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Coming Soon to a Battlefield: Robots That Can Kill
The Atlantic ^ | September 3, 2019 | Zachary Fryer--Biggs

Posted on 09/03/2019 9:45:35 AM PDT by C19fan

Wallops island—a remote, marshy spit of land along the eastern shore of Virginia, near a famed national refuge for horses—is mostly known as a launch site for government and private rockets. But it also makes for a perfect, quiet spot to test a revolutionary weapons technology.

If a fishing vessel had steamed past the area last October, the crew might have glimpsed half a dozen or so 35-foot-long inflatable boats darting through the shallows, and thought little of it. But if crew members had looked closer, they would have seen that no one was aboard: The engine throttle levers were shifting up and down as if controlled by ghosts. The boats were using high-tech gear to sense their surroundings, communicate with one another, and automatically position themselves so, in theory, .50-caliber machine guns that can be strapped to their bows could fire a steady stream of bullets to protect troops landing on a beach.

The secretive effort—part of a Marine Corps program called Sea Mob—was meant to demonstrate that vessels equipped with cutting-edge technology could soon undertake lethal assaults without a direct human hand at the helm. It was successful: Sources familiar with the test described it as a major milestone in the development of a new wave of artificially intelligent weapons systems soon to make their way to the battlefield.

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans; Society
KEYWORDS: ai; military; robotics
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Replacing citizen-soldiers with robots will have profound societal impacts. A major force behind the liberal-constitutionalism movements of the 19th century was the replacement of small professional armies with levée en masse armies. What happens in a country where robots can do the fighting and a governing elite does not need ordinary citizens to be soldiers?
1 posted on 09/03/2019 9:45:35 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: C19fan

“what happens”

They enact red flag laws.


2 posted on 09/03/2019 9:47:49 AM PDT by fruser1
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To: KC_Lion

Ping.


3 posted on 09/03/2019 9:48:41 AM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: C19fan

Soylent Green, Terminator or Idiocracy.


4 posted on 09/03/2019 9:48:50 AM PDT by EEGator
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To: C19fan

But, ‘the three laws’..


5 posted on 09/03/2019 9:48:51 AM PDT by neverevergiveup
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To: C19fan

From the movie “Patton”:

“Wonder weapons... my God, I don’t see the wonder in them. Killing without heroics, nothing is glorified... nothing is reaffirmed? No heroes, no cowards, no troops, no generals? Only those who are left alive... and those who are left dead. I’m glad I won’t live to see it.”


6 posted on 09/03/2019 9:48:56 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: C19fan

More frightening is the thought of this technology in the hands of environmental extremists who believe that Earth’s #1 problem is that it has too many people.


7 posted on 09/03/2019 9:50:10 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer.)
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To: C19fan

Soldiers sailors and airmen fighting with joy sticks. Uniform patches forthcoming. Purple Hearts for carpel tunnel syndrome.


8 posted on 09/03/2019 9:50:38 AM PDT by Chauncey Gardiner
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To: C19fan

But-but-but.... what about the sacred Three Laws of Robotics?!

I’ve guffawed at Big Media when they often report on them being anything other than a fictional sci-fi construct.


9 posted on 09/03/2019 9:51:00 AM PDT by treetopsandroofs
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To: C19fan

Robotic soldiers. Fully robotic factories. It’s coming.


10 posted on 09/03/2019 9:52:19 AM PDT by plain talk
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To: C19fan

They’ve been debating letting armed UAVs shoot targets without asking for human permission for several years. That implies the robots can already kill per program.


11 posted on 09/03/2019 9:52:55 AM PDT by tbw2
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12 posted on 09/03/2019 9:53:51 AM PDT by dsrtsage (For Leftists, World History starts every day at breakfast)
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To: C19fan

Wait, what about the First Law????


13 posted on 09/03/2019 9:54:29 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (As always IMHO)
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To: C19fan

Predictive programming from 50 years ago:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708414/


14 posted on 09/03/2019 9:56:56 AM PDT by Disambiguator (Keepin' it analog.)
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To: plain talk

>>Robotic soldiers. Fully robotic factories. It’s coming.<<

Worse, what if they are AI and together decide something terrible? Before everyone says “Skynet” (or V’ger) you may have heard about the experiment where they hooked two AI negotiating computers together and the two invented a language the designers could not even understand. MUI it scared the hell out of them (and they cut the connect) — and it should scare the hell out of all of us.


15 posted on 09/03/2019 9:58:26 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (As always IMHO)
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To: C19fan

Already fielded by the Russian Army.


16 posted on 09/03/2019 9:59:14 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: C19fan
Replacing citizen-soldiers with robots will have profound societal impacts. A major force behind the liberal-constitutionalism movements of the 19th century was the replacement of small professional armies with levée en masse armies. What happens in a country where robots can do the fighting and a governing elite does not need ordinary citizens to be soldiers?

Profound is the right word. Imagine a tiny oil rich country that hasn't the manpower but can afford to build a massive robot army and send it virtually anywhere without any way of identifying where it was sent from.

17 posted on 09/03/2019 9:59:34 AM PDT by DouglasKC
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To: C19fan

They did not keep it secret enough.


18 posted on 09/03/2019 10:00:57 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: C19fan

In the short run, this will be the death of liberty.

In the long run, this will be the death of mankind.


19 posted on 09/03/2019 10:01:36 AM PDT by Lazamataz (We can be called a racist and we'll just smile. Because we don't care.)
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To: C19fan
Old news.


20 posted on 09/03/2019 10:04:33 AM PDT by TADSLOS (You know why you can enjoy a day at the Zoo? Because walls work.)
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