war because their buddies just made the Longbow. I'm pessimistic in believing that no matter what technologies we find there will always be humans that act like animals, but I'm optimistic in believing no matter what technologies we find there will always be people who will stand up for the right. I don't think this will really impact most of our lives at all..., but they do look really fun.

[vlod]

> I don't think it really makes a difference, or will impact the future of war

since the risks of losing your own soldiers is much reduced, you don't think it's more likely to cause war?

>but they do look really fun.

fun? really? i'm a little shocked that you think it's fun. Aren't we talking about people dying here? a lot of innocent civilians die during a war, and that with soldiers on the ground with all the facts.

maybe if we aren't prepared to lose soldiers we shouldn't be there in the first place.

[aberkowitz]

Only time will tell whether these new developments help limit non-combatant death.

Nevertheless, this detachment from human death scares me.

[melling]

The one positive note is that a lot of money is being spent on robotics R&D, which will hopefully have some consumer uses.

[mturmon]

But think of the blowback on the discipline of Robotics when the first human/robot conflicts result in significant human casualties. It might be a net loss to the profession.