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US Military Moving Closer To Automated Killing
Doofus writes "A recent article in the Washington Post, A future for drones: Automated killing, describes the steady progress the military is making toward fully autonomous networks of targeting and killing machines. Does this (concern|scare|disgust) any of you? Quoting: 'After 20 minutes, one of the aircraft, carrying a computer that processed images from an onboard camera, zeroed in on the tarp and contacted the second plane, which flew nearby and used its own sensors to examine the colorful object. Then one of the aircraft signaled to an unmanned car on the ground so it could take a final, close-up look. Target confirmed. This successful exercise in autonomous robotics could presage the future of the American way of war: a day when drones hunt, identify and kill the enemy based on calculations made by software, not decisions made by humans. Imagine aerial "Terminators," minus beefcake and time travel.' The article goes on to discuss the dangers of surrendering to fully autonomous killing, concerns about the potential for 'atrocities,' and the nature of what we call 'common sense.'"
I think at that point it might be weee bit late. Today it's an orange tarp... tomorrow it's a camouflaged tank in a forest.... and day after it's a guy wearing red and white striped-shirt in a crowd.
$ cat killbot.log
Scanning crowd...
Target "Waldo" located.
Servo batteries one, two, and three lock on... fire!
Target "Waldo" destroyed.
$
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
If ever there was an appropriate time for the "whatcouldpossiblygowrong" tag, this is it.
Looks like they automated Godwin too.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Perhaps they could call such a system WOPR :-)
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