Slashdot Mirror
The Case For a Federal Robotics Commission
New submitter hmcd31 writes: In a new paper for Brookings' series on the future of civilian robotics, University of Washington Law Professor Ryan Calo argues the need for a Federal Robotics Commission. With advancements such as driverless cars and drones taking to the roads and skies, Calo sees a need for a government agency to monitor these changes. His paper details many benefits a robotics commission could bring, from funding to assisting in law and policy issues. The policies developed by this FRC are argued to be particularly important, as their impact in creating an early infrastructure for robotics could create an environment that lets the technology grow even more.
he means "make panicked decisions retarding business formation while entrenching early adopters".
Dog is my co-pilot.
With robotics entering every aspect of our lives, such an agency would gain control over every aspect our lives.
I think mabey upgrading our current agencies to be more tech friendly sure, but do we really not more buerocracy?
special autonomous taxes, too.
Statists gonna State
These are not the droids you are looking for.
Yep, that's EXACTLY what we need.
ANOTHER industry using regulatory capture to stifle competition.
We need that like we all need holes in our heads.
Regulatory capture: it'll end up getting controlled by the very entities it's supposed to be controlling: robots, like the other Federal Commissions... :p
More bureaucracy, just what we need. "We're from the government, and we're here to help."
Adding a layer of overseers adds a layer of cost to a marketing decision. Areas with high levels of automation and effecient production include food processing such as making cheese, semiconductor manufacturing, automobile welding, painting, ammusement park rides, etc.
What can government oversight do besides drive up the cost for the remaining US manufactures? The decison to automate is a business decision.
Government regulation should only intrude in safety such a OSHA guidelines. Anything beyond that is wasted resources and a higher cost of doing business.
The truth shall set you free!
than the CAN-SPAM act.
I keep getting 15 moderator points regularly. This is the 4th or 5th time in a row. How could that be?
Brave Sir Robin ran away. ("No!") Bravely ran away away. ("I didn't!")
Great we are going to have ObamaBOTs! Like nationalized robots are going to work better than nationalized health care. Are we going to have to buy Roombas whether we need them or not?
I don't want to do a sig now
"To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail."
replace 'civilian' with 'consumer' and it starts to make more sense
A commission for robotics would probably be legitimizing stuff like law enforcement drones and such, because "there is an overseeing commission watching over to ensure compliance". The tiny problem with that is of course, the one making the drones has influence over the one making the rules and the one applying the rules. Speaking of which, who likes Skynet?
What we need is people creating standards so that 'patent wars' and walled gardens don't spawn and wreck the whole system before it starts.
Taking the driverless car example - there should be compliance standards for car-to-car communication, roads/traffic systems communicating with cars and safety compliance protocols (for example, the ability to switch back to 'manual' in a pinch) and ensuring companies stick to those standards.
I really don't want that old "If Microsoft and Apple made cars" joke coming true. I'll be damned if I need two separate licenses for two brands of car - or if I need to pay the iToll to drive on Apple highways.
FAA oversight of drones is truly helping that technology. No for-profit use allowed, no guarantee when they might get around to allowing it. Now let's oversee some robotics!
We need less federal government, not more.
Apologies to Isaac Asimov.
Is it just me, or does this sound like an ambitious Law Professor looking for a new job as head of a newly minted agency?
Hmm, the humour and sarcasm seem to have been be lost on you.
The FRC is needed to protect humanity from the cylons!!!
and more need to encourage building of many more.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Do you need a good modem?
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
They can fuck up a wet dream! Any questions?
Did they get further in Basic Grammar lessons than you managed to do?
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
You mean, like FCC for robots? Yeah... That'll work. The government does such a great job running what they have now, right? Some of the stupidest smart people inhabit this site...
...a federal agency gets involved and you are not working at or the owner of one of the big companies that got in and rose to the top BEFORE the federal agency intervention.
A new federal agency will raise the hurdles to entry by any new upstarts and write lots of rules and regulations (assisted by "input" from the "market leaders" who will be grandfathered in). If this goes like the FAA, some of the early guys will even get to write requirements documents (which they will copyright and sell) that every new entrant into the field will have to buy and live by. Any future robotic home appliance might have to be Roomba-compliant, and require years of government testing and oversight before getting "approved" for sale - something the "early entrant" was never required to endure. All 3D printers might have to meet the standards that the current corporate giant (whith its "lobbying" money potential) can "advise" the agency to require (which just might...by PURE coincidence, of course only be met by use of certain patents they will happily license to their competitors for certain fees and other considerations...)
After the FAA arose, aviation became a place for entrepreneurs to go if they wanted to go broke rather than a field of endeavour for people with bold ideas who wanted to innovate.
After NHTSA, building new auto companies became a "thing" only for billionaires and multinational mega-corps
The rise of FCC regulations impacted the computer industry in ways many forget ("bye bye" Tandy and their TRS-80, and farewell Apple II line... (people forget that new emissions rules were part of what doomed thos products long before the PC and Mac arose))
As the years go by and field after field of American high tech creative freedom is demolished like this I keep waiting for young entreprenurial people to wake-up to this disease - but unfortunately each new wave of guys enters a different field and then goes all-in for government regulation after becoming successful "early entrants" in their field. This is how freedom dies.
for systems like auto drive cars / drones.
The last think we need is for a bad music file to be able to make auto drive car have a software crash that makes it go out of control.
Let's just have one big, fucking bureau in charge of every damned thing we do. You'll need a license to shit and, if you don't do it right, you'll pay out the ass.
The zeroth law of the FRC:
0) Any former Chairman of the FRC shall be treated as a god-king, and given boundless wealth by the Robotics Corporations that he helped to enrich.
This supersedes all other laws, like those little guidelines about "not killing humans" and so forth.
Calo's argument is a bit confuse. His (never explicited) definitions are muddled. First he mentions pure-software engines such as a program that posts on Twitter and another one that orders from Amazon. But later on he stresses how "embodiment" sets robots apart and:
In my view, the difference between a computer and a robot has largely to do with the latter’s embodiment. Robots do not just sense, process, and relay data. Robots are organized to act upon the world physically, or at least directly.
How does a piece of software that interacts with another piece of software over a web protocol "act upon the world physically, or at least directly"? And conversely, if programs that interact with other programs over data interfaces in a way a human could are robots, then everything that runs on my computer is a robot. Amazon staff didn't enter all those products by hand, so Amazon itself is ruled by robots. His proposed commission would need to have almost unlimited scope.
We've already got too many agencies.
Appoint Tom Wheeler as the head of the FRC. Screw robot equality, I want robot slaves.
The only thing this will accomplish is require every company to pay a ton of money for the privilege of asking for permission to sell something. Screw that. Screw that HARD.
Government has tried to put its paws into too many things, we do not need, want ot tolerate any robot commishion.
Everything should be run by the G.E.E.C. (Ref. Superfriends cartoon)
Basic Grammar? Of course! How brilient!
So it's OK to question the president? But not the shit mouths of a fundmentalist group? Why?
in congested coastal waters
in ports
etc.
I know it's silly and old-fashioned to bring up the Constitution when discussing the creation of yet another sclerotic Federal Bureaucratic behemoth, but this proposal is ridiculous on its face. Even the absurdly over-stretched interstate commerce clause and general welfare clause do not even come close to justifying this sort of overreach by the Feds.
IF (and that's a *big* if) this kind of regulation is needed at all (personally, I can't think of one good reason for it), then I see no reason why it can't be handled by the states. Centralizing policy and regulations for what amounts to the convenience and increased power of "bureaucrats armed and clerical" (in the immortal phrase of Dabney) is NOT allowed by the Constitution.
I'd vote in a heartbeat for any Presidential candidate, regardless of party, who would carry out Goldwater's pledge: "I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is "needed" before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents' "interests," I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can."
Sounds to me like every aspect of a Federal Robotics Commission would be the triumph of special interests over liberty...
"The future's good and the present is nothing to sneeze at." - Roblimo's last
I didn't say you are not allowed to question people.
Maybe after Basic Grammar, you should start Reading Comprehension: Enabling Effective Arguments In Online Forums.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
Lets recap here, the topic is about the President, and you're concerned about your period?