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Robot Rebellion Quelled in Iraq

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the get-to-tha-choppa dept.

opencity writes "The Register reports that the (perhaps inevitable) robot rebellion has been avoided ... for now. 'Ground-crawling US war robots armed with machine guns, deployed to fight in Iraq last year, reportedly turned on their fleshy masters almost at once. The rebellious machine warriors have been retired from combat pending upgrades.' Gizmodo also has a good photo."

5 of 317 comments (clear)

  1. Somehow reminds me of Asimov... by mikkl666 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If they don't get robots this far, please don't give them guns, ever. EVER.

    1. Re:Somehow reminds me of Asimov... by HuguesT · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually lots of Asimov stories revolve around robots weaseling out of one of the three laws.

    2. Re:Somehow reminds me of Asimov... by harry666t · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > but a robot running the first law of
      > robotics would be incapable of firing
      > the weapon ever.

      And that's how it should be!

  2. One of the problems. by haeger · · Score: 5, Insightful
    What happened here from what I understand from the article (yes, I did read it) was that the machine started moving when it wasn't supposed to.
    That's not so bad when we are talking about automated warehouse trucks and similar robots, but when they are armed and constructed to kill it becomes something very serious indeed.

    So you'll need a kill-switch, but not one that the enemy can use, so it needs to be complicated, but not too complicated because then it won't work when needed. Not an easy thing to do.

    Oh, and there will be bugs in the machine. I have yet to write a single script or program that didn't have a bug in it. And I don't think I'm unique in this aspect. Now, do we really want to let loose a machine designed for killing that we don't have an easy way to shut off and that we know will have bugs in it?

    .haeger

    --
    You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. -- Harlan Ellison
  3. where is the obligatory by slashdotmsiriv · · Score: 5, Insightful

    youhave30secondstocomply tag?