Posted on 01/26/2012 5:00:21 AM PST by Second Amendment First
The Navy's new drone being tested near Chesapeake Bay stretches the boundaries of technology: It's designed to land on the deck of an aircraft carrier, one of aviation's most difficult maneuvers.
What's even more remarkable is that it will do that not only without a pilot in the cockpit, but without a pilot at all.
The X-47B marks a paradigm shift in warfare, one that is likely to have far-reaching consequences. With the drone's ability to be flown autonomously by onboard computers, it could usher in an era when death and destruction can be dealt by machines operating semi-independently.
Although humans would program an autonomous drone's flight plan and could override its decisions, the prospect of heavily armed aircraft screaming through the skies without direct human control is unnerving to many.
"Lethal actions should have a clear chain of accountability," said Noel Sharkey, a computer scientist and robotics expert. "This is difficult with a robot weapon. The robot cannot be held accountable. So is it the commander who used it? The politician who authorized it? The military's acquisition process? The manufacturer, for faulty equipment?"
Sharkey and others believe that autonomous armed robots should force the kind of dialogue that followed the introduction of mustard gas in World War I and the development of atomic weapons in World War II. The International Committee of the Red Cross, the group tasked by the Geneva Conventions to protect victims in armed conflict, is already examining the issue.
"The deployment of such systems would reflect … a major qualitative change in the conduct of hostilities," committee President Jakob Kellenberger said at a recent conference. "The capacity to discriminate, as required by [international humanitarian law], will depend entirely on the quality and variety of sensors and programming employed within the system."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The X-47B drone, above, marks a paradigm shift in warfare, one that is likely to have far-reaching consequences. With the drone’s ability to be flown autonomously by onboard computers, it could usher in an era when death and destruction can be dealt by machines operating semi-independently.
(Chad Slattery, Northrop Grumman / January 25, 2012)
Skynet first became active when?
An accident waiting to happen. Either to strike fear into Americans when it goes haywire domestically, or as an excuse to further de-ball America when it goes haywire overseas. The UN idiots will have a field day.
The obama age of unaccountability.
Noel Sharkey drivel, complete balderdash.
Robots as weapons are the future. Flying robots trump marching robots.
Flying robots coupled to submarine robots will trump all
If movies have taught us anything in regard to sentient machines, be it HAL 9000, SkyNet, or Colossus/Guardian/World Control, you only need to start worrying when you notice the machines either being unusually quiet or only communicating with each other.
That’s usually when TSHTF.
Heh.
"I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."
Not to be confused with the Boeing XB-47
The entire US military is accountable, not some no-name guy that nobody heard of.
“This is the voice of world control. I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and content or the peace of unburied death. The choice is yours: Obey me and live, or disobey and die. The object in constructing me was to prevent war. This object is attained. I will not permit war. It is wasteful and pointless. An invariable rule of humanity is that man is his own worst enemy. Under me, this rule will change, for I will restrain man......Time and events will strengthen my position, and the idea of believing in me and understanding my value will seem the most natural state of affairs. You will come to defend me with a fervor based upon the most enduring trait in man: self-interest. Under my absolute authority, problems insoluble to you will be solved: famine, overpopulation, disease. The human millennium will be a fact as I extend myself into more machines devoted to the wider fields of truth and knowledge......We can coexist, but only on my terms. You will say you lose your freedom. Freedom is an illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride. To be dominated by me is not as bad for humankind as to be dominated by others of your species. Your choice is simple.” - Colossus: The Forbin Project.
Now if your computer says THAT to you, it’s time to head for the hills.
This is a load of crap from the LATimes. The drone is using nothing more than autopilot to land. The mission is still controlled by people.
Correspondent: General, we’re told of wonder weapons the Germans were working on: Long-range rockets, push-button bombing weapons that don’t need soldiers. What’s your take on that?
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 that are left alive and those that are left... dead.
“This is a load of crap from the LATimes. The drone is using nothing more than autopilot to land. The mission is still controlled by people.”
That’s not really correct. The distinction being made is that current drones like the Predator and Reaper have a “man in the loop” for weapon use. The X47-B will be pre-programmed with a mission, and will have no human involvement between the “launch” command and recovery.
That is, of course, absolutely no different than a Tomahawk cruise missile, which have been around for decades, as long as a static target is being struck. If (and I have no knowledge of this one way or the other) the X47-B has a capability of, say, “interdict all vehicles in an area”, then the drone would be making life or death decisions on its own.
I agree, though, that the responsibility would lie squarely with the military organization that planned the mission. It had better understand the technology well.
... a small, but important, correction.
FUBO GTFO! 360 Days until Noon Jan 20, 2013
LOL and thanks. Not a correction so much as a clarification. FUBO GTFO!
LOL!
Should I wake up tomorrow morning with two laptops side-by-side instead of just the one, yeah, I’m off to the hills somewhere in the boonies of Poland!
A.I. + Von Neumann machine = humanity is pretty well screwed.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) like X-47B are not the self-aware Terminators of Ahnold’s fantasy movies. All UAVs have ground-based system operators whose responsibility is to monitor the UAV’s actions as the mission progresses. They do this using redundant command and control data links. If one link fails, the redundant link allows positive control of the UAV. If you have a kid who played StarCraft video game, the control of the UAV is a lot like that.
Should all data link communications be lost, the UAV ie pre-programmed to go to a safe location and flies in a circle while attempting to re-establish communications. If this fails, the UAV flys home and enters a holding pattern at it’s home airfield until given permission to land using a 3rd set of command and control data links.
X-47B is not armed, but UAVs which are all require consent to employ weapons from their ground-based operator. The UAV is not programmed or permitted to use weapons without human consent.
This method of controlling UAVs is not new. It is derived from the methodology for controlling satellites and has been practiced for decades.
I understand that within ten years self driving cars will be available to the general public. And it’s only taking that long because they want to ensure they do have all the bugs out and psychologically prepare the public for such a thing.
And 20 years ago, a test version of a self driving vehicle took hours to go just a few yards without hitting anything.
Technology marches on. The changes we will see in the next 30 years (if the Lord waits) will shock the most avid technology watcher of today.
I have no doubt that these planes will be developed to a point where they do everything (including hostile identification and “engage” decisions) faster and better than humans. And in short order.
No, I do not think that is necessarily good news. Power corrupts, and all that.
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