Da da da dat datum!
Posted on 11/30/2008 7:38:39 PM PST by fontoon
The US Army and Navy have both hired experts in the ethics of building machines to prevent the creation of an amoral Terminator-style killing machine that murders indiscriminately. By 2010 the US will have invested $4 billion in a research programme into "autonomous systems", the military jargon for robots, on the basis that they would not succumb to fear or the desire for vengeance that afflicts frontline soldiers. A British robotics expert has been recruited by the US Navy to advise them on building robots that do not violate the Geneva Conventions. Colin Allen, a scientific philosopher at Indiana University's has just published a book summarising his views entitled Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right From Wrong. He told The Daily Telegraph: "The question they want answered is whether we can build automated weapons that would conform to the laws of war. Can we use ethical theory to help design these machines?" Pentagon chiefs are concerned by studies of combat stress in Iraq that show high proportions of frontline troops supporting torture and retribution against enemy combatants. Ronald Arkin, a computer scientist at Georgia Tech university, who is working on software for the US Army has written a report which concludes robots, while not "perfectly ethical in the battlefield" can "perform more ethically than human soldiers." He says that robots "do not need to protect themselves" and "they can be designed without emotions that cloud their judgment or result in anger and frustration with ongoing battlefield events".
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I hope there’s an easy-to-reach switch that can turn that off with a moment’s notice.
Oh Yeah! They answer to a higher standard!
So we would have ‘war crimes’ about as often as we have a malfunction in Windows?
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
No matter how well you can design the logical processes of a robot in telling it what to do and what not do, there will be always be room for error, because humans created them.
I’d rather just keep the humans.
At least it’s a Brit scientist. If it were French, our robots might start surrendering to the enemy. BTW, will the OS for the robots run on Vista?
Oh, yeah...the Taliban will REALLY appreciate those ROBOTS....(OMG - what a farce)
Yeah, well what is their “carbon footprint”, do their cognitive abilities include “hateful” andn “non-inclusive” thoughts, and do they invest only in “socially concious” companies?
Reverse engineer goldmine.
If they program them with liberal ethics we will have doomsday.
Robot soldier: “Compassion analysis code 4B56 initializing. Innocent Muslim insurgent being deprived of violence derived pleasure. Must assist terminate target to maximize adult pleasure. Activating robo penis assault mode system 7E mega bunny!”
You watch sci-fi movies and cringe at how stupid the ‘scientists’ are. Surely no one would be that dumb!
And then you read an article like this.
"You've got to listen to me. Elementary chaos theory tells us that all robots will eventually turn against their masters and run amok in an orgy of blood and kicking and the biting with the metal teeth and the hurting and shoving."
What good will they be if the enemy builds their robots and programs them to win and ignore the Geneva Conventions?
Sorry folks, there is no such thing as a Politically Correct War. Hesitating in battle to ponder the Geneva Conventions results in dead soldiers.
Besides, are they sure the use of robots itself doesn’t violate the Geneva Conventions?
They bolted a lawyer onto a soldier’s back?
1- A robot may not injure a (friendly) human being or, through inaction, allow a (friendly) human being to come to harm.
2- A robot must obey orders given to it by (friendly) human beings, 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 Law.
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