No Pilot, No Problem: The future of military aviation is unmanned. The sooner it comes, the better.

Reason ^ | April 12, 2012 | Tim Cavanaugh

[neverdem]

There's more to military aviation than just fighters and bombers.

[BIGLOOK]

Mixed feelings....bump

[donna]

Star Trek: A Taste of Armageddon
...war is essentially a war game, where each planet attacks the other in a computer simulation with the tabulated victims voluntarily surrendering themselves for execution after the fact.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKmUd0zHW4w

[zeestephen]

Next Stop...

Driverless cars.

Love that idea.

Get in the passenger side each morning, and my car drives me to work.

Nap, read, work on the computer.

Just like the bus - but no wino's, no racial hatred, and no crazy people.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Driverless cars.

Love that idea.

I hate it. No automated car will ever exceed the ridiculously low US speed limits (which the cars will scan from programmable roadside displays), and as a result the actual flow of traffic will be less than the speed limit as cars slow to allow other cars to switch lanes and merge. On "spare the air" days, the speed limit can be dropped even further or simply reduced to zero to force people to use the mass transit boondoggles no one ever wants to use.

Driverless cars will find a lot of favor with statists who hate the personal mobility and freedom from control that cars provide. Such folks will rejoice at the potential massive increase in control that automated vehicles subject to external programming will provide.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

war is essentially a war game, where each planet attacks the other in a computer simulation with the tabulated victims voluntarily surrendering themselves for execution after the fact.

The assumption there seems to be that the goal in war is to kill people. The usual main priority is to take and hold territory, something that automated devices will eventually be able to do better than human personnel and without the casualties.

[golux]

"....hulking symbol of the Cold War, accident-prone target of the unkind acronym "B.U.F.F...."

TRANSLATION:

"...perhaps the most tangible representation of the U. S. Military establishment's role in your own survival, symbol of trans-generational excellence in engineering, a model of simple and deadly excellence which serves still and will serve as an example to generations of engineers who seek the elegant, the perfect, the lofty, and the efficient."

Sorry. Just had to translate that.

[Jeff Chandler]

I never associated the band The B52s with fags. Queen, yes.

[piytar]

Close, but the only way war ever ends is by breaking the will of the enemy. That’s how we lost Vietnam despite massive military success: the American will faltered, largely due to Walter Cronkite and the LSM. (Yes, they have been that treasonous that long.)

Automated war machines can give us an even bigger edge, but without the will, we’re lost...

[lentulusgracchus]

Driverless cars will find a lot of favor with statists who hate the personal mobility and freedom from control that cars provide PEOPLE.

There. You don't mind my shortening it a little bit for clarity, do you?

[lentulusgracchus]

And one of the main reasons a red flag never broke above the city-state of Singapore.

We slaughtered a million Communist cadre on the battlefields of Vietnam, who never saw another country in consequence.

[Cicero]

Yeah, yeah. People are always criticizing the B-52, saying it’s outdated, I’ve got a better idea, my plane is faster and smarter than your plane.

But somehow or other, the B-52 has done the job, while most of the intended replacements proved to be little more than money-gobblers.

[Buckeye McFrog]

so I guess all of our future airline pilots are going to come out of shady sounding tech schools which advertise on UHF television during the day...

[marktwain]

Driver less cars are a technology that offers a great deal of freedom. Like any technology, it can be used for or against freedom.

Most computer forecasters predicted it would be used for 1984 type purposes. Some of it has, but the ability to unshackle information flow from the MSM has been one of the greatest promoters of individual freedom of our time.

Autonomous cars - no drivers license - tremendous increase in productivity - enormous opportunities.

[TexasRepublic]

Don’t forget our drone that was brought down intact over Iran. Imagine some hostile country capturing a drone bomber.

[itsahoot]

enormous opportunities.

Especially Lawyers.

[markoman]

I give up....
Can someone tell me the meaning of B.U.F.F.?

[discostu]

I used to have similar thoughts about automated cars. Then I spent 24 hours in 15 days driving to and from Alamogordo NM because of a dieing father-in-law. All of a sudden I saw automated cars very differently. There’s a lot of potential to gain freedom with them, certainly it would ease transportation. I’d be fine losing the 10MPH or so I usually exceed the speed limit by to not have to put up with the overall boredom, part of the speeding is to try to get the trip done before the brain flatlines. Is there potential for abuse by the government? Of course, just like with everything else in the world. Does that mean it’s necessarily a bad idea? No.

[ArrogantBustard]

Big Ugly Fat XXXXXX Fellow

Or some similar word ...