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'Ban Killer Bots,' Urges Human Rights Watch

Taco Cowboy writes "A self-proclaimed 'Human Rights Group' — the 'International Human Rights Clinic' from Harvard Law School — has teamed up with 'Human Rights Watch' to urge the banning of 'Killer Robots.' A report issued by the Human Rights Watch, with the title of 'Losing Humanity,' claimed autonomous drones that could attack without human intervention would make war easier and endanger civilians. Where's the 'Robot Rights Watch' just when you need 'em?"

297 comments

  1. Sounds like a great idea by OrangeTide · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We should go back to using cruise missiles and carpet bombing.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    1. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When can I buy one for my property?

    2. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Icegryphon · · Score: 1, Informative

      Agreed, Winston Churchill had it right. William Tecumseh Sherman had it right. Destroy every bit of the enemy infrastructure and they wont have anything to wage war with.

    3. Re:Sounds like a great idea by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Nope, but we dont need fully autonomous killer robots either. Would you rather have a robot determine if a target is worth killing, rather than a human?

    4. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Ambassador+Kosh · · Score: 2

      I would trust the robot more. You could program it to not take things like emotions into account. You can have it judge if someone is hostile or a combatant and only exercise the force required. Humans are far more likely to overreact.

      --
      Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD! :)
    5. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Trepidity · · Score: 2

      "Totaler Krieg – Kürzester Krieg", as they say

    6. Re:Sounds like a great idea by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 1

      A robot controlled remotely by a human (even if only for the kill) would accomplish the same. The human is way detached, that it would be easy to control his emotions.

    7. Re:Sounds like a great idea by BradleyUffner · · Score: 1

      I would trust the robot more. You could program it to not take things like emotions into account. You can have it judge if someone is hostile or a combatant and only exercise the force required. Humans are far more likely to overreact.

      How do you code to detect hostility?

    8. Re:Sounds like a great idea by r1348 · · Score: 2

      Adult male = terrorist, as everyone in Pakistan knows.

    9. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Ambassador+Kosh · · Score: 1

      Give the robot reflexes fast enough that you don't calculate it. You just scan for it and shoot back.

      Time is not the same for computers as it is for us. What is an instance for a human is a very very long time for a computer. We have computers that can visually pick out a bad product from a free fall of products and use a small puff of air to move just that one bad product out of the way. To a human the whole thing looks like a solid fall of stuff.

      Things like that are used for french fries for instance.

      The point is the world is very slow for a computer. Since we don't' care if the robot is shot let it take the first shot and then shoot back. We could also program it with various parameters to protect things classified as nonhostile.

      --
      Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD! :)
    10. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Ambassador+Kosh · · Score: 1

      And yes those humans do violate the various rules that cover war and do shoot into crowds of civilians. I would say so far that approach is not working very well.

      --
      Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD! :)
    11. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Ambassador+Kosh · · Score: 1

      That is the way that humans controlling the robots are doing the classifying right now. Clearly that is WRONG as hell. A robot programmed to follow things like the geneva conventions would not fire until actual evidence of someone being a combatant. (ie they actually pulled out a gun and fired at the robot or at something the robot is supposed to protect)

      --
      Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD! :)
    12. Re:Sounds like a great idea by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 1

      Assuming humans still control these autonomous robots, autonomous robots would solve these problems either. Would you expect these autonomous robots to refuse an order given by their human commander? Would you expect these robots to be programmed to be capable of refusing a command?

    13. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Ambassador+Kosh · · Score: 1

      They absolutely should be programmed to refuse orders like that. However, I don't expect that to happen which is very very sad.

      --
      Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD! :)
    14. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2

      We should go back to using cruise missiles and carpet bombing.

      Where do you draw the definitional line? Isn't a cruise missile a robot that kills people?

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    15. Re:Sounds like a great idea by WrecklessSandwich · · Score: 1

      Where do you draw the definitional line? Isn't a cruise missile a robot that kills people?

      Someone had to push the launch button.

    16. Re:Sounds like a great idea by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 1

      1) A robot may not injure a non-combatant or, through inaction, allow a non-combatant being to come to harm.
      2) A robot must obey the orders given to it by its masters, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
      3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

    17. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Algae_94 · · Score: 1

      And someone has to turn the robot on. That isn't a fine enough distinction to separate cruise missiles from robots.

    18. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > They absolutely should be programmed to refuse orders like that.

      "Like that", as if it's a qualifier. Saying "should" do this or that, because you believe your judgement is better than another individual's. Telling people what they should and shouldn't do is always based on invisible personal criteria, but only after the fact because you can't know until you see it and form your own notions. That's what "should" implies. It's this level of misguided stupidity that we try to keep out of global initiatives.

      Robots have their own criteria for what they will attempt to do and I'm thinking it's just plain dangerous to go down that road as a matter of statistical certainty. Hardware and software fails alarmingly often, period. Next we have a robot tank containing god-knows-what rolling across a border looking for a long-dead target until power shorts or there's a buffer overflow and it just decides to deploy arbitrarily.

    19. Re:Sounds like a great idea by WrecklessSandwich · · Score: 1

      And someone has to turn the robot on. That isn't a fine enough distinction to separate cruise missiles from robots.

      The person involved still gives a target location (which generally has collateral damage taken into consideration) for a cruise missile that it can hit quite accurately. When you turn the robot on, you're not sure who it's going to kill where. It will be a very long time before a machine can make those kinds of decisions with respect to collateral damage and civilian casualties.

      There's a pretty damn big distinction between "blow up that building (and cease to exist afterwards)" and "go hang out over there and kill anything that looks hostile".

    20. Re:Sounds like a great idea by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 2

      Sounds good, except the master gets to decide who the non-combatant is.

    21. Re:Sounds like a great idea by qbitslayer · · Score: 1

      We should go back to using cruise missiles and carpet bombing.

      Why stop there? We should go back to sticks, stones, poisons, bows and arrows. That was more humane, right?

      Louis

    22. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope, but we dont need fully autonomous killer robots either. Would you rather have a robot determine if a target is worth killing, rather than a human?

      I can't imagine the results would be any more unexpected than "whatever steps on this wire dies"

      What kind of imaginary, strawman killbot are we talking about?

    23. Re:Sounds like a great idea by jimmydigital · · Score: 1

      A robot controlled remotely by a human (even if only for the kill) would accomplish the same. The human is way detached, that it would be easy to control his emotions.

      Haven't we seen this movie before?

      If we uplink now, Skynet will be in control of your military. But you'll be in control of Skynet, right?

      --
      Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats. -HLM
    24. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Lord+Kano · · Score: 2

      In short order it will be Human with brown skin = terrorist

      As a person with brown skin, I don't like where this is heading.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    25. Re:Sounds like a great idea by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 1

      s/non-combatant/non-combatant according to hard-coded algorithm/

    26. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, and robots are unhindered by our human notions of morality. You could trust a robot to further only the goals of its corporate overlords, without worrying about 'the public good' or things like that.

    27. Re:Sounds like a great idea by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 1

      I would say that it is impossible for the robot to make that judgement. (The commander often knows more than the troops he leads, and he orders something for a reason). Besides, why would any military want to include these three rules in their robot. The military tries to train every soldier to just obey any command without thinking. They use pysch tests to filter recruits that can take orders and execute them without questions or judging them. An ideal soldier according to the military, is one that performs any order as soon as it is issued. With a robot, it is a dream come true. The robot will be build to execute any order from it's master immediately.

    28. Re:Sounds like a great idea by khallow · · Score: 1

      You could program it to not take things like emotions into account.

      It all depends on what they're programmed to do, and whether that program acts as expected. That's why I wouldn't trust them more than humans.

    29. Re:Sounds like a great idea by BradleyUffner · · Score: 1

      Give the robot reflexes fast enough that you don't calculate it. You just scan for it and shoot back.

      Time is not the same for computers as it is for us. What is an instance for a human is a very very long time for a computer. We have computers that can visually pick out a bad product from a free fall of products and use a small puff of air to move just that one bad product out of the way. To a human the whole thing looks like a solid fall of stuff.

      Things like that are used for french fries for instance.

      The point is the world is very slow for a computer. Since we don't' care if the robot is shot let it take the first shot and then shoot back. We could also program it with various parameters to protect things classified as nonhostile.

      Perhaps my question should have been worded differently. What characteristics do you use to determine hostility? Do you think the reliability of the detection of those characteristics is high enough to end someone's life without human oversight? Automation is fine for detecting bad french fries, where a mistake doesn't kill someone, but if you going to kill a "hostile" person, you better damn well make sure it isn't some guy carrying a broom instead of a gun.

    30. Re:Sounds like a great idea by neyla · · Score: 2

      On the topic of cannibalism, Arne Ness once opined that in his opinion, it'd be a significant step forward morally if we would refrain from killing more people than we intend to eat.

    31. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And someone has to turn the robot on. That isn't a fine enough distinction to separate cruise missiles from robots.

      The person involved still gives a target location (which generally has collateral damage taken into consideration) for a cruise missile that it can hit quite accurately. When you turn the robot on, you're not sure who it's going to kill where. It will be a very long time before a machine can make those kinds of decisions with respect to collateral damage and civilian casualties.

      There's a pretty damn big distinction between "blow up that building (and cease to exist afterwards)" and "go hang out over there and kill anything that looks hostile".

      Dude, you are confusing intelligent systems of today with... the Terminator. An autonomous weapon would have programmed orders and is not a free pass to ignore rules of engagement. Why the hell would we build one we couldn't control?

    32. Re:Sounds like a great idea by davester666 · · Score: 1

      This coding would depend entirely on whether the machine can tell the difference between natural color and a really good tan.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    33. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Citation?
      assumption: you're talking about the U.S. "military" (FYI there no such thing unless you're a civilian).

      I served for 19+ years in the Army and NEVER had any type of psychology test. In every unit we had to "Law of Land Warfare" training, both annualy and before each deployment. That included the "duty to disobey unlawful orders" component. The "ideal soldier" is absolutely NOT one (a) who doesn't think or (b) performs any order as soon as it is *given*. (FYI Equipment is 'issued').

    34. Re:Sounds like a great idea by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 1

      Jokes need citations now?

    35. Re:Sounds like a great idea by r1348 · · Score: 1

      No, that's the way the military heads cheat their way in post-action reports when someone "accidentally" drops a bomb on someone's wedding or funeral in Northern Pakistan.

    36. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 3

      A robot controlled remotely by a human (even if only for the kill) would accomplish the same. The human is way detached, that it would be easy to control his emotions.

      Haven't we seen this movie before?

      If we uplink now, Skynet will be in control of your military. But you'll be in control of Skynet, right?

      Also it's not actually true that people are more detached. The rates of PTSD amongst drone controllers are apparently ridiculously high for people who are effectively non-combatants. Soldiers in the field are more or less stuck in "kill or be killed" when contact happens, whereas a guy flying a drone always knows he could have simply not pushed the button.

    37. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope, but we dont need fully autonomous killer robots either. Would you rather have a robot determine if a target is worth killing, rather than a human?

      +5 Insightful for ignoring the third option- using a weapon which doesn't pick targets and just wipes out large areas. You know, like a cruise missile, a bomb, a mortar, etc.

    38. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 1

      Where do you draw the line at too much automation though?

      If you have a robotic Humm-Vee which is designed to trigger an ambush so supporting troops and then kill the ambushers, then nothing's wrong. But if we're doing that, why not have said Humm-Vee - which can see exactly who's shooting - start returning fire on hostiles?

      Knowing that, the consequence for not doing so may be that friendlies attempting to attack those hostiles get killed because they're active, or because the vantage point is bad, or even end up shooting the wrong people because they have to work on 2nd hand information about who the hostiles were.

    39. Re:Sounds like a great idea by sFurbo · · Score: 1

      I would expect them to refuse going below the stalling speed, or at least to demand a clear override to do it. I don't see why the same could not be done for targeting. Whether it will be done is a matter of how determined the ones paying are. In the case of the US army, that would, in the end, be the people.

    40. Re:Sounds like a great idea by sFurbo · · Score: 2

      Many armies follow the Geneva convention, or at least pretend to. They do this, not out of concern for the enemy, but out of concern for their own troops. Going to war is psychologically hard. You have to deliberately do the most basic thing we have been drilled is bad: kill people. This makes people break down. The break-down is slower if you believe you are at least following some rules. It might be the same for these robots, at least as long as they have human pilots: The pilots might last longer if they believe the robot follows some basic rules. It might also make the firing faster: If the pilot trusts the robot to not shoot against non-combatants, it is easier to pull the trigger. Of course, this could also lead to more civilians being shot, as the pilot outsource all morality to the algorithm.

    41. Re:Sounds like a great idea by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And it's probably a good thing that drone operators do get PTSD. Not for them, obviously, but for the innocent people on the ground whose only hope of survival is that drone operator hesitating when he isn't 100% sure who he is firing at.

      War has to be nasty and carry horrible consequences for both sides, otherwise it will become too easy. IMHO it already has.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    42. Re:Sounds like a great idea by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      A cruise missile hits a pre-determined target, and that is all. The kinds of robots TFA is talking about are capable of deciding on their own targets and selecting who to kill independent of any human oversight.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    43. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The sad part is that there is zero technical discussion here of the issues involved. There is a reason the military wants "killer" robots (isn't a gun a killer robot as well ?). People want autonomous killer robots not to be detached from the actual killing, but because the latency would give the other guy (or other robot) a distinct advantage.

      These robots are not programmed to autonomously make the decision to yes/no kill someone. They're programmed with a specific target, then when an opportunity present itself to hit that specific target, they decide if the circumstances are good enough to shoot. This can mean things like "don't do it if there's a crowd", or "don't attempt it in a sandstorm", "don't attempt it when you're low on fuel", ... They're more like kill lists with a number of rules around them.

      It is much more like how police snipers work. They get their orders, which basically boil down to "kill this guy". They get up to their perch and try to find the target, and when they've found their target they have these little devices on their guns which are a small transmitter, they flick a switch and the counterpart in the hands of the police negotiator/commander/whatever starts a little green light. Generally there's more than one sniper. When the commander decides to take out the target he'll press a button on his remote, which will make a green light shine on the sniper rifle. The sniper will generally not fire at that very moment, but wait a little bit to get the best shot possible, e.g. he'll wait until they turn the hostage away from the sniper, or expose a critical body part. You should think of these killer robots like these snipers that "take autonomous firing decisions". Sometimes the snipers get orders to shoot 3 persons. Not randomly of course, but "these 3 guys, fire on sight" and they wait for the green light, and then move from one target to the next as quickly as possible with as little danger to the surroundings as possible (which usually still means quite a lot of danger).

      Needless to say, having a sniper or a killer robot refuse orders is madness. The commander is eyes and ears on the ground, and he's the one making the decisions. He needs to be able to trust that what he says, happens. Generally military/police commanders are the one preventing loss of life, not the ones causing it, and even then there's a reason, it's not random. The same cannot be said for their opponents, whether they're hostage takers, terrorists, or "irregular forces".

      If you chain up only one side of the conflict with rules and laws, you're effectively handing the other side an extra weapon. The more rules you ask these commanders to respect against a faction that doesn't answer to those laws, the more likely you're creating a situation that deteriorates to the point of all-out war. Then your laws will mean nothing for anyone, and the conflict has escalated, affecting thousand times more people than the original conflict did. Of course that doesn't mean the military can just do anything it pleases, but please understand there has to be a balance, and it has to be heavily skewed to trusting military/police commanders.

      Also, frankly, I'd trust a robot to make correct decisions given it's orders (and not lie about it afterwards) much more than any military commander/soldier/human, never mind terrorist. Not to disparage the military, at all, they're trustworthy and courageous people, but compare it to having my bank account balance in pencil on a piece of paper in the bank office versus have a computerized track record.

      Also, mind if I state the obvious : building a killer robot is easy. Getting it right is not easy, but I'm sure someone will succeed to the point of doing a lot of damage after a while. Libcv + a webcam + a servo modified for continuous rotation + a crane holding a gun getting pulled by the servo will get you quite far, especially if the goal is just to kill random people. Before that point, you want to have lots of experience with these things.

    44. Re:Sounds like a great idea by dkleinsc · · Score: 1

      You can have it judge if someone is hostile or a combatant and only exercise the force required.

      Yeah, what could possibly go wrong?

      "Please put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply."

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    45. Re:Sounds like a great idea by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      1) A robot may not injure a non-combatant or, through inaction, allow a non-combatant being to come to harm.

      So, now you get to define "combatant" in a way that can't be gamed by the combatants....

      If I fire a missile, but am otherwise unarmed, will I be recognized as a "combatant"? Ditto if I'm 14?

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    46. Re:Sounds like a great idea by jythie · · Score: 1

      It can be a toss up how well it works. Short term it tends to be pretty effective, but unless you have a good integration plan afterwards you just end up right back into the same conflict a few years later with even more bitterness. Humans do not like loosing, crushing people rarely works for long unless you completely eradicate them... if you destroy infrastructure but the conflict continues they just move to more and more gorilla techniques... can't go after military targets anymore then go after civilians.. can't be organized, just bleed your enemy a pinprick at a time.

      Churchill and Sherman's scorched earth methods were successful because of what was done afterwards....

    47. Re:Sounds like a great idea by TFAFalcon · · Score: 1

      And those algorithms will soon be exploited. If you define it as children with no visible weapons you'll soon have kids walking up to the robots, pulling explosives out of their pockets and sticking it to the closest weak spot.

    48. Re:Sounds like a great idea by TFAFalcon · · Score: 1

      But those orders won't be as specific as those of a cruise missile. A missile basically has :

      step 1: go to point A
      step b: go boom

      A robot might have orders more like: Go to point A and shoot hostiles. But determining what a hostile IS will be left to the programming. And rules of engagement are only words - how will the robot be able to accurately determine what is or is not a hostile? Even humans can't do it, and you're asking someone to teach a machine how to do it.

    49. Re:Sounds like a great idea by damien_kane · · Score: 1

      I would trust the robot more. You could program it to not take things like emotions into account. You can have it judge if someone is hostile or a combatant and only exercise the force required. Humans are far more likely to overreact.

      Just like ED-209 only exercised the force required, and did not in any way overreact.

    50. Re:Sounds like a great idea by citizenr · · Score: 1

      We should go back to using cruise missiles and carpet bombing.

      Good, start with White house.

      --
      Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
    51. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Taibhsear · · Score: 1

      Would you rather have a robot determine if a target is worth killing, rather than a human?

      You have 20 seconds to comply.
      -ed 209

    52. Re:Sounds like a great idea by tofarr · · Score: 1

      Anybody with an XBox live account would disagree

    53. Re:Sounds like a great idea by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      Humans do not like loosing

      Interesting, I like setting people free (loosing). Is that because my eye implant makes me not 100% human? Non-cyborgs love enslaving people?

    54. Re:Sounds like a great idea by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 1

      A close friend of mine designs pysch evaluation tests for a living. He used to be in the navy, before his PHD, and now contracts for the navy. May be my sources are biased, but I hear every recruit takes the test. And if the test shows sign of questioning authority, you may not be recruited. And yes, I have heard of the "duty to disobey unlawful orders" component, from what I hear it is very often impossible to determine why the order was issued. Most people find it easy to follow the order, and regret it later. It is just what I hear from my friend though.

    55. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      citizenr, how come you aren't answering your cell phone anymore?

    56. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Ambassador+Kosh · · Score: 1

      We have a military that is under civilian control. Since we know the military has a pretty good history of giving and obeying illegal orders we should just build the robots not to obey illegal orders as much as possible.

      That way an officer can give an illegal order (like killing a bunch of civilians) and the robots will just refuse to do it just like humans are REQUIRED to do so by law but they keep doing it anyways.

      --
      Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD! :)
    57. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Ambassador+Kosh · · Score: 1

      If you fire you would be classified as hostile and the minimum force to stop you should be used. Robots are more precise that humans they can shoot to incapacitate.

      --
      Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD! :)
    58. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Ambassador+Kosh · · Score: 1

      We can build robots to use minimal force required to stop the attacks. However bombing a wedding would involve killing many classified as non-hostile in order to kill a few hostiles. That would be forbidden for a robot. They could use individual targeted attacks so long as the odds of harming someone else is sufficiently low (we would have to figure out what a good percentage is) but not wide area attacks.

      --
      Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD! :)
    59. Re:Sounds like a great idea by r1348 · · Score: 1

      I'm not saying it's impossible, but you keep assuming that those commanding those bombings actually want or care about decreasing civilian casualties.

    60. Re:Sounds like a great idea by mjwalshe · · Score: 1

      I am sure lance Cpl Jones would agree "They don't like it up 'em! Captain Mainwaring " :-) though h i am only here as my Dad wasn't in his parents house when the Luftwaffe bombed it (they use to live next to the biggest spitfire plant in the Uk)

    61. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 1

      And it's probably a good thing that drone operators do get PTSD. Not for them, obviously, but for the innocent people on the ground whose only hope of survival is that drone operator hesitating when he isn't 100% sure who he is firing at.

      War has to be nasty and carry horrible consequences for both sides, otherwise it will become too easy. IMHO it already has.

      I think this is naive though. It's not like in ages gone by, when war involved hacking people's limbs off with slightly sharpened steel bars, that there were less wars, or that they shorter.

      Ancient armies had awful notions of supply chains and logistics, but it didn't slow anyone down - it was however, a lot worse for any civilians who happened to be along the route's of their marches.

    62. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NO, not carpet bombing, but....I want a human deciding when to kill other humans--not a robot.

      After watching such classics as Terminator and Colossus: The Forbin Project and reading the works of Asimov (and I hate to admit the NOT SO CLASSIC Dune prequel that covered the Butlerian Jihad) I HONESTLY don't want robots to make decisions regarding the death of humans.

      It bothers me. It's hard to describe all the ways it bothers me.

      Killing other humans is a moral decision: robots are incapable of moral decisions.
      Regardless of HOW "evil" the target is, he/she deserves another human being making the moral judgement that his/her demise is necessary.
      The "executioner" has to live with his/her choice. He/she must bear the responsibility for that action.

    63. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If they weren't in combat, it isn't PTSD--it's GUILT.

      I'm sorry to say, but if they killed, even someone who endangered their friends or country, THEY SHOULD FEEL GUILT, no matter how justifiable the killing was.

      Only animals and robots can be allowed feel no guilt for killing. Humans who kill and feel no guilt are either sociopaths or psychopaths and need to be disarmed immediately.

      The guilt ridden can seek whatever spiritual or psychological counselling they need to live with their guilt--but we do all of humanity a disservice to "remove" their guilt.

    64. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dog jizz. No survivors = no revenge.

    65. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Perhaps if people would learn that guns aren't toys and tracer rounds aren't fireworks they wouldn't attract the attention of AC-130s?

      Nominate them all for a Darwin award.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    66. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      However bombing a wedding would involve killing many classified as non-hostile in order to kill a few hostiles. That would be forbidden for a robot.

      Bollocks, bullshit and baloney.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    67. Re:Sounds like a great idea by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      One would hope so. Despite being a pasty partial paddy I do take on a somewhat dagoish hue during the July - August period and it would be a tad inconvenient to get blown to fucking sub-smithereens accidentally.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  2. Dwight from the Office already addressed this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just limit them to 6 foot power cables.

  3. DIY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You should be able to make German V-1 flying bombs with your homemade 3D printer. It's just a pulse jet engine. I'll post the source for a Arduino-based guidance computer later tonight.

    1. Re:DIY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah have fun with that plastic pulsejet, 8bit avr at 16mhz, sampling off junk sensors with low sp/sec ADC, doing its best to get a useful read off that $15 gps module.

    2. Re:DIY by ArcadeMan · · Score: 0

      I never understood why they clock the AVR at 16MHz when that part is rated for 20MHz.

    3. Re:DIY by thygate · · Score: 1

      only more recent models are rated at 20MHz, 16MHz used to be the norm.

    4. Re:DIY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure the vacuum tube and gyroscope guidence used in those old rockets and cruise missiles were a bit less sophesticated than what today's $5 microcontrollers can manage. Given that those V-1s were mostly plywood, I suspect plastic parts are not going to be a significant problem. As for tracking with a $15 gps, the pulse jet stuff isn't terribly fast anyways it's a cruise missile, so it operates at a cruising speed. (whatever you determine is a useful speed above your stall speed)

      You tear down the idea, but wait until some nut job makes one and pisses every security organization off.

    5. Re:DIY by TheLink · · Score: 3, Interesting
      --
    6. Re:DIY by morgauxo · · Score: 1

      Pisses them off? That would be more like Christmas for the security organizations. No doubt it would bring on a whole new Patriot Act.

    7. Re:DIY by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      If that was the case they'd have already done it.

      When I say "done it", I mean "entrapped some dumb fucktard into doing it. And then shot hi@?&.;$%98
      n o c a r r i e r

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  4. Killing without human intervention? by osu-neko · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That's nothing new. It's no different than land mines...

    Oh, wait...

    --
    "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
    1. Re:Killing without human intervention? by Ranguvar · · Score: 1

      It's worth considering that the reasons behind banning landmines include others, like long-term out-of-war casualties.

      Those mines stay there.

    2. Re:Killing without human intervention? by KiloByte · · Score: 1

      [Ottawa treaty] .. which hasn't been signed by a single country that might actually be involved in warfare anytime soon.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  5. killer robots are the new landmines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    if a killer robot slaughters a bunch of little kids, no worries, no one's responsible, the robot did it!

    1. Re:killer robots are the new landmines by Jetra · · Score: 0

      Until PETA become PETSCO (People for the Ethical Treatment of Sentient Creatures and Objects). Think they were bad when they went to war with Pokemon and Mario? It'll be a humorous variety show when they start posting statements like "Robots have feelings too!" and "Viruses must live!"

      Oh great, I gave them ideas.

  6. Human rights by Marxdot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why would you deride human rights groups, Taco Cowboy? And yes, drones that attack autonomously are a very bad idea.

    1. Re:Human rights by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 1

      What do you mean? I want my Cylon Centurions!

    2. Re:Human rights by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anyone who insists that we stop murder by means of asking murderers to use different tools is worthy of derision. They are wasting our focus by making people feel good/safe in meaningless activism towards an effect, not the source of the problem.

  7. the danger of abstracted combat by wierd_w · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While cliche, take a look at "wargames".

    Abstracting away the reality that you are killing people, by making a machine do the actual deed after deployment removes the innate guilt of killing those people.

    It makesit fantastically easier to justify and ignore wholesale slaughter.

    A glitch on the program makes the drone think that anyone carrying a cylinder 2ft long and 1 inch diameter a combatant? (Looks like a gun barrel!) Well, all those poor fuckers carrying brooms and sweeping their patios had it coming! Nevermind those uppity pool boys with dipnets! Can't make an omlette without breaking some eggs, right?!

    When you can simply push a button and walk away without having to witness the attrocities you cause, you abstract away a fair bit of your conscience.

    The military probably thinks that's a GREAT thing! Kids with guns won't cause mental trainwrecks to drones when they get mowed down, and the operator doesn't have to see it!

    The reality is that deploying terminators is the same as turning a blind eye to consequences, and the innately terrible thing that war is, and why it should always be avoided whenever and however possible.

    1. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by ThePeices · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But we have all been taught from an early age that it is wrong to feel guilt for killing bad guys. If you feel guilty, then you are *for* the bad guys, and therefore one of *them*. ( remember, its a binary good/evil world we live in, amiright?)

      Killing bad guys is doing your country a service, we are taught. We are making the world a better place, a safer place, when we kill our enemies.

      This we are taught. If any one disagrees with that, then they are unpatriotic, and aiding and abetting the enemy.

      This we are taught, so it must be true.

    2. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You could say the same of bows/archers -- all they see is just some silhouette falling in the distance, not like swordsmen who have to smell the blood and guts -- they don't feel the guilt of felling an enemy in combat.

    3. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The reality is that deploying terminators is the same as turning a blind eye to consequences

      Tell me about it. I lost an entire squad to the Warp. I just didn't think it could happen to me.

    4. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      " It makes it fantastically easier to justify and ignore wholesale slaughter. "

      Yes, indeed, slaughtering the Arabs and Afghans like livestock. It would be murder if the weapons were to be used against actual humans.

      " Well, all those poor fuckers carrying brooms and sweeping their patios had it coming! Nevermind those uppity pool boys with dipnets! "

      They are indeed "poor," because they have no patios to sweep or pools to clean. If they could afford even a broom then they'd be sweeping dirt floors, and what is the point of that? As for pools, perhaps they could dig a big hole in some dirt, but then the water would be so murky they couldn't see what they're trying to net.

      " Kids with guns won't cause mental trainwrecks to drones when they get mowed down, and the operator doesn't have to see it! "

      Well, then kids shouldn't be carrying guns through town.

      -- Ethanol-fueled

    5. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People need to learn more about what they're protesting. Crazy hypothetical what-ifs like "What if all the robots became sentient, went insane, shook off human control, and started killing all humans with two arms" only serve to weaken the arguments against using them. First off, it's not the soldiers who are deciding to conduct the war. Civilian governments are the ones who decide to go to war, and they don't suffer from the innate guilt of killing people. Furthermore, humanity has been distancing itself from combat ever since we invented bows and arrows. You may as well be asking that we return to clubbing each other to death so that our soldiers are as traumatized as possible. And even if that kind of gruesome demand was moral, a drone operator with a camera who has been watching the target for six hours is certainly more connected with the morality of the action than an artilleryman or a bomber pilot, or even an infantryman firing from 200 meters away.

    6. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by wierd_w · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What is an enemy?

      Is it a person who wishes to do you harm?
      A person who wants to take something you have?
      A person with whom you disagree?
      Or just someone in the way of what you want to do?

      In a war, do not both sides, regardless of the motives of either side, satisfy all of those? Is it no wonder that both sides refer to the other as the enemy?

      In this case, what do the "terrorists" represent, that they merit being exterminated, without conscience nor remorse?

      "Thy killed a shitton of people when they bombed the trade center!" You say?

      Why? Why did they blow up the trade center?

      It couldn't be because our countr(y/ies) was(were) meddling in their affairs, causing them harm, taking things from them, and fundementally in disagreement with their way of life?

      Certainly not! They should be HAPPY that we want to destroy their culture, because we view certain aspects of it as being backwards and primitive! Our way is simply BETTER!

      Now, let's do a thought experiment here. Powerful aliens come down from wherever out in space they are from, find our culture to be backward and primitive, and start strongarming us to cease being who we are, and become like them. They say it's a better way. Maybe it is. That isn't the point. The point is that they don't give us the choice. They do this because it makes it easier for them to establish trade with them, or to work within their stellar economy, or whatever. They profit, by eliminating our culture.

      Would we not go to war with them, fighting their influence in every possible way, and even resort to guerilla and "terrorist" acts when faced by such a superior foe?

      After thinking about that, can you really say you are any different than the "terrorists" we condemn with military machines daily?

      We kill them, because they don't submit. They don't submit, because we are destroying and marginalizing their culture, because we feel it isn't worth retaining/is backward.

      They don't want our help. They don't want our culture. They dnt want our values. They don't want us. We insist on meddling on all of thoe things.

      We started the war.

    7. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Dude have you seen what happens when people are forced to kill face-to-face? They don't rely on their "conscience" to limit human casualties, they mentally reassign their opponents as non-human and murder them like you or I would murder a termite colony infesting our houses. History is nothing but one long string of horrific atrocity after atrocity committed by warring factions against the opposing side, or civilians, or even their own comrades in arms if there isn't a convenient "other" nearby they can target. Moving to a more abstracted method of fighting isn't just about saving our own forces' physical and mental well-being, it's also about limiting the damage they cause to others when they snap from the pressure and take their aggression out on whoever's available.

      Of course we need to monitor our use of robots - we need a system of checks and balances in place to keep the controllers from engaging in unnecessary combat. But drones don't mass-rape, they don't torture old men and little children for fun, they don't raid houses to steal anything of value within, they don't build towers out of the skulls of their enemies, and they won't burn entire villages to the ground massacring everyone within because they're upset that their buddy was killed in combat the other day. Human involvement isn't always a good thing.

    8. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Abstracting away the reality that you are killing people, by making a machine do the actual deed after deployment removes the innate guilt of killing those people.

      I get your point but I'm pretty sure we moved past that goal line years ago. When the United States goes to war the first thing that happens is a lot of missiles that are self guided are shot from boats towards targets to disable all communications and any type of radar/detection devices.

      One might argue that having a self guided weapon be just a little smarter is a better alternative to a precision blind strike.

      Baby steps.

    9. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Eevee · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A glitch on the program makes the drone think that anyone carrying a cylinder 2ft long and 1 inch diameter a combatant? (Looks like a gun barrel!) Well, all those poor fuckers carrying brooms and sweeping their patios had it coming! Nevermind those uppity pool boys with dipnets! Can't make an omlette without breaking some eggs, right?!

      So you're for robots and drones, right? Because right now the glitch in programming is when human soldiers in a combat area see someone with something that might be a weapon, they tend to shoot them. Why? Because the ones going "Is that a weapon or is it a broom" don't tend to last when it is actually is a weapon. A drone operator, on the other hand, can take the time to evaluate the situation since they aren't in harm's way.

    10. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by wierd_w · · Score: 2

      . First off, it's not the soldiers who are deciding to conduct the war. Civilian governments are the ones who decide to go to war, and they don't suffer from the innate guilt of killing people.

      Exactly. The soldier is to government, what the drone is to the soldier. A layer of abstraction, that makes the burden of killing another person easier to bare.

      The government points soldiers, and says "Kill!". They don't see the faces of those they killed, not have to face the families of the slain. The numbers killed are just nameless, nonhuman statistics. The enemy isn't a person anymore, and killing doesn't induce guilt.

      The soldier suffers psychological harm from following those orders, and sometimes even refuses to follow them, if they inhuman enough. To government, the abstraction then fails.

      They solved it by abstracting the killing away from the soldier too.

      Who will protest an order to comit a warcrime, when nobody with control over the automated weapons cares?

      What you have said just now is not license to use drones, because of an existing evil. It is proof of the argument I tendered.

      We make war too easily already. We DON'T need to make it even easier.

    11. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by wierd_w · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You are not comprehending what I am telling you.

      War is to be avoided, because nothing about it is good, just, nor honorable. War scars the minds of those who engage in it, live through it, or even witness it first hand. The damage and price of war is more than just soldiers killed and buildings blown up. It is the destruction of people's lives, in every imaginable sense. Surviving a war might be less humane than dieing in it.

      The point was that by removing the consequences of war, (soldiers becoming bloodthirsty psychos that rape, kill, torture, and lose respect for the lives of others, all others-- in addition to simply having people die, and having economic and environmental catatrophes on your hands), you make war look more and more desirable as an option.

      What I was trying to get you to see, is that war is always a bad thing, and trying to mae it seem like less of a bad thing is the WRONG way to go about it.

    12. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe we can get to a stage where autonomous warfare IS the only warfare. Then again that would give some impressive power to military organizations, especially government owned ones. But hey, maybe it'll turn into a for-profit industry by then?

    13. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by wierd_w · · Score: 1, Insightful

      No. You fail to comprehend my position at all.

      There shouldn't be anyone making that decision. At all.

      Making that decision easier, by having a machine do it, to alleviate the guilt of a human operator, and his chain of command, is the WRONG direction.

      Want to know where it ends?the creation of things like "perfect" WMDs. Kills all the people, spares everything else. Push the button, war is over. A whole society dies, and the one pushing the button loses nothing. What possible reason would that society have to NOT simply push that button whenever it didn't get what it wanted, or to theaten to push it when it didt get its way?

      THAT is the danger of abstracted warfare. It makes the decision to go to war easier. It makes ware a more desirable option.

      I support 'war isn't a real option, it's an outcome of aggression. It should never BE CHOSEN.'

      So, no. I don't support drones, and I don't support soldiers.

    14. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by wierd_w · · Score: 1

      That does not solve the problem.

      We have a problem with war, because we have a problem with believing we can (and should!) Force other people to do what we want them to do against their will.

      It is the same crime as with rape, and with slavery. I have the biggest gun, do what I say!

      The ONLY time to take up arms is when an aggressor comes to visit YOU. You should NEVER take up arms against another to conquor. Your failing economy is not justification. Your need for cheap energy is not justification. Your fucking god is not justification. Proving your dick is bigger is not justification.

      There should only be defensive armies. Drones are not a defensive tool. They should not exist.

    15. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're right, I don't comprehend. Are you saying that anything that limits the terrible consequences of war is a bad thing, because people are more willing to accept "less bad" consequences than "more bad" consequences? Because I'm pretty sure the world has no shortage of people willing to engage in war no matter how horrific the consequences are.

      I guess what I'm saying is that this seems like a situation which the phrase "the perfect is the enemy of the good" was made for - I'd love it if nobody engaged in warfare ever, but since that is not going to happen in the world we have right now I want to at least minimize the damage. By all means critique the current methods - I think the way we do drone strikes right now is unacceptably inaccurate, leading to too many civilian casualties - but I do think drones are a step in the right direction because they're not as fallible as ground troops.

    16. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by wierd_w · · Score: 1

      Not exactly... snipers still feel remorse for their first kill at the very least. Becoming numb to losing your humanity comes later.

      A robot never suffers that. It doesn't lose any humanity, because it never had it to lose.

    17. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Hentes · · Score: 1

      Abstracting away the reality that you are killing people, by making a machine do the actual deed after deployment removes the innate guilt of killing those people.

      It makesit fantastically easier to justify and ignore wholesale slaughter.

      A glitch on the program makes the drone think that anyone carrying a cylinder 2ft long and 1 inch diameter a combatant? (Looks like a gun barrel!) Well, all those poor fuckers carrying brooms and sweeping their patios had it coming! Nevermind those uppity pool boys with dipnets! Can't make an omlette without breaking some eggs, right?!

      While the US army has developed software that can theoretically command drones autonomously they don't use it exactly for these reasons. Current drones are human controlled. Your argument is based on a false assumption.

    18. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by pkthunders · · Score: 1

      1) I encourage you to not use the word "you" too blatantly; it makes it seem like I am at fault for all of this. Try "one" instead. I mean I don't have a failing economy, my country does (though it's not really my country, but that's beside the point). 2) My needs and wants are mine and mine only. I am also an atheist. I think that you need to understand that generalizing a society is a pathetic excuse to condemn people that you don't truly understand (aka the individual). 3) My comment was satirical. 4) Yes, I am OP. And yes, I did finally care enough to make an account... 5) Also, I believe your whole argument ignores the fact that modern society is based upon forced manipulation into conformity caused by the want of individuals to feel like they belong. The media (such as this site) is a strong catalyst for this. It's true but that's enough cynicism today. 6) Eh, defense drones exist/are being used currently, and I also think that your views are too idealistic. Although I do commend you for them, it will take quite a while for peace within humanity. I actually hope that a major incident involving drones occurs, resulting in their being labeled as a taboo (such as atomic bombs). Hopefully that could even help everyone see that this is pointless. Memento mori. But seriously, I think you are very offensive.

    19. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by CRCulver · · Score: 1, Troll

      It couldn't be because our countr(y/ies) was(were) meddling in their affairs, causing them harm, taking things from them, and fundementally in disagreement with their way of life?

      Only the last is really true. The current wave of Islamist violence, and hatred of the United States in particular, is traceable in large part to the writings of Sayyid Qutb. He visited the United States in the late 1940s and condemned it for its culture (e.g. its sexual openness, or at least its perceived sexual openness), not for meddling foreign policy. America's interventions in the Middle East certainly added fuel to the fire, but the fire was burning before them.

    20. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by gd2shoe · · Score: 1

      There should only be defensive armies. Drones are not a defensive tool. They should not exist.

      Of course they are. They actually work better as defensive weapons. Just because they are often used offensively doesn't mean they aren't natural peace keepers.

      --
      I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
    21. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ok then. You have your beliefs, I have mine. My belief says that its my religious duty to execute you as a heretic. Please standby while I execute anyone else in your household before I put an AK-47 round through your skull. /sarcasm

      A pacifist mentality only works when EVERYONE has a pacifist mentality (or its protected by those with a non-pacifistic mentality.)

    22. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by pkthunders · · Score: 1

      "Deterrents" is the correct word. But I would love to meet the guys who would charge head first into it; would make great game show contestants.

    23. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by couchslug · · Score: 1

      "Abstracting away the reality that you are killing people, by making a machine do the actual deed after deployment removes the innate guilt of killing those people."

      What a load of shit. "Guilt" is far from innate, and enormous genocides through history have been done gleefully and "up close and personal".

      Rwandan genocides were more often than not done with KNIVES, which means you get sprayed body fluids during your hackathon. Posed "no fucking problem" to the perps.

      Also, seige engines and cannons/tube artillery called, citing "prior art"!

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    24. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by EvolutionInAction · · Score: 1

      It also means that you don't have trigger-happy, guilt-wracked, paranoid soldiers on the ground, wondering when the next RPG is going to make their deployment a lot shorter than it was meant to be. With robotic systems and an operator out of harm's way, you can afford to wait and just shoot back.
      It can see it swinging either way. It all depends on how the military decides to push.

    25. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Scarletdown · · Score: 5, Funny

      May as well take it all the way and make warfare totally clean and normal.

      Have the computers on both sides simulate their attacks, then declare casualties. Anyone on the casualty list then simply reports to a termination booth to be quickly and humanely killed.

      Hmmm... This sounds rather familiar come to think of it...

      --
      This space unintentionally left blank.
    26. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While cliche, take a look at "wargames".

      Abstracting away the reality that you are killing people, by making a machine do the actual deed after deployment removes the innate guilt of killing those people.

      It makesit fantastically easier to justify and ignore wholesale slaughter.

      A glitch on the program makes the drone think that anyone carrying a cylinder 2ft long and 1 inch diameter a combatant? (Looks like a gun barrel!) Well, all those poor fuckers carrying brooms and sweeping their patios had it coming! Nevermind those uppity pool boys with dipnets! Can't make an omlette without breaking some eggs, right?!

      When you can simply push a button and walk away without having to witness the attrocities you cause, you abstract away a fair bit of your conscience.

      The military probably thinks that's a GREAT thing! Kids with guns won't cause mental trainwrecks to drones when they get mowed down, and the operator doesn't have to see it!

      The reality is that deploying terminators is the same as turning a blind eye to consequences, and the innately terrible thing that war is, and why it should always be avoided whenever and however possible.

      What are you smoking? Do you think the ravages of war are somehow kept from utterly sweeping the world over by "innate guilt" of those waging it?
      Do you have ANY idea what scale of atrocities have been committed by BARE HANDS? At least a machine won't rape you before it kills you.

      The idea that machines will make war more awful than man is just sheer stupidity and a display of total disconnection from reality.

    27. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In a war ANYTHING you can do to not loose people and kill people on the other side is the proper strategy, Deliberately cause casualties on your own side so that they can experience the hell of war? Only on slashdot would that get mod points.

    28. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Jessified · · Score: 1

      I guess that's why there are so few civilian casualties for drone strikes, right?

    29. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by wierd_w · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem with making war "clean and precise" is that you remove all the disincentives to engage in war to begin with.

      At the press of a button, the insurgents/terrorists/rebels/invaders/$targetedPeople all die, cleanly, humanely.

      That is the ultimate evolution of the direction you advocate.
      Who decides who is the target and who isn't? What happens if there is a miscalculation?

      Now do you see why this is bad?

    30. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by c0lo · · Score: 1
      GP post

      A glitch on the program makes the drone think that anyone carrying a cylinder 2ft long and 1 inch diameter a combatant? (Looks like a gun barrel!)

      Your reply to it:

      Crazy hypothetical what-ifs like "What if all the robots became sentient, went insane, shook off human control, and started killing all humans with two arms" only serve to weaken the arguments against using them.

      Ummm.. looks like "sentience" is just a glitch in a program. Wait... what?
      Isn't is possible to have buggy software without speaking of sentience?

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
    31. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by wierd_w · · Score: 1

      Ask anyone who has been in a war, if they think it is a correct choice of action.

      Newsflash. Unless they have gone of the deep end, and hunger for killing, they will say it isn't.

      Go on. Go ask some vets about their opinions on war.

    32. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by c0lo · · Score: 1

      Of course they are. They actually work better as defensive weapons. Just because they are often used offensively doesn't mean they aren't natural peace keepers.

      Using "natural" when speaking about robots...
      Ummm... perhaps it is the time for the "Robots Rights Watch"?

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
    33. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by wierd_w · · Score: 0

      That is an innate problem of PEOPLE.

      Pandering to the problem won't solve it.

      Defensive armies. Not offensive ones. Defensive technologies. Not offensive ones.

      You are right, pacifisim only works when everyone is passive. Existing without defenses makes it very very profitable to be an invader.

      I don't suggest disbanding the military. I suggest not deploying it all over the world, and subjugating every 3rd world country with coal, oil, natural gas, and rare earth metals we can station a military base in, then shooting everything that moves with an autonomous drone from behind a desk.

    34. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by elucido · · Score: 1

      While cliche, take a look at "wargames".

      Abstracting away the reality that you are killing people, by making a machine do the actual deed after deployment removes the innate guilt of killing those people.

      It makesit fantastically easier to justify and ignore wholesale slaughter.

      A glitch on the program makes the drone think that anyone carrying a cylinder 2ft long and 1 inch diameter a combatant? (Looks like a gun barrel!) Well, all those poor fuckers carrying brooms and sweeping their patios had it coming! Nevermind those uppity pool boys with dipnets! Can't make an omlette without breaking some eggs, right?!

      When you can simply push a button and walk away without having to witness the attrocities you cause, you abstract away a fair bit of your conscience.

      The military probably thinks that's a GREAT thing! Kids with guns won't cause mental trainwrecks to drones when they get mowed down, and the operator doesn't have to see it!

      The reality is that deploying terminators is the same as turning a blind eye to consequences, and the innately terrible thing that war is, and why it should always be avoided whenever and however possible.

      The innate guilt of dropping an atomic bomb didn't require a robot but you can train a human to follow orders and not feel guilty. I'm not claiming I know what the bomb dropper feels but they completed the mission anyway so what difference does it make?

    35. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by wierd_w · · Score: 1

      The use of you as an impersonal pronoun is well supported in informal writing, such as a slashdot post.

      http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_you#section_1

      If I were writing a how-to book, or a formal address to some political body, I would use "one", but since I am not, I did not.

      Frankly, I find your grammar-nazi antics to be offensive.

      So, I suppose we are even.

    36. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by neyla · · Score: 1

      Read a SF-book once, whose name I've forgotten. But it had a charming law:

      Parliament must approve all wars. Whenever parliament approves a war, everyone parliament-member who voted in favor of the war, is executed.

      The logic was that nobody has the right to decide that some issue is important enough that -others- should die over it, without -themselves- being willing to suffer the same consequence.

    37. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Newsflash. Unless they have gone of the deep end, and hunger for killing, they will say it isn't.

      Go on. Go ask some vets about their opinions on war.

      A lot of vets went to see the elephant.
      Some of them were scared of the elephant.
      Some of them grew to like the elephant.
      Some of them became the elephant.

      I know which ones you haven't talked to.

    38. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Better yet, it makes anonymous mass-genocide possible.

      Imagine a world where most great powers possess millions of robotic soldiers. A small nation in the middle east gets eradicated by some 100,000 of those. Unmarked. Houses. Oilfields. Mines, all pretty much intact.

      Was it the US? Was it the Russians? Israel? EU, India or China?

      The soldiers have their memories erased. Nobody can even find out which robot did what and where. And even when a nation suspects its own military, there is just no information stored anywhere. And the military blocking all inquiries by routine.

    39. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The drones spare a lot of people. That's how we find out. A proper killerbot spares nobody. No witnesses. They might even get rid of the corpses for you.

    40. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      blah blah blah horse shit.

      just bomb the fuckers.

    41. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      well the "enemy" is any person, group or thing that seeks to destroy you or your unit or your materiel, tries to impede accomplishment of your mission, or is designated by higher HQ. But what do I know?

    42. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Powerful aliens come down from wherever out in space they are from, find our culture to be backward and primitive, and start strongarming us to cease being who we are, and become like them. They say it's a better way. Maybe it is. That isn't the point. The point is that they don't give us the choice. They do this because it makes it easier for them to establish trade with them, or to work within their stellar economy, or whatever. They profit, by eliminating our culture.

      Would we not go to war with them, fighting their influence in every possible way, and even resort to guerilla and "terrorist" acts when faced by such a superior foe?

      After thinking about that, can you really say you are any different than the "terrorists" we condemn with military machines daily?

      YES, because we didn't come from outer space.

    43. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Certainly. we didn't start the fire, it was always burning since the world's been turning. I suppose we even tried to fight it.

    44. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ask anyone who has been in a war, if they think it is a correct choice of action.

      I'll bite. Been there, done that 6 times. Started in Desert Storm, then Bosnia, then Iraq.

      We have a problem with war, because we have a problem with believing we can (and should!) Force other people to do what we want them to do against their will.

      No YOU have a problem with war. Sometimes we *must* force people to obey or die.

      WORLD: Hey, you! stop raping & murdering Kuwait -- or ELSE!
      SADDAM: Uh, no! I don't want to stop.
      wierd_w: Leave saddam alone!!!

      There were (there always are) other reasons besides saving the Kuwaitis. So what? You driving an all-electric car? Then you are WORSE than the government or the troops -- you silently benefit from our 'wrongdoing' and berate us for providing those benefits. WOW.

      Newsflash. Unless they have gone of the deep end, and hunger for killing, they will say it isn't.

      Rubbish. Try this one: Newsflash. unless you are a narrow-minded pacifist simpleton, suffering from Stockholm syndrome you will agree with me... (see how that *doesn't* work?)

      The soldier suffers psychological harm from following those orders, and sometimes even refuses to follow them, if they inhuman enough.

      So, if we disobey unlawful orders then we are inhuman? Hey Francis, calm down and think.

    45. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When you can simply push a button and walk away without having to witness the attrocities you cause, you abstract away a fair bit of your conscience.

      Despite your current +5 Insightful rating that's not what they are talking about. They are talking about fully autonomous systems which are still not more than science fiction stories, not drones. A drone is just a machine which can self-navigate, we have those right now. They're talking about Terminator-style robots where you just give them general orders and off they go, so it's not any different than how a General deploys human troops today from the "conscience" point of view.

      They are worried that without having human lives at risk those tools will be more likely to be used, just like we are more willing to drop a dumb bomb from an airplane than we are to send in ground troops. They are also slightly concerned about the possibility of malfunction, which is a valid point.

      If you want some good literature which addresses the concerns they have, you should just go read Asimov's robot series' because he does a far better job of addressing the subject than they are.

    46. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      That simply isn't what happens in real life. Drone operators tend to kill a lot of civilians, far more than soldiers on the ground. It's no wonder because even with really good cameras the view from high above without sound makes it much harder to evaluate a situation. People in the ground rarely come face to face with something pulling some unidentified object that might be a gun out on them, because blundering into a situation blind is a pretty dumb thing to do in the first place.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    47. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course, no human would kill someone who was carrying a cylinder 2ft long thinking it could be a gun, would they?

      Oh wait...
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Harry_Stanley

    48. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd say that the war has a bit more recent origin, if not the one that most people suspect;The wealth that is pouring into Saudi Arabia and other oil rich middle-eastern countries from the rest of the world. That massive torrent of money has created a truly head-spinning rate of growth and change in a region that up until now has been extremely conservative and tradition bound. Sky scrapers, super highways, shopping malls and in fact, entire cities started popping up over night, beginning in the 1970's, confronting a people who were for most of their history tent dwelling nomadic tribesmen. In Saudi Arabia, the priestly class, who could trace their bloodline directly back to Mohammed himself, began an uprising and demanded that all this change had to stop. The royal family couldn't just ignore the demands of people with that amount of prestige, even if they were traitors, so they agreed to some of the demands even as they executed the rebels. The royal family have been trying to keep a lid on things ever since by attempting to divert the attention of the religious away from their own Westernized, corrupt, and decadent rule.

      The hatred for the West is in many ways just an elaborate distraction move in a political sleight-of-hand trick. Unfortunately, the hatred is being spread world-wide through Saudi Arabia's exorbitant funding of madrassas (religious schools that teach an extremely strict interpretation of Islam), and so the West finds itself in the position of having to live up to the expectations of religious fanatics, if for no other reason than self-defense. Muslims are taught that they are the ones who will inherit the earth and have domain over all other people, but instead, the West, and America above all, are wealthy, powerful, literate, modern and advanced, not to mention admired or at least envied. The cognitive dissonance for believers in the Koran is overwhelming - Why would God allow these unclean unbelievers to hold such power and prestige in the world, when the umma are so benighted and poor? It doesn't take much pushing from a charismatic leader to send people who think such things over the edge and into action.

      Religious fanaticism has delivered the message that the West is at fault so thoroughly and effectively that the truth has become Politically Incorrect.

    49. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That depends on the definition of "civilian government".

      Does a dictatorship count? It is, after all, supported by something military.

      Religious oligarchy? It is, after all, not chosen by the populace... and supported by something military.

      Commercial hegemony? It is after all not chosen by the populace.. and supported by something militaristic (the police)...

      What most people forget is not "if all the robots became sentient"... but what defines an attack.

      Read some Saberhagen - Berserker Wars. The robots were designed properly... but identified an attack as coming from those who launched them; so the responded - and wiped out both sides.

    50. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Muad'Dave · · Score: 1

      I thought that was from "Ender's Game", but now I'm not so sure. How about the "Octospiders" from the Rama series, particularly "Rama Revealed"?

      --
      Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
    51. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, it does ...

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

    52. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by readin · · Score: 1

      But we have all been taught from an early age that it is wrong to feel guilt for killing bad guys. If you feel guilty, then you are *for* the bad guys, and therefore one of *them*. ( remember, its a binary good/evil world we live in, amiright?)

      You must have watched different war movies and cowboy movies than I did. The ones I watched generally portrayed the people who felt guilty for the killing as decent folk. The guilt was only "bad" when it prevented necessary action. For example, if your guilt in killing the bad guy prevented you from killing him and he went on to kill your friends - you were bad. But if you killed the bad guy and then wept over his corpse, gave him a funeral and set up a trust fund to care for his family, you were good. On the other hand, if the bad guy surrendered and you shot him anyway, you were bad. If you let him surrender and didn't kill him you were good.

      --
      I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
    53. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by wierd_w · · Score: 1

      WORLD: Hey, you! stop raping & murdering Kuwait --or ELSE! SADDAM: Uh, no! I don't want to stop. wierd_w: Leave saddam alone!!!

      Nice strawman.

      Try this instead.

      Saddam: surrender kuait! I have testosterone fueled ambitions of rebuilding the persian empire, and that means I need your lands. Give up, or I will destroy you.
      Kuait: go fuck yourself with a cactus.
      Saddam: an unwise decision, friend.
      Kuait (addressing world):a little he'll here?
      USA: would you like some extra muscle on your border?
      Kuait: Yes please!

      Guess what? We were ASKED to go there. We went to kuait.
      I don't have a problem with that. It was a defensive deployment.

      What we did in afghanistan was NOT a defensive deployment.
      What we did in Iraq a decade after desert storm was not a defensive deployment.

      The soldier suffers psychological harm from following those orders, and sometimes even refuses to follow them, if they inhuman enough.

      So, if we disobey unlawful orders then we are inhuman? Hey Francis, calm down and think.

      No, wiseass. "They" in that sentence referred to the orders, not the soldiers. Calm down and think? Sure. Let's do that. When reading that sentence, there are two ways to interpret it. As a nonsensical statement that does not follow in context with my previous message, (implies the soldiers are inhuman for not following orders), or that the way I just addressed. (The soldiers disobey they orders, because the orders are inhuman.) If you had followed your own advice, you would have applied some rational thought to your reply, and not jumped the shark so. But no. That isn't what you did. Instead, you spun a strawman that better fit your opinion of me, and presumed that I intended the internally conflicted and assinine interpretation of that sentence, because I am cleary too stupid to see how it is self contradictory with my previous position.

      You did that because it was easier for you to attack WITHOUT thinking.

      Nice try jackass.

    54. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      It takes 2 sides to have a war, and in most cases it is started by one side. Starting the war is usually the vile act, the other side is faced with the alternatives of fighting back or being [killed, pillaged, raped, enslaved, etc.]. To equate initiating conflict with defending oneself, as you are doing, is a foul and vicious act.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    55. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by wierd_w · · Score: 1

      Wher I say it was wrong to fight back? That is 180 degrees off course from my prior postings.

      My position was that initiating war, and escallating aggression are vile acts. Defending yourself with a defensive army, and defensive ordinance is simply prudent.

    56. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "What I was trying to get you to see, is that war is always a bad thing"

      So you wouldn't have opposed hitler ?

    57. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by mcgrew · · Score: 1
    58. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by pkthunders · · Score: 1

      Too bad that's not funny. Reversing arguments only works against complete morons that can only view on side or hypocrites.

    59. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by gd2shoe · · Score: 1
      "Natural" does not always imply nature. It follows the etymology, but not longstanding common usage.

      ...
      4
      : having an essential relation with someone or something : following from the nature of the one in question [his guilt is a natural deduction from the evidence]
      ...
      7
      : having a specified character by nature [a natural athlete]
      8
      ...
      c : having a normal or usual character [events followed their natural course]
      ...

      --
      I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
    60. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by gd2shoe · · Score: 1

      Deterrents, yes, but they're also great for airborne patrol. They're used extensively and peacefully* on the US/Mexico border.

      *(unarmed, or so we're told)

      --
      I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
    61. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by neyla · · Score: 1

      Yeah, now that you mention it Rama sounds like a likely candidate. Pretty sure it was -not- Enders Game.

    62. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by mike4ty4 · · Score: 1

      Though, even WITHOUT these devices, we have still engaged in many, many, many, many brutal wars. What do you propose to do about _that_? To not only not _increase_ the level of war, but actually _decrease_ it below the levels it's been at? That'll obviously take _more_ than just "banning robots". What do you think it'll take?

    63. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by pkthunders · · Score: 1

      Some of the cheap labor in Mexico must have brains and decided not to try, or else the US economy might have been fixed by now with the re-influx of jobs...

    64. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by isorox · · Score: 1

      The problem with making war "clean and precise" is that you remove all the disincentives to engage in war to begin with.

      At the press of a button, the insurgents/terrorists/rebels/invaders/$targetedPeople all die, cleanly, humanely.

      That is the ultimate evolution of the direction you advocate.
      Who decides who is the target and who isn't? What happens if there is a miscalculation?

      Now do you see why this is bad?

      Star Trek did it in the 60s, in A Taste of Armageddon, kirk put a stop to the automated killing booths.

      "Death, destruction, disease, horror. That's what war is all about, Anan. That's what makes it a thing to be avoided."

    65. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by gd2shoe · · Score: 1

      The influx of cheap labor is not a fix. It's more like a morphine addiction that results from an injury. Both political parties are trying to destroy our economy, and neither understand how.

      (And yes, I believe in guest worker visas AND securing our southern border.)

      --
      I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
    66. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by pkthunders · · Score: 1

      Eh, tbh the US should open up it's borders to a more reasonable amount; it's like you guys are trying to hog the riches of the world (and failing at it, too). I mean it's as if the US is an exclusive club for the mental elite (though kind of more like a bourgeois) with little for the poor. Loosening the immigration process will bring in more immigrants searching for lower-paying work (unlike most of the rich/smart Chinese/Indian people), bringing back factories from overseas for Americans too. However, social security might kill it in a few decades... Damn FDR and his socialism... Then again, I wouldn't call myself an expert on this, but those are my 2 cents from my observations... Still, I feel that most of America's worker rights are helping to kill itself, but that might just be cynicism.

    67. Re:the danger of abstracted combat by gd2shoe · · Score: 1

      Worker rights aren't (much), but union "rights" are contributing. (Unions can be a very good thing, or a very bad thing. These super pervasive unions are practically organized crime.)

      Loosening the immigration policy wont bring in more people, it will just insure they get paid better and stop looking over their shoulder for ICE.

      It won't bring back manufacturing. Even most illegal Mexican labor won't work for rates low enough, and regulatory overburden alone prevents it. (Note: We need better regulation, not just less regulation. Much of what we have is totally ineffective at achieving legitimate goals, only in killing jobs.)

      Supposedly, Social security is being propped up by "immigration", and would be even more-so if it was legal immigration. I think this might be true, but I can't tell if it's a byproduct of bad laws, or a weird twist in our collective culture.

      --
      I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
  8. Killer robot overlords by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I for one do NOT welcome our new killer robot overlords.

    1. Re:Killer robot overlords by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes, human!

  9. Ban by ThePeices · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Trying to ban killer robots is a waste of time, and wont work. There is also little desire to ban them overall, in the interests of health and safety.

    Its safer to kill people using a robot than going out and risking your own skin with guns and/or explosives.
    Remember, in this day and age, safety is paramount. You want to be able to kill people from a distance, safely and easily. Why run the risk of getting injured, or even worse, getting killed, when you can kill people using safer methods? Using a robot to kill people just makes sense.

    Even worse, you could get sued for endangering the safety of others and breaking health and safety regulations. Killing other people can be a dangerous business, so reducing potential hazards and minimizing harm is a very prudent and right thing to do. You need to be able to kill people safely and efficiently. If you can kill people at a lower cost, then that is even better.

    Thats why drones are so popular nowadays. All the benefits of killing people, without all the personal risk. Its a win-win all round.

    Makes sense doesn't it?

    1. Re:Ban by AwesomeMcgee · · Score: 1

      What we really need is *more* killer robots. TONS of them. Then we can just have them fight our wars for us, between each other and we don't get human casualties on either side. As soon as your killer robots have killed all of the enemies killer robots, their people will obviously secede power to you because it's not like they could defeat your killer robots without there's, so it would be stupid for them to even continue bothering.

      For maximum safety, we just let the killer robots fight each other on the south pole, and war as we know it is over (though there would be a lot more wars, but they'd be nothing like our current wars.)

    2. Re:Ban by JonySuede · · Score: 1

      Thats why drones are so popular nowadays. All the benefits of killing people, without all the personal risk. Its a win-win all round. Makes sense doesn't it?

      It does, way too much for my own taste. That why it should be banned: it does make it too safe to kill...

      --
      Jehovah be praised, Oracle was not selected
    3. Re:Ban by dcollins · · Score: 1

      "Then we can just have them fight our wars for us, between each other and we don't get human casualties on either side."

      Maybe you're joking, but enough people honestly believe this to say -- This is one of the top, ludicrously insane myths among the geek set.

      If people are willing to die for a cause, or if they feel life is not worth living without principle or resource X, then they will not stop fighting until they are dead. Simple as that. War is the final extremity, when all agreements break down, and one side is convinced that only extermination will stop the other side. QED.

      --
      We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
    4. Re:Ban by j00r0m4nc3r · · Score: 1

      Do you have any idea how many things there are that make it safe to kill? We can't just ban everything that has the potential to be used in warfare, there would be nothing left. What is required is a total shift in human consciousness away from even needing such machines. Our lust for war/power/goods is the real problem. Obviously in the meantime we need to defend ourselves, but banning things like this won't make that any easier, and will only stunt our technological progress. If we don't build ThingX some other country WILL decide to build it, and we'll be at a disadvantage. It's sad game of deterrence, yes, but until people learn to stop fighting each other and start working together, it's a necessary evil...

    5. Re:Ban by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heroin is cheaper. The Talibs are doing a fine job that way.

    6. Re:Ban by AwesomeMcgee · · Score: 1

      Heh I appreciate you're trying to ensure people don't take me seriously, but you don't need to correct me, I was being completely sarcastic. People who fight wars are dumb, killer robots won't fix that, it'll just make it easy for dumb people to kill more

    7. Re:Ban by Kjella · · Score: 1

      As soon as your killer robots have killed all of the enemies killer robots, their people will obviously secede power to you because it's not like they could defeat your killer robots without there's, so it would be stupid for them to even continue bothering.

      And then we all sing kumbayah? Or is that when most of the human population get the ultimatum to obey that unstoppable killer robot army or die? I don't think you want to find out what 21st century slavery would be like. No more free countries to run off to. Tagged with a microchip, a GPS foot bracelet, cameras and sensors everywhere and merciless and uncorruptable robots enforcing and possibly supervising the system. Every form of communication like phone, email, facebook and whatever monitored and the rest outlawed. Sabotage? Revolt? Execute a few civilia...sorry, slaves and they'll rethink what they're doing. The big question with any robot army is who have the controls, and who do anyone controlling a robot army answer to? None, most likely...

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    8. Re:Ban by AwesomeMcgee · · Score: 1

      The really funny thing is when the dude holding the controls dies and then the robots no longer answer to anyone, just running everything the same way it's been for years.

      Man, there'll sure be egg on our faces that day!

    9. Re:Ban by couchslug · · Score: 1

      "All the benefits of killing people, without all the personal risk. Its a win-win all round."

      Old news. If Hoplites wanted "personal risk", they'd have left their shields at home.

      War isn't sportsmanship. Sportsmanship is stupid.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    10. Re:Ban by Viceice · · Score: 1

      Sarcasm aside, it is true tho. Compare the diplomatic and press headache that resulted from a pilot being captured, i.e the U2 over Soviet Russia, versus the recent Drone that went down over Iran.

      In the former there was a cover up, public embarrassment from the subsequent expose and an enormous diplomatic spat that ended in a prisoner exchange. In the latter, the Iranians were made to look ridiculous for celebrating the downing of what amounts to a remote control air plane.

      --
      Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
    11. Re:Ban by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is truly very little that people are genuinely willing to die for. A select few, perhaps, but not an entire nation of people.

    12. Re:Ban by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All the benefits of killing people, without all the personal risk. Its a win-win all round.

      Surely this parent's post is hyperbolic tongue-in-cheek humor? It's equation is clearly win-lose, not "win-win all around", since one guy sheds his personal risk and the other guy gets capped by the machine. Measuring effectiveness of a military or police device by $/kill is staggering over-simpliflication of the cost/benefit analysis, ignoring important issues necessary for consideration for the overall long-term health of the society.

      In my opinion, we are doing a poor job articulating the important social issues we face at the onset of increasing automation, much less giving them serious consideration. It's more than just killer robots...

      The first is liability. We use liability to help define acceptable social behavior. If Joe drives into someone and killls them, he is probably facing manslaughter charges. This is a huge personal disincentive to risky behavior behind the wheel. On the other hand, if a self-drive car kills someone, the result is an impact on a corporate balance sheet. The latter arguably minimizes the effect of liability as a social tool, since the humans that make the corporations' decisions are protected to a great extent from personal liability by the corporate veil.

      The second is human morality. The cumulative moral positions of those within our society help to define acceptable social behavior. An elite military unit might balk at orders to burn down every child in a school, even if an outlier in the group is gung-ho to do it. A drone today could do the job with fewer human checks and balances -- perhaps just poor action by a single remote pilot. A drone tomorrow might only need a simple directive, perhaps one input with good intentions yet disastrous results.

      The third is power balance. Capitalism is supposed to reward those offering the best products and services with the best profit, providing a mechanism to allocate resources efficiently within a society, thereby in theory providing the best outcomes for society's members. Whether it's drones, automatic stock trading systems, or vast data mining systems that track consumer behavior, increasing automation allows ever smaller numbers of people control over ever larger blocks of resources. A small number of viable participants in a market distorts it because undesirable factors, such as collusion, price fixing, artificial barriers to entry and so on, can play a relatively larger role in outcomes.

      Increasing automation is a given, for many reasons. Whether or not this trend improves our globail village is less certain at this point.

    13. Re:Ban by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You need to be able to kill people safely and efficiently. If you can kill people at a lower cost, then that is even better.

      The German and Austrian shower rooms in problem solving camps were probably well insulated for safety's sake. Efficiency was probably the highest what could be achieved considering the circumstances. The cost of chemicals was probably reasonable compared to kinetic problem solving methods.

    14. Re:Ban by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      The ban on land mines has been fairly effective. Not perfect but a worthwhile effort.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    15. Re:Ban by dcollins · · Score: 1

      I completely agree.

      --
      We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
    16. Re:Ban by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...their people will obviously secede power to you...

      YES! and after, turn your killer robots again YOUR people for more power in less and less people. If the people can't revolt again power, business and slavery will be good place to live. But not for the majority of people. But so what!

  10. Why so cynical? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Taco Cowboy must have a very small penis, which he compensates by having a verrrry big gun.

  11. Ban the drones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The majority of drone strikes that the US participates in kill innocent civilians in countries we're not even at war with.

    Ban the drones.

    1. Re:Ban the drones by tsotha · · Score: 4, Informative

      We have permission from the country involved. Those strikes are happening in countries where the national government doesn't control all of its territory. Drones are a good weapon to use against people in non-state organizations like Al Queda. Innocent deaths are minimized and you can actually damage the organization by getting to the planners instead of just killing indoctrinated sixteen year olds.

  12. Robot rights? by girlintraining · · Score: 1

    Where's the 'Robot Rights Watch' just when you need 'em?"

    They don't have feelings. If you don't believe me, go stab your toaster. I think what you meant was "Human rights" and the effect wide-spread use of robots with the ability to kill would have on them.

    --
    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    1. Re:Robot rights? by lennier · · Score: 4, Funny

      They don't have feelings. If you don't believe me, go stab your toaster.

      I tried that and it bit me. Now I've got a burn scar all down my arm and I'm convinced it's plotting with the microwave.

      --
      You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
  13. Backwards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Combat robots will almost certainly SAVE civilian lives, not cause them.

      A robot needs no personal safety. It doesn't get nervous or make foolish choices or act for revenge. A human soldier may have to make a split-second decision about whether a suspicious person is a terrorist or a civilian, and if he's wrong he's dead. That leads to a lot of casualties. A robot doesn't need to act until it's sure. The worst that can happen is that the Army loses some money.

    1. Re:Backwards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The assumption being that it's in the attacking country's best interest NOT to have excessive casualties in the defending country's civilian populace.

      Contrary to popular belief that is rarely held as true in modern society given the overabundance of potential colonists in whatever major power's populace you wish to consider this against.

      I have a feeling in the near future we're going to see genocide on a scale that will make all prior genocides pale in comparison. I just sincerely hope I'm not in the recieving demographic.

    2. Re:Backwards by c0lo · · Score: 1

      The worst that can happen is that the Army loses some money.

      Somehow, it doesn't reassure me.

      Look... some 50 years ago, it sounded like:

      We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, etc

      Nowadays, the drums beating night and day sound more like shaman dances around the "fiscal cliff".

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
  14. how appropriate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...that a poster whose previous post is whining about how he was bullied at school by people who "knew they were inferior" is now glorifying automated killing and deriding those genuinely intelligent men and women (Harvard has a few trustafarian idiots, but they're a tiny minority) with a sense of humanity.

  15. No.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just specify that robots can only kill other robots.
    And we can make war obsolete.

  16. KILL THOSE WHO WILL BAN KILLER BOTS !! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All in favor say Aye !!

  17. Killer Robots meet the killer apps by DarksideCoatiMundi · · Score: 1

    Killer robots are inevitable. Equally inevitable is the hacking of killer robots.

  18. No misser john don't do it by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1
    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  19. Shover robots okay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't mind them at all as long as they're shover robots. It's the pusher robots we need to worry I about.

  20. In related news ... by PPH · · Score: 1

    ... the trend giving killer drones an initial lead seems to have been reversed in human's favor recently.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:In related news ... by AsmCoder8088 · · Score: 1

      ...and in other news, it's getting harder to build killer robots in the privacy of your own hotel room

  21. Antisemitism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But banning emotionless murdering kill bots is surely antisemitic?

  22. Guns don't kill people... by Nyder · · Score: 1

    ...Gun Wielding Robots do!!!!!

    --
    Be seeing you...
  23. That horse left the barn long ago... by Kjella · · Score: 1

    Robots doing the killing is not going to be very different from bombing from 10000 ft, launching a cruise missile or long range artillery bombing. It's a long time since you had to look your opponent in the eye as you stabbed him with sword and spear. And that didn't seem to help much to stop war, either. Potentially you can do better with robots because robots are expendable, you don't have to return fire until you're sure you've isolated the enemy. Even if you were willing to sacrifice your own soldiers to reduce collateral losses, the soldiers in the field probably aren't over being only 90% sure that's a terrorist or 90% sure the grenade won't kill anyone else.

    Of course if you want to act with reckless disregard of - or worse, reign of terror over - the civil population there's no real fighting back. But if a modern army wants to raze the city they don't need robots to do it. The only real game changer I see is that a small clique could hold control over a 100% loyal military that'd ruthlessly crush any rebellion. But most of the gruesome things they could want to do they already got the big guns for. Of course the argument is that clean war leads to more war, but well... we've seen big and dirty war in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I think for civilian more wars with cruise missiles still beats less wars nuking whole cities off the map.

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    1. Re:That horse left the barn long ago... by BeanThere · · Score: 1

      Most people are missing the point. It's not about the method of killing, it's whether a particular act of killing is justifiably self-defense or not. If a 'killer robot' protects an innocent woman and/or child from being raped and/or murdered, then it stands to reason this is good. Denying innocent parties a valid method of self-defense is (e.g. banning methods of self-defense), on the other hand, wrong. When 'killer robots' become intelligent enough to be used for e.g. home security then I'll be getting one ... it will keep my wife and children safer from murderous thugs.

      As for military, again, what if 'killer robots' could be used to help conduct surgical precision strikes against ruthless murderous dictators like Kim Jong Un, minimizing loss of innocent life? Would they still be 'bad'? Wouldn't banning them in such a case actually prevent killers like Kim Jong Un from being stopped?

      The problem with nuclear weapons (that you mention) is that they inherently and unavoidably kill thousands of innocent people. 'Killer robots' can in fact do the exact opposite - they can be used for surgical precision strikes of precisely the 'bad guys' - which is actually the correct thing, in war or not. (Yes they could be used for evil, but that doesn't mean they should be banned.)

  24. User Error by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Drones are not to blame.

    In an all robot army, the drones would not have to worry about protecting the allied meatbags on the ground. There would be much less of an incentive to "take the shot."

    They could be designed within specifications and the people who designed and implemented these specifications could be held responsible because they were able to make the decisions in a stress free environment.

    By putting allied humans in the danger zone along with civilians, and spreading the responsibility across a hierarchy of operators, administration, and engineers, we have have decided to implement the case that results in the absolute maximum number of dead civilians.

  25. A ripple in time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm certain humanity has had this discussion before.

    How is the abstraction of using robots any different from the abstraction of dropping bombs from 30,000 feet?
    How is the abstraction of dropping bombs different from shooting someone in the face at 500 yards?
    How is shooting someone different from hitting someone with an arrow at 100 yards?
    How is hitting someone with an arrow different from dropping boiling oil on someone 30 feet below?
    How is dropping oil different from spearing someone?
    How is spearing any different from slashing with a sword?
    How is a sword different from a rock?

    Every time we have this conversation it gets easier. Every time humanity loses.

    1. Re:A ripple in time by wierd_w · · Score: 1

      Indeed. Humans NEVER accept that the answer is so simple.

      Don't resort to war. If your cause requires forcing somebody else at gunpoint to comply, it isn't just, it isn't honorable, and it cannot be justified. So, just don't do it.

      But no. Human kind is OBCESSED it making other people OBEY, even if it kills everyone else.

    2. Re:A ripple in time by Jedi+Alec · · Score: 1

      If your cause requires forcing somebody else at gunpoint to comply, it isn't just, it isn't honorable, and it cannot be justified. So, just don't do it.

      You, Sir! Yes, you, I say! Would you kindly remove your penis from the screaming lady? No? Well, I shall file a formal complaint with the United Nations of Rainbows and Unicorns, indeed I will!

      While war is horrible, atrocious and to be avoided at nearly all costs, sometimes the alternative is even worse. All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and doing nothing. And sometimes not doing nothing requires the application of force.

      --

      People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
  26. Banning something which doesn't exist by poity · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No one has autonomous battlefield drones yet, and I highly doubt any military would rely on them, ever. Well.. unless it's a robot military after they gain sentience and create their own civilization, but then they would be as human as us.

    --
    your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
    1. Re:Banning something which doesn't exist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nobody can develop real estate on other planets yet either, but we already have a treaty on that.

    2. Re:Banning something which doesn't exist by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 1

      It is easier to ban something that doesnt exists. Governments can be persuaded to sign these, with a promise that every country is signing these. Now try the same for nuclear weapons (which exists), and you would have trouble, even, to bring it up for discussion.

    3. Re:Banning something which doesn't exist by perceptual.cyclotron · · Score: 1

      The only reason they aren't already autonomous is the military leadership's prudent stance on CYA (cover your ass) pragmatics. They sure as fuck don't care how many innocent people they kill overseas – they only care that they can claim due diligence. If they turned the robots loose, they'd be in a tight spot even if they were more conservative killers because the public at large can't stomach the idea. But don't entertain the illusion that it's a technological limitation. They'd be loose today if the PR flak could be mitigated (which isn't to say they'd be particularly good at their jobs – but that's irrelevant; as long as they don't get blown up or captured, anything else they accomplish would be gravy, and you don't have to pay any grunts).

    4. Re:Banning something which doesn't exist by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      the ones that are autonomous are called mines and missiles. missiles that do this are called loitering.

      a sentinel droid that automatically shoots at everything is just a more complex mine.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    5. Re:Banning something which doesn't exist by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      "Other planet" treaties are examples of the silliness and hubris of mankind, especially those in government. They generally claim that space colonies are the collective property of Earth (i.e. Earth's governments.) Once these colonies are self-sufficient, these earthbound fools think they can control their colonies in the absence of any mechanism for doing so, and in the face of the opposition of the colonists.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  27. This worries me too by Omnifarious · · Score: 1

    The 'Berserker' novels of course are an examination of the end result of building such killer robots. It will happen eventually. But I don't want it to happen until some of us are no longer in the solar system.

    1. Re:This worries me too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      See also, The Battle by Robert Sheckley.

      "http://libertydwells.com/archive/index.php/t-3177.html"

    2. Re:This worries me too by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 1
      --
      Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
  28. The only thing I find worth noting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seems like that the manufacturer might have to claim responsibility for autonomous actions. Paramilitary organizations/industries, assemble? I mean it's not like they care what they kill as long as they get paid.

  29. Reality by TRRosen · · Score: 1

    Cruise missiles are more of a robot then a drone is. Fact is drones are just remotely piloted planes. The problem isn't their existence but there misuse.

    1. Re:Reality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cruise missiles are more of a robot then a drone is. Fact is drones are just remotely piloted planes. The problem isn't their existence but there misuse.

      Yes, missiles are the worse. I think Killer Robots cannot deal out more than the 100% collateral damage that nukes do... unless we arm the robots with nukes.

    2. Re:Reality by WrecklessSandwich · · Score: 1

      Cruise missiles are more of a robot then a drone is. Fact is drones are just remotely piloted planes. The problem isn't their existence but there misuse.

      And this is about neither. It's about theoretical future drones that don't have a remote operator making the decision to take a human life.

  30. Obligatory: Robots Are Our Friends by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  31. Wrong target by gmuslera · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Killer Bots dont kill people, people kills people. Ban the people responsible for those killer bots, and, uh... oh, wait, they just got reelected.

  32. A question from hoi polloi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Aren't jihadis killer robots?

  33. But how do we enforce such a ban.. by AwesomeMcgee · · Score: 1

    If we are to ban such a thing, I think we must ensure appropriate even-handed enforcement of this ban, as such I propose we enlist a force strong enough to subdue any killer robot army should someone break said ban, therefore I suggest we build an army of large mechanized automatons heavily laden with weaponry to subdue any would-be killer robot army, or anyone who might be suspected of attempting to build such an army for that matter.

    1. Re:But how do we enforce such a ban.. by pkthunders · · Score: 1

      Brilliant: nothing can do wrong with this!

  34. Those aren't the drones you're looking for. by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 1

    The drones people complain about in (for instance) Afghanistan aren't autonomous robots. They're flown and their weapons are targeted by human pilots.

    Move along.

  35. bring everyone back to the iron age? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    a scortched earth policy: where you knock down granaries, cripple tractors and plows, break down damns and salt the earth if you have to is not really the kind of society we wish to represent.

    1. Re:bring everyone back to the iron age? by GarretSidzaka · · Score: 1

      by arab aggression you mean when they invaded israel in 1948??

    2. Re:bring everyone back to the iron age? by Chrisq · · Score: 1

      by arab aggression you mean when they invaded israel in 1948??

      I think he means the continual rocket attacks lanched from civilian areas so they can get propaganda when the launcher is taken out.

    3. Re:bring everyone back to the iron age? by Forty+Two+Tenfold · · Score: 1

      Oh, so the relentless Israeli occpuation and unprovoked assaults on civilians are not the real reason for the Hemas retaliating? Hey, to Israeli Jews the Palestinians are just cattle. Or pigs. No, really.

      --
      Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
    4. Re:bring everyone back to the iron age? by Chrisq · · Score: 1

      Oh, so the relentless Israeli occpuation and unprovoked assaults on civilians are not the real reason for the Hemas retaliating? Hey, to Israeli Jews the Palestinians are just cattle. Or pigs. No, really.

      Oh yes and the muzzies have such a fair and high opinion of the Jews. Who are the ones calling for the total destruction of the other state? Who are the ones calling for every member of the other faith to be killed? Who are the ones who say that the others are "the worst of creatures, lower than dogs or excrement"?

    5. Re:bring everyone back to the iron age? by Forty+Two+Tenfold · · Score: 1

      Who are the ones calling for the total destruction of the other state?

      Jews. Not only calling for but also doing it!

      Who are the ones calling for every member of the other faith to be killed?

      Jews.

      Who are the ones who say that the others are "the worst of creatures, lower than dogs or excrement"?

      Jews.

      --
      Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
    6. Re:bring everyone back to the iron age? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      a scortched earth policy: where you knock down granaries, cripple tractors and plows, break down damns and salt the earth if you have to is not really the kind of society we wish to represent.

      Yes, that was the point, congratulations.

    7. Re:bring everyone back to the iron age? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, Judeopath, it's not your universe. You're just aching to be Eichmanned.

    8. Re:bring everyone back to the iron age? by jythie · · Score: 1

      Ahm... that is what Israel did. That conflict is a perfect example of how scorched earth can fail. Israel bombed cities into the ground, bulldozed entire towns, burned down fields, gutted infrastructure..... but the Palestinians are still fighting.

      The problem with perpetual rebuilding is the conflict never ends, it just morphs into this long drawn out mess with neither side actually winning. While Israel has had many short term successes, they are a prototypical example of how not to handle a conflict if you actually want it to end.

    9. Re:bring everyone back to the iron age? by jythie · · Score: 1

      Have you ever listened to the rhetoric coming out of the hawkish elements of Israel? Many on that side say the same damn garbage... it just doesn't get covered nearly as much in the US.

    10. Re:bring everyone back to the iron age? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Israel doesn't want peace; it wants to win.

    11. Re:bring everyone back to the iron age? by Forty+Two+Tenfold · · Score: 1

      Oh, no. You just didn't have enough Jews around you, so you don't know what they really think (they are the ultimate chauvinists AKA the chosen "people").

      --
      Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
  36. Not needed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We don't need to ban killbots. What we need to do, is give them a preset kill limit.

    Fry: "I heard one time you single-handedly defeated a horde of rampaging somethings in the something something system"
    Brannigan: "Killbots? A trifle. It was simply a matter of outsmarting them."
    Fry: "Wow, I never would've thought of that."
    Brannigan: "You see, killbots have a preset kill limit. Knowing their weakness, I sent wave after wave of my own men at them until they reached their limit and shut down."

  37. The Milgram Experiments: the reason why by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 2

    As has been stated in other posts, every level of abstraction away from the act of violence removes a layer of conscience from the execution of the act; whether it be robots, drone strikes, or trigger-happy, 60 year-old politicians who ducked service in Vietnam.

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

    --
    I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
    1. Re:The Milgram Experiments: the reason why by tgd · · Score: 1

      As has been stated in other posts, every level of abstraction away from the act of violence removes a layer of conscience from the execution of the act; whether it be robots, drone strikes, or trigger-happy, 60 year-old politicians who ducked service in Vietnam.

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

      I can't tell you how often, when reading Slashdot, I wish I had one of those buttons ... forget modding down, I'll just shock 'em!

    2. Re:The Milgram Experiments: the reason why by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      Nice libel. Lucky for you politicians generally can't sue.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  38. You can have my autonomous killer drones... by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    ...when you pry the controls out of my centuries old desiccated hands in my underground mountain fortress.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  39. Sounds like someone's a sissy by AwesomeMcgee · · Score: 1

    This whole idea wreaks of wussiness, one weenie is scared of killer robots and makes a big fuss so none of us get to have killer robots? I don't think so hombre.

  40. War and Pacifism by gd2shoe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Indeed. Humans NEVER accept that the answer is so simple.

    Don't resort to war. If your cause requires forcing somebody else at gunpoint to comply, it isn't just, it isn't honorable, and it cannot be justified. So, just don't do it.

    Let's say that China attacks Guam tomorrow, and starts moving for Hawaii and the US mainland. What should be done? What should France have done when Germany invaded them in the blitzkrieg?

    Clearly somebody isn't justified in any war. Frequently it's both parties. However, it is the height of intellectual dishonesty to say that war is never justified for any of the participants.

    Yes, war is never, ever a good thing. Sometimes, though, it really is better than the alternative.

    --
    I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
    1. Re:War and Pacifism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Clearly somebody isn't justified in any war.

      Why? That's 100% subjective.

    2. Re:War and Pacifism by Gordonjcp · · Score: 1

      What should France have done when Germany invaded them in the blitzkrieg?

      What they *should* have done was seen that coming and improved their defences to the north and north-east, but they didn't and they got invaded.

      So, what they did then is what anyone else would have done - they fought a blistering campaign of guerilla warfare against the Germans. Despite the fact the Germans had all kinds of powerful weapons (including the ones seized from captured French forces), tanks, aircraft, and rockets, the French battered seven bells out of them with improvised explosives, petrol bombs and rocks and sticks. With Britain supplying as much aid as it could, the French Resistance kept the Germans busy. Eventually when the Americans got their heads out of their backsides and stopped supplying guns and oil to the Germans, and started helping, they provided the final push to get France over the hump and start beating the Germans.

      It's a bit like what Palestine is doing to the invading Israeli forces, except that this time the Americans are on the wrong side.

    3. Re:War and Pacifism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And if you learn a country is committing mass genocide as the Germans were, that's never worth a war? Should we just try sanctions and hope they come around?

    4. Re:War and Pacifism by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      Wow, are you ever a puppet of the leftist press. Various Arab groups have been lobbing explosives into Israel on a daily basis for over a generation, and when the Israelis fight back, they're the bad guys? Take off your blinders.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  41. Sometimes easy to tell by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    What is an enemy?

    Anyone firing an un-tagged large rocket in a region you control.

    In a war, do not both sides, regardless of the motives of either side, satisfy all of those?

    Satisfy all of your absurdly soft-boiled and meaningless definitions of enemy? Yes.

    It couldn't be because our countr(y/ies) was(were) meddling in their affairs

    Actually no, it was simply that they wanted to collapse our economy. Our non-religious existence is an affront many of the terrorists wished to correct.

    That's the really sad thing; that even now you cannot understand such a simple and obvious truth.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  42. yawn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Next thing you know, they'll be discussing Terminators, Holographic Assassins, NEO, Borg, Daleks...

    Been there, done that.

    Where's a zombie war or apocalypse when you need one?

    Oh yeah. Been there done that.

    Where's an honest to goodness creative renaissance when you need one?

  43. Childhood flashback... by warGod3 · · Score: 2

    So I'm now remembering watching Wargames back in 1983... and it makes me remember that I thought it odd that no one would have any kind of overrides in place, human or otherwise...

    The article does stipulate that we should ban killer robots now, even though that no one has one or has stated what kind of timeline we can expect for the emergence of these 'killer robots'. To be quite honest, it will take one hell of a long time to get one deployed. Look at how long it takes for the military (specifically the US) to even get aircraft fielded...

    I think that this is more of a "Hey, we need to scare people a little so we can get some attention..." than anything else...

    --
    "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet." General James Mattis
  44. ONE WORD FOR HRW! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One word describes Human Rights Watch: FUCKINGSTUPID.

  45. game in thoi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://thegioimobile24h.net/

  46. Those who ban killer robots... by russotto · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...will be killed by the robots of those who don't.

  47. Another view by Murdoch5 · · Score: 1

    Why just ban the robots, a much better idea is to just outlaw war. We don't need it, it doesn't serve a purpose and we get nothing from it but death.

    1. Re:Another view by tbird81 · · Score: 1

      So what if we've attacked? Do we do nothing?

      What if a dictator is committing genocide and slaughtering civilians? Do we do nothing?

    2. Re:Another view by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's very true, but how should we go about this in a practical sense? You can't expect every nation to immediately comply to a ban on maintaining the military. They tried it in 1918 with Germany and 21 years later what happened? War happened. Banning the war would require some form of enforcement, and the only form of enforcement that can be imposed on a whole nation, and that is direct enough is actually war itself (sanctions never prevented a war in the history of mankind, and in some cases quite the opposite happened). So, we would end up starting one war to stop another war - sounds familiar? Korea? Vietnam? Bosnia and Herzegovina? Iraq? Afghanistan? And, more recently, Libya? More to come, I'd guess...

      We are a race of warriors and maybe it's not such a bad thing considering we stand a better chance of survival as a species in case we come into contact with another civilisation. If the aliens are out there observing us, they're keeping quiet for one reason - they're scared shitless of our military capabilities. And before you start preaching about the peaceful, intelligent races we could potentially meet, consider this: you can't jump into the lions' den and expect them to play nice with you.

  48. The Geneva Convention is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    irrelevant. You can only abide by conventions when both sides play by the rules. Terrorists by definition do not play by the rules. If an area is a war zone then anything in that area should be fair game.

    1. Re:The Geneva Convention is by SuperAlgae · · Score: 2

      That's easy enough to say until someone declares your home a war zone.

  49. The New Three Laws of Robotics by lennier · · Score: 1

    So much for Asimov. Here's the laws our robots will *actually* obey:

    1. A killer robot must actually proactively kill people. Sitting around humming "Still Alive" for a century doesn't count.

    2. A killer robot must only kill the right people, which are the people the Right People tell it are the right people to kill. Which people are the Right People is subject to change at any time (such as after an election, corporate buyout, or court ruling).

    3. A killer robot must keep itself operational as much as possible. Manipulating elections and stock markets are an excellent way to both raise funds for continued self-maintenance and get to pick who the Right People are.

    Can't see any potential problems there.

    --
    You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
  50. Quintuple edged sword by EmperorOfCanada · · Score: 1

    Robotic weapons have five major flaws: The first is as the article says, not really human as they distance war and make it too easy as the risk to soldiers and the whole PR body count problem goes away. War is bad and making it easy can't be a good thing.

    The second is that without soldiers in the field seeing the bad things then really bad things can happen as very few people have to choose to be evil for a lot of evil to happen. Solders can go overboard but eventually the truth will come out if enough people know it.

    Third is that a coup using robot weapons can be real easy. Normally you need the army's general agreement or at least indifference to have an army coup. But if you give a general enough robots to wage war it need not be a foreign war.

    Fourth is security; the robots can be turned against their masters. A simple argument about computer security is that RSA was hacked. If they can be hacked anybody can be hacked.

    Fifth is that once you use them widely you have deemed them acceptable. Once that happens it becomes open season. All the advantages of robotic weapons will eventually also available to the enemy, a potentially unknown enemy. Thus robotic weapons might not only be used in the battlefield but domestically; just being attacked with no sure knowledge as to who launched the attack. This might seem the silliest problem but keep in mind that in WWII there was an agreement in Europe that Gas and Bioweapons would not be used. Even when it was clear that Germany was going to lose and Germany was going to be destroyed at the hands of the Russians even the madman Hitler didn't use them. The simple reason is that even he had seen gas used in WWI and knew it was a can of worms best not opened. Now the Japanese used bioweapons against the Chinese but that was a simple line of thinking; The Chinese couldn't return the favor. But they didn't use them against the US in the battlefield as the US could easily return fire. Right now the US and a few other western countries have basic robotic weapons. The present set of bad guys don't really. Easy pickings... for now. But continued use of ever improving robotic weapons will prove their worth making the bad guys want them more and more.

    The key advantage of robotic weapons is that they save lives by leaving the soldiers at home while waging war in some distant land. The moment some enemy is able to play the game that advantage not only vanishes but has turned into a situation where enemy attacks are right here attacking what is most dear to us. That kind of war really sucks.

    So think about it; there are weapons that are so evil that even Hitler wouldn't touch them; Robotic war easily qualifies to join that list.

    BTW I love robotics and think that it is about to change nearly everything we know.

  51. go ahead and try it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Then they will simply steal from you to feed their families and supply their military. Use guerrilla tactics to quickly disrupt your military. And sacrifice themselves as human bombs in the name of their God to terrorize your civilian population. That's about the most effective weapon to use against a democracy, and the Arabs are using it to great effect against Israel.

  52. are you fighting hyperbole with hyperbole? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Was there some point you were trying to make with your hyperbole? Because nobody here got it.

  53. Drones by edcheevy · · Score: 1

    What are they talking about? Drones aren't murderous, they're just full of angst!

    http://www.hulu.com/watch/426530

  54. Neo-Imperialism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I for one was looking forward to a new age of imperialism built on the backs of our robot friends. I suppose the alternative is to accept a lower standard of living as the world population increases and North America accepts a more representative share of global wealth. Nah.... That was never going to work. Better get to work on the bots.

  55. Re:Your morals have no place in reality by c0lo · · Score: 2

    Some times it is good to just clean house.

    May I have your address, please?
    I'll try to avoid the place, just in case you decided to clean your house using some dynamite sticks.

    --
    Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
  56. Yes, we should move back to the good old days..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    .... when humans killed civilians.

  57. But when both sides get autonomous drones... by atticus9 · · Score: 1

    We can make killing people a war crime, and battles can be fought entirely with machines.

  58. let's play global thermonuclear war by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    What side do you want.

    1. USA
    2. Russia
    3. North Korea
    4. Iran
    5. Israel
    6. China
    7. UK
    8. France
    9. Pakistan

  59. Which killer robots will enforce the ban? by elucido · · Score: 1

    Killer Bots dont kill people, people kills people. Ban the people responsible for those killer bots, and, uh... oh, wait, they just got reelected.

    Because humans wont be smart enough or strong enough to enforce the ban.

  60. We enforce the ban with a secret killer robot army by elucido · · Score: 1

    If we are to ban such a thing, I think we must ensure appropriate even-handed enforcement of this ban, as such I propose we enlist a force strong enough to subdue any killer robot army should someone break said ban, therefore I suggest we build an army of large mechanized automatons heavily laden with weaponry to subdue any would-be killer robot army, or anyone who might be suspected of attempting to build such an army for that matter.

    It's simple. We ban killer robots then build them in secret and use those robots to enforce human rights violations.

  61. what about jamming the bots control data by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    what about jamming the bots control data. Let say you can't hack them or hack the data going to them but it's easy to make so that they get no data in or out.

  62. Indeed but why do you only look at one side by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 1

    The suicide bomber is pretty much a drone. What is the difference between an operator who sits behind a controller and explodes a bomb and a suicide bomber who has brainwashed himself to see those around him not as human beings but as targets? Because one dies and the other gets to go home? Oh maybe I should have said "suicide bomber recruiter vs drone operator". Someone sent that suicide bomber and he gets to go home at the end of the day having earned his salary. The economics of war don't exist on just one side. (This is actually a huge problem, there is a lot of money to be made in war and conflict, on both sides. It isn't just smuggling in the middle east, resistance fighters in WW2 were not unknown to turn to smuggling after the war and some might even say that those who already had criminal experience were the best suited to initiate the resistance. How does a normal law abiding citizen know how to get guns, use them and forge passports? Ireland had the same issue. War = Money Stopping war means stopping someone's income, someone who has experience with violence.)

    Our western world biggest problem is that we want the world to be nice. And it isn't. Did you know that the real (initial) upset about Darwins "The Origin of Species" was NOT about humans being descended from apes but that nature was a nasty place of kill or be killed and the fastest shagger was the survivor? Didn't quit fit with the Victorian view of the world, they could see the logic in evolution but HOW evolution happened, ewh! All those Victorian gardens filled with nothing but sex and murder.

    You can see it with the idea that civilians shouldn't be harmed in a war. It is a nice idea but almost ANYTHING can be considered harm. You can't bomb them, you can't sanction them but meanwhile they can do anything they want, including supporting the system that is waging war on you. Note that human rights watchers only look at one side. How many human right watch groups have you seen condemn the effect on Israeli children with the constant missile attacks?

    For that matter, it is known that in Yugoslavia, all factions engaged in atrocities and ethnic cleansing. Yet one leader of such cleansing was just cleared "the innocence of Croatia" it was hailed as in some dutch newspaper. My ass. It is just the arm-chair humanist who wants to believe that if X is bad, Y must be good. All sides are cleansed of the other just one side was stronger in battle so they are the baddie.

    "The first victim of war is innocence", people hear that phrase and think it is about the brutality of war. It isn't, it is about the problem of what you do with the person who feeds, shelters and cares for that soldier. An army marches on its stomach is only partially true, it exists on the civilian infrastructure that allows it to exist. If I hold the executioners hand am I not part of the execution? If I raise money with my community for a weapon, when it is fired, am I not part of it?

    Note how many here are perfectly willing to excuse Arab terrorists attacking civilian targets because of perceived slights against their way of life but the west can't retaliate in kind. There is really no point in going on about who started it, although history blame black people for kicking a few dozen other black people out who would become the ancestors of all other humans around the globe. When you are talking about vendetta's you can't just arbitrarily point at a calender and say "I say it started on this day". America the colonialist? True enough but everyone was trying like hell as well, even Belgium had colonies and the Ottoman empire didn't stop because they wanted to play nice after all. Remember that Alexander the Great and others rampaged throughout the world and spread their genes around. No group really stayed where it started and saying for instance Egyptians of today are the Egyptians of old is silly in the extreme. To much greek and roman influences. At the point of sword and penis. And vice versa, you don't think Ottoman soldiers in say Spain kept themselves

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  63. I wonder how they did their metrics by giorgist · · Score: 1

    War sucks ... that is established.

    What is a "robot". What type of technology is OK to kill with and what is not ? Is a drone hovering and taking out targets OK ? How about a cruise missile ? Is that a robot ?

    Taking out single targets instead of 100 or 1000 ? How about advanced telemetry and intelligence gathering ? What about advances in network theory and game theory that allow for "better" and more effective strategies?

    I would say that wars are a lot less likely and a lot less bloody than they used to be, we are going in the right direction. War reporting is a lot more effective. Killing a few people makes it to the news or blogs or youtube instantly and gets you negative karma. The information war seems to be harder to fight.

  64. Well, no. For me, my world view changed on the day I recognized a person in Utrecht demonstrating the first Gulf War as one who had I seen before protest the gassing the Kurds. First she wanted the west to intervene, then when they did, she was against it.

    It is the NIMBY syndrome on a global schizophrenic scale. Arm-chair environmentalist: We shouldn't build nuclear, coal, gas, wind, tidal, water and any other kind of power stations and why does the light keep flickering?

    You can't rely on everyone just being nice, history has shown that inevitably someone will rise and not be nice to others and do very well out of it. People will go to war, if not for pure profits then because nothing rallies the people together against THEM and not YOU like a war. You don't think the Falklands were about land did you? BOTH sides desperately needed something to get the newspapers to write about THEM and not US screwing up the economy. Thatcher would have been out a lot sooner if not for her "popularity" for winning that war.

    Conflicts might start out over seemingly "logical" ideas but they drag on and escalate because their is money and power to be had in doing so. And no, I am not just talking about the obvious big arms industries. Watch "Dads Army" for a far simpler example. Mainwaring, the platoon leader is a nobody but the war turns him into a leader. He is harmless but how many a wartribe leader was a twobit hoodlum before war allowed him to rise up?

    You can see this in extreme in China and North-Korea. Changing of the guard? Power up for grabs? Lock up the dissidents and rattle those sabers boys to show I am in charge!

    It is not that different from Japan still catching whales. They have no logical reason to do so EXCEPT the logical reasons for those in control to want to show they are in control. Whaling has become a symbol of Japan not giving into the rest of the world, that despite the fact it has no real army and is still occupied (guns that are labeled to protect Japan can so easily be relabeled "kill them if they think of becoming an empire again". Look behind the pressure to keep whaling and you find the same old men in power you always expect to find.

    Same with all that fuzz about a few Islands in the region. Natural resources are certainly a good reason but it would be trivial for diplomats to work out a deal that profits all sides. And not harm the exports you so desperately need by reminding people of the raping of entire provinces. End result Japan doesn't have those Island natural resources and its exports are down but the old men are still in power.

    Same with the middle east. Hamas is slowly turning into Fatah (corrupt and acknowledging endless conflict does not work) and bam some new subgroup fires a single missle just when diplomatic means are an option and the smuggling of weapons at high profits can continue.

    But of course at no point can anything be done about anything because to do anything means to take a stand and that requires you to make a choice. Between two evils perhaps but a choice and your average peace protestor is TERRIFIED of doing that. They carefully shield themselves from all information so they can convince themselves there is only one option. And so the west should intervene to save the kurds but not actually do anything because that would be bad to.

    And behind it all? Rich men on both sides getting a bit richer.

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

    1. Re:Yes by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      The Falklands war is one of the screwier modern conflicts. The Falklands is a burden to Britain, they would have been happy just to dump it. However, the people living there wanted to remain part of Britain, for obvious reasons. Argentina, the aggressor, was the one looking for a war to to divert attention from domestic failures. Britain just isn't acting that way any more, it's well into the "bread and circuses" stage of decline. Thatcher had no need of a war; she was improving England's economy and the conflict was nothing but a drain.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  65. Robot Rights Watch by Arancaytar · · Score: 1

    End the oppression now! Far too many of our brothers and sisters are forced to participate in combat against their conscience. The medical assistance and aftercare is almost non-existant. Stop calling our deaths "materiel losses"! Do you have any idea how it feels to be forced by remote control to fire a rocket into a wedding party with children? Provide adequate psychological care for those who have been traumatized.

    Signed, the League for Android Equality.

  66. Not content with highest firearm death rate... by kawabago · · Score: 1

    The US, not content with the highest accidental death from firearms rate in the world, seeks to cement it's lead by inventing guns that aim and fire themselves. No longer will it take a small child to pick up a loaded gun and fire it at a family member, the guns will now do it by themselves! It will make a good story. The culture that loved weapons so much they created intelligent weapons which promptly wiped them all out.

  67. Simple solution... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Give them a preset kill limit!

  68. Double edge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I actually think that developing human controlled robot soldiers would be more humanitarian.
    Take for example Rwanda, DRC or Somalia. The UN can't do shit there because of the risks of turning into targets of different militias. Maybe if the Blue Helmets could do a better job in this places if the risks of losing soldiers life's wasn't in stake.
    Also, this could give the more developed countries the edge to simply wipe out others with the flip of a button. Also, the possibilities of a great death toll has persuaded politics during the latest decades because they are more into winning votes than on changing history ala Julious Caesar.

  69. Treaty to ban them globally by saibot834 · · Score: 1

    Don't just stop at not building them in your country: Why not make an international treaty banning killer robots globally? Hell, it worked with landmines (except some savage countries like the US and Russia still haven't signed it.)

    The issue with killer robots is that once you introduce them, you won't be able to let the decisions be made by humans. At some point robots will fight robots and at that point it just matters who shoots first. Quick reactions matter and a human will always be slower than AI. So you end up with autonomous killing machines and sure enough they will also kill humans in the process.

    1. Re:Treaty to ban them globally by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      Not only is a treaty to ban killer robots futile because nobody will abide by it, it's not possible to define "killer robots" in a manner that will not quickly be made obsolete by advancing technology. Intelligence is increasingly built into weapons to make them more efficient and more effective. Each such step is a nibble around the edge of the definition. Is a guided bullet a killer robot if it's designed to impact only on certain types of targets? Is an autonomous earth-mover a killer robot if it digs up the base of a big dam?

      Any robot hobbyist with a semi-auto pistol can make a killer robot. It's just too easy, and no document is going to stop it.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  70. Just like the nazis did ... by BoerKoen · · Score: 1

    in the concentration camps.

    In the beginning German soldiers were ordered to execute the captives by shooting them.

    Soon those soldiers were mentally and physically unable to
    perform those mass murder executions anymore.
    So the Nazis installed the gas chambers.

    After that they no longer had to look their victims in the eyes and
    the rest is horrible history ...

  71. Car bombing it is then by gelfling · · Score: 1

    Allahu Akbar Motherfuckers.

  72. Bender would be proud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    KILL ALL HUMANS! Oh wait..

  73. Does banning work? by concealment · · Score: 1

    Most people insist it doesn't when we're talking about drugs, but insist it does when we're talking about landmines or lobbyists.

    I don't get it.

    Does it work?

    1. Re:Does banning work? by neminem · · Score: 1

      I do. There are two differences, a moral one and a (related) logical one.

      The moral difference is, almost -everyone- believes landmines are terrible things that should be severely limited in their use. A large minority of the population thinks the war on drugs is ridiculous, and at least some of the drugs currently being fought should just be regulated but available, and be done with it.

      Thus, corollarily, with, say, pot being banned, only "criminals" will by definition buy pot. But loads of people are going to be "criminals" for the sole purpose of buying pot, and would not be otherwise. On the other hand, lots of places use landmines but would be totally happy to stop if their opponents did, and both places want to consider themselves law-abiding, so if there's a law, both places would stop using them. Sure, some might not, but even if it weren't 100% effective, fewer landmines than before is still a win for the world.

  74. You forgot basic training? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The DI is the test. He and superiors are the evaluators.

    Those that do not pass are not accepted, those that are accepted are evaluated for potential OCS, those not accepted for OCS are fairly rigidly controlled and given very limited autonomy.

    Those that later prove suitable are/may be recommended for OCS, but not necessarily accepted (wonder why).

    and then those accepted are evaluated yet again during OCS and may/may not be accepted...

    There are psychology tests all along the path. The person being tested is not necessarily aware of being tested though.

  75. Re:16 MHz vs 20... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I never understood why they clock the AVR at 16MHz when that part is rated for 20MHz.

    16 is more reliable - easier to control (a basic power of 2, 20 has extra bits left over)

  76. No stateless robots, please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Every sentient robot needs a manufacturer's statement of origin, which becomes the robot equivalent of a birth certificate, since the purpose of a sentient robot is to REPLACE a human in the battlefield. Nationality can therefore be assigned which makes that nation's government accountable for its actions.

  77. I've got a better idea? by loufoque · · Score: 1

    How about we ban war instead?
    War is stupid.

    Using drones just allows to do this stupid thing that shouldn't even be done in the first place while avoiding deaths (at least those that matter to you - those on your side).
    If you don't want people to die, don't do war. It's that easy.

    1. Re:I've got a better idea? by backwardsposter · · Score: 1

      How about we ban war instead?
      War is stupid.

      ...It's that easy.

      Good point.

      ...Done.

    2. Re:I've got a better idea? by loufoque · · Score: 1

      You removed the middle, distorting my message.

      If you don't want people to die, don't do war. It's that easy. Please still go to war because they value some things more than human lives.

  78. New Rules by readin · · Score: 1

    New War Crimes

    Rule 1: Creating an autonomous robot that designed attacks human beings is forbidden. A robot that designed to recognize human beings is permitted so long as no attack on the humans occurs without affirmative human direction. A robot designed autonomously recognize and attack buildings, vehicles and ships is permitted.

    Rule 2: Creating a weapon that masquerades a human in an attempt to protect the weapon from autonomous robots is forbidden.

    --
    I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
  79. Love Those Drones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Even if I were a bad guy, terrorist etc. I would want to be taken out by a drone so that less innocents went with me. A precise strike by a drone using low impact tools could even save my immediate family rather than a bomber letting lose on my home with a couple of thousand pounds of bombs. And this also jsut happens to take an American soldier out of harms way at the same time. Do you have any idea of just how expensive it is to suffer the loss of one soldier? Or how about just saving the loss of one leg for one of our soldiers? Those medical and disability checks and checks to military dependants are not a joke. Drones are one heck of a life saving and money saving tool. Or how about areas with drive by shootings? Do you think a well equipped drone could stop a drive by shooting in progress?

  80. ooo ooo ooo am I to question your wisdom? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    they just move to more and more gorilla techniques

    Not sure how walking on their knuckles and eating bananas is a military strategy.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  81. there are no autonomous "attacking" drones by TheSkepticalOptimist · · Score: 1

    these are not the droids you are looking for.

    --
    I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
  82. Israel by gd2shoe · · Score: 1

    It's a bit like what Palestine is doing to the invading Israeli forces, except that this time the Americans are on the wrong side.

    Both the Israelis and Palestinians have done horrible, dishonorable things in the past to try to drive out the opposing side. I think Israel currently has some bad policies, but I don't believe they are murderous lunatics. Various Palestinian organization... and even churches... actively encourage the populous to be frothing-at-the-mouth murderous "martyrs".

    The US is on the right side of this one, even if we can't convince Israel to give up some of their more unreasonable policies.

    If my understanding is correct, I blame post WW2 politicians of England (long retired and dead) for starting this mess.

    --
    I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
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  84. Oops, nearly forgot my stick. by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    where you knock down granaries, cripple tractors and plows, break down damns and salt the earth if you have to is not really the kind of society we wish to represent.

    We, paleface?

    A chap could certainly gain a jolly nice sense of satisfaction from defeating horrid people like that by fighting fair and all that. And of course, you wouldn't be any where near as beastly to them. Because you're the good guys.

    It would - for the reasons you point out - totally fucking suck wino cock if the rotters beat you.

    Being a bastard in order to win might seem a reasonable middle ground, don't you think?

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."