Matt, I grant you your points, but they miss the my point. Where is this ultimately leading - to a superpower with the ability to kill its opponents without any risk to itself. This may be GREAT so long as you agree with and live under that superpower, but how about when things change for the worse? What if we get another Bush who lies to congress and wages unprovoked war with other nations, only next time with vast armies of robots ala *The Clone Wars*? Sure the kill rate will be almost perfect. Sure we can more accurately kill their heads of government without killing so many civilians along the way.
How about when you flee future U.S. tyranny, and your new destination becomes valued by the U.S. enough to send a bunch of robots in to seize it. Your last thought could be of the U.S. robot that is killing YOU. Oops, too late to reconsider where this is all going. Note in passing that our standard of living has been gradually declining as the wealth of the world is concentrated into fewer and fewer hands. Note in passing that the unemployment situation is looking bleaker and bleaker, with no prospect for improvement in sight. Do you REALLY want to concentrate SO much power in the hands of SUCH a dysfunctional government? If this doesn't work out well, what would be the options for improvement? This appears to be a one-way street with no exit. Steve ============= On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 7:55 AM, Mike Tintner <tint...@blueyonder.co.uk>wrote: > Steve:How about an international ban on the deployment of all unmanned > and automated weapons? > > You might as well ask for a ban on war (or, perhaps, aggression). I > strongly recommend reading the SciAm July 2010 issue on robotic warfare. The > US already operates from memory somewhere between 13,000 and 20,000 unmanned > weapons. "Unmanned war" (obviously with some but ever less human > supervision) IS the future of war. > > If you used a little lateral thinking, you'd realise that this may well be > a v.g. thing - let robots kill each other rather than humans - whoever's > robots win, wins the war. It would be interesting to compare Afghan./Vietnam > - I imagine the kill count is considerably down (but correct me) - *because* > of superior, more automated technology. > *agi* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/> | > Modify<https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;>Your Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com> > ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=8660244-6e7fb59c Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
