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Robot Warriors Will Get a Guide To Ethics
thinker sends in an MSNBC report on the development of ethical guidelines for battlefield robots. The article notes that such robots won't go autonomous for a while yet, and that the guidelines are being drawn up for relatively uncomplicated situations — such as a war zone from which all non-combatents have already fled, so that anybody who shoots at you is a legitimate target. "Smart missiles, rolling robots, and flying drones currently controlled by humans, are being used on the battlefield more every day. But what happens when humans are taken out of the loop, and robots are left to make decisions, like who to kill or what to bomb, on their own? Ronald Arkin, a professor of computer science at Georgia Tech, is in the first stages of developing an 'ethical governor,' a package of software and hardware that tells robots when and what to fire. His book on the subject, Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots, comes out this month."
Three Laws of Robotics from 1942.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Last time robots were confronted with "ethics" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics, they turned on the world and Will Smith had to save us all.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits" - Albert Einstein
Sgt: We lost sir! badly!
Gen: What happened?
Sgt: We're still gathering up the details, but it looks like they hacked our network and uploaded Asimov Strain B.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Weird. So this fails the Asimov criteria.
More importantly, would also necessarily fail the Golden Rule and Kant's Categorical Imperative.
If this is ethics, its a pretty limited version of it, and to be honest sounds more like rules of engagement than actual ethics.
Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots
That is the title of the book you tell your 7th grade teacher you are GOING to write when you grow up.
Sounds like the FAQ for Robot Battle.
http://www.robotbattle.com/
If you drop a fucking robot into a village where a vast majority of the people don't know how to read, what do you think they're going to do? They'll shoot at it, get the backs of their heads blown off, and then everyone will say, "Well, the dumbass shouldn't have shot at the robot!"
If this war on terror is so important, sign up. If you can't, get your brother or sister or even better, sign your kids up. If they're not of age yet, they'd better be in the JROTC. Then you can talk to me about how using drones and missiles isn't the dominion of motherfucking cowards. It's for freedom lovers defending freedom!
And if you think it isn't, imagine what the headlines would be if China landed a few thousand autonomous tanks and droids in Los Angeles. Oh, but that's right. This is about principles for others to follow, and for us to ignore.
Why is this a when question, rather than an if question?
Yeah! Or, or "How to Serve Man."
Great post, man.
But I have a buddy in the autonomous killer robot biz, and he says it's worse than that.
See, you drop a killer robot in the village, and it immediately kills a shitload of people. The ones that live, figure out why. Then, as soon as they know that the robot destroys everything that looks like an AK47, the local up-and-coming gang leader makes an AK47 stencil and paints AK silhouettes on the old warlord's cows, house, laundry, etc. you get the picture. Then the young punk gives all the old leader's women to his buddies to rape and takes the young virgins for himself. Yay democracy! Or, at least, that's what they say when GI Joe comes to town, we are the heroes who took out the old anti-democratic leaders, yay us and you villagers better keep your cake-holes tight shut about the rape and opium parties.
It doesn't matter what you use for a trigger - robots are inherently less complex in their behavior than humans, so the local baddies end up with the robots working for them. You just identify the kill behavior and use it, the robot builder is just providing free firepower to the local mafia in effect.
Which is why the US military in the field abso-fucking-lutely refuses to let the robots go full autonomous. They are NOT allowed to shoot unless a callow 18-year old miles at a console away says it's OK.
You might think I'm kidding, but I'm not. Have to be anonymous for this one!
Shiiiiit, you think those damned bots would make it out of South Central intact? The gang bangers would have robot heads mounted on their rides like trophies. I'm sure that any of them that managed to roll out the other side would have the weapons stripped off of them faster than a Toyota Camry ends up on blocks and it would be so covered in tags that the poor thing couldn't even see where it was going.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Right, because we have the capability of doing just that with nukes now, nevermind robots, and it has been such a problem for us over the last 50 years...
Only an idiot would think physical separation from the battlefield immediately reduces the gravity of killing a human being. You still know it's a human being you are killing, the separation doesn't change anything. You could make the case that it reduces the trauma of being mid-fight, but that only puts more emphasis on the fact that you are killing someone, you don't have the fear of your own death to force your hand.
By your logic, shooting someone at point-blank range would be significantly more difficult than shooting them from 200 yards away, which would be more difficult than shooting them with battlfield artilary from 1 mile away, which would be more difficult than launching a missile from tens of miles away, which would be more difficult than pressing the button to launch an ICBM.
The logic doesn't follow, because as you move farther away and impact more people, the decision becomes more and more difficult. The decision at point blank is simple: act or die. Traumatic? Yeah, some people are screwed up for life because of it. Do you have time to weigh to think about the fact that you are about to end another human being's life? No, you don't. Making the decision is easy, living with the consequences is difficult. It doesn't change much when you make that decision from half a world away through a monitor. If anything, without the stronger pressures of battle to force the decision it could be harder on a person's psyche to make the decision to kill, and more likely to question their own actions.
For some reason, you are assuming that physical separation suddenly turns people into sociopaths. It's the same reasoning that makes the asinine argument that video games desensitize kids and turn them all into violent killers. It's just not the case. You're basically saying soldiers in the drones can't tell that those are real people they are killing. That's just stupid.
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
These are military robots. No military robots would fall under Asimov's list.
What I think some fail to remember is that Asimov was just a science fiction author. He wrote stories. Very compelling ones, his place in modern literature is gigantic, but none the less just fictional stories. Thus his "three laws" have nothing to do with reality. They aren't natural laws, or legal standards, they are just part of a story. Thus they have no standing in the world.
They may well be how Asimov would like to see robots work, they may well be how you'd like to see robots work, however they have nothing to do with how the military wants it to work. They are not a canon of any kind.
When a robot is developed for military purposes, it should be no surprise the ethics are considered in that context. The whole point of it will be to be able to use deadly force if necessary. The programming is then when is that ok and not ok.
So please, let's have all us geeks lay off the Asimov "three laws" when it comes to robots. Every time something like this comes up people start talking about that like it matters to anyone. No, it really doesn't.
Your post has absolutely zero factual basis to it. Physical separation is a major psychological factor when deciding to 'pull the trigger.' Try reading "On Killing" by Dave Grossman, an excellent book that points out the reasons why distance makes it easier to kill.
Portland, North Dakota Puppies
Obviously you've never spoken to a tank commander, or any manufacturer of the UI's inside of armored vehicles. They are designed to be 'like video games' for a reason. Specifically to dehumanize the opponent, and mitigate the likelihood that you will associate your actual actions with killing. That's basic psychology. It's also why we refer to the enemy in Iraq/Afghanistan as Haji, why we called the Germans Jerries, and why we called the VC Charlie. You don't hate Ho Ming Na, father of 4 children who were brutally slain by US soldiers and is trying to simply save his farmland. You hate Charlie, so killing Ho Ming Na is acceptable. Anything to dehumanize them is crucial for removing mental blocks to soldiers.