New Laws of Robotics Proposed for US Kill-Bots

jakosc writes "The Register has a short commentary about a proposed new set of laws of robotics for war robots by John S Canning of the Naval Surface Warfare Centre. Unlike Asimov's three laws of robotics Canning proposes (pdf) that we should 'Let machines target other machines and let men target men.' Although this sounds OK in principle, 'a robot could decide under Mr Canning's rules, to target a weapon system such as an AK47 for destruction on its own initiative, requiring no permission from a human. If the person holding it was thereby killed, that would be collateral damage and the killer droid would be in the clear.'"

Comments

Re:Robot laws

[TubeSteak]

Plus robots are controlled by someone at a terminal...they don't control themselves.

Uhhh... no.
If someone is controlling it, at best it is a telerobot (semi-autonomous) or at worst, a telemanipulator.

A robot, by definition is autonomous and does not have or require human control.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telerobotics

Re:Robot laws

[NitsujTPU]

I don't know which system he's talking about, but the phalanx systems on battleships is a fully autonomous system that can shoot down enemy aircraft and even knock missiles out of the sky.

It's knows which is which because all of the friendly aircraft have IFF systems that identify themselves.

Re:Robot laws

[John Newman]

I'll assume you're a fucking moron, because you are. If Norway sent its infantry abroad, it would not equip them with AG3s.

Are all Norwegians this polite, gentle, and peace-loving? In any event, reality must have an anti-Norwegian bias, because Norway has sent its soldiers to Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan, and it sent them armed with AG3's (along with even bigger guns). In the latter two nations they are even operating under the aegis of NATO, rather than the UN. Fortunately the Norwegeian government has ensured they are properly armed, but (sadly) this hasn't stopped them from killing civilian demonstrators or getting killed themselves.

Re:Three rules...

[AK Marc]

You obviously don't understand how oil works. We rarely get oil from the middle east. We get it from closer sources, when available. Why? Because that's cheaper. But the total world has demand, and there is only so much production. Increasing production in Iraq lowers our oil costs, no matter who we are purchasing it from. It really is that simple.