That is the "beauty" of computers in the equations. You send in the robots and monitor them from a very very safe distance or even send the robots on their own and the body count goes down dramatically. At least the bodies on the side of the robots. The other side is going to lose some bodies until they start to apply their own robots. Strange as it may seem then the terrorists seem to have unlimited resources and can buy bombs and the latest technologies. So developing better and better weapons come back to haunt us in the end. So it is important to think about how the software is used. I know that one of the first APL application I got to know and is probably still probably the most successful APL application there is was not intended to be used for bad purposes. When the developer found out that it was being used for what he considered bad purposes he stopped working on it. You can not always control who uses your products.
2010/2/8 Matthew Brand <[email protected]>: > "When one side of a conflict has weapons of superior quality they tend to > win." > > I'm no expert, but it appears true only if you define winning by "highest > body-count". Most modern conflicts, not battles, seem to be won by the side > with the least developed technology. They suffer much higher personnel > losses but they appear to win in the end. > > > > > > > > On 8 February 2010 13:18, Robert Raschke <[email protected]> wrote: > >> 2010/2/8 Björn Helgason <[email protected]> >> >> > It is pretty obvious that software is taking over more and more. >> > In many systems people trust the software more than humans. >> > There are humans making those software and they are more or less very >> > often buggy. >> > Humans make mistakes. >> > There are millions of computer instructions and as we know there are >> > often bugs in the code. >> > When one side of a conflict has weapons of superior quality they tend to >> > win. >> > After some time the other side will get the same or similar weapons. >> > What happens then. >> > Some of these weapons are very sophisticated and expensive. >> > Some are very small and inexpensive. >> > Many of them are bound to get into the wrong hands. >> > It is scary to read that a number of clever people stand around and >> > let a computer system make deadly decision made on inferior deductions >> > like the one when they shot down the passenger plane. >> > The system was not even in automatic mode. >> > It is a bit strange to see that much of the sci-fi movies seem to be >> > coming alive. >> > It is interesting to think about all the good things our software and >> > computer systems can do for us. >> > It is also a bit scary to see what they can do if they are used against >> us. >> > The people who are willing to have an operation to put a bomb inside >> > their bodies and blow themselves up in order to kill others as well is >> > a scary situation. >> > This technology in their hands is very very scary. >> > >> > What has this got to do with J ? >> > I have no idea. >> > Has this anything to do with C ? >> > >> > Who really cares what computer language is used to control bombs? >> > >> > >> Here's one of the good impacts of software and computers: >> >> >> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7013967.ece >> >> The interesting stuff (about fly-by-wire) starts on page 3 near the bottom. >> >> Robby >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm -- Björn Helgason, Verkfræðingur Fornustekkum II 781 Hornafirði Po Box 127,801 Selfoss , t-póst: [email protected] gsm: +3546985532 sími: +3544781286 http://groups.google.com/group/J-Programming Tæknikunnátta höndlar hið flókna, sköpunargáfa er meistari einfaldleikans góður kennari getur stigið á tær án þess að glansinn fari af skónum /|_ .-----------------------------------. ,' .\ / | Með léttri lund verður | ,--' _,' | Dagurinn í dag | / / | Enn betri en gærdagurinn | ( -. | `-----------------------------------' | ) | (\_ _/) (`-. '--.) (='.'=) ♖♘♗♕♔♙ `. )----' (")_(") ☃☠ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
