Photo by Brian Westin (ProLithic 3D)
“Whatever distinctly human qualities war calls upon—honor, courage, solidarity, cruelty, and so forth—it might be useful to stop thinking of war in exclusively human terms. After all, certain species of ants wage war and computers can simulate “wars” that play themselves out on-screen without any human involvement. More generally, then, we should define war as a self-replicating pattern of activity that may or may not require human participation— Barbara Ehrenreich
I was watching TV pundit/editor of Mother Jones Magazine David Korn commenting on Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld’s botched Iraq war when he said, “…it’s almost like saying if we had an army of a million giant flying robots things would have turned out better. It’s denying reality… it’s all a giant experiment for them…” Those two ideas struck me; irresponsible, inexperienced leadership and a million robot army. A scary proposition, fast becoming a very real possibility.
DARPA is slowly crafting robots around the art of war. What is DARPA? The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency . DARPA funds an array of inventors and Scientists for the US government, developing high-tech weapons and machines such as drones. Some of the best robots under development are being created by Boston Dynamics who just unveiled The Atlas, a new humanoid robot. They also developed the Cheetah which holds the land speed record for robots and the Big Dog pack robot.
These robots may seem crude and awkward as they move through tunnels, trek up mountains, throw bricks, climb steps and fly in formation, but they represent the adaptation of technology to a disturbing purpose, navigating war zones, delivering payloads, entering enclosed structures and zapping the earth from the safety of the clouds.
Should we call a moratorium on the creation of lethal autonomous robotics? Christof Heyns, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, thinks so when he suggests, “Machines lack morality and mortality, and as a result should not have life and death powers over humans.”
Then there is Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics.
- A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
- A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
- A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
But could Asimov’s law be enforced? How can we stop a robot from being hacked or reprogrammed? And what about robots who learn, the classic SkyNet scenario from the Terminator movies where artificial intelligence develops its own agenda? Whether used creatively or destructively, Robot technology will no doubt be a perfect reflection of our own dreams and nightmares.
Ready or not, the robots are coming.
Atlas Robot created by Boston Dynamics:
