So Much For The "First Law of Robotics"

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Kidicious
So we will all be reduced to finding the lost socks.

Sounds like you have the basis for a very lengthy literary trilogy and later film adaptation there.


Now find a small country in the southern hemisphere....

[The Mad Monk]

Raiders of the Lost Socks?

[Whoha]

His laws are pure fiction. There is nothing in silicon/iron/unobtainium that tells a machine not to harm/maim/kill a person. However, trusting a machine to make a good decision right now is quite foolish, so this probably won't go very far.

[chequita guevara]

You know, I really don't think autonomous killing machines are a good idea.

[St Leo]

ObSimpsons:
"The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea.
They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall
mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by
small robots. And as you go forth today remember always your duty is
clear: To build and maintain those robots. Thank you."

- Commandant, The Secret War of Lisa Simpsons

[FrostyBoy]

The bit about the dust sounds the most scary.

You wouldn't know if you were being attacked or not, before its too late.

[DaShi]

Originally posted by St Leo
ObSimpsons:
"The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea.
They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall
mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by
small robots. And as you go forth today remember always your duty is
clear: To build and maintain those robots. Thank you."

- Commandant, The Secret War of Lisa Simpsons

Leela: They say Zapp Brannigan single handedly saved the Octillion system from a horde of rampaging kill bots.
Fry: Wow!
Bender: A grim day for robotkind, eh, but we can always build more kill bots.

[:) Smiley]

They're developing the "smart dust" stuff a couple blocks away down on campus here, and right now the focus is on sensing. Prety much the idea behind it is a bunch of these miniature sensors with radios are dropped over an area to gather information. Getting the stuff to attack is way in the future.

[child of Thor]

It will probably be ok for our life-time, they are pretty primitive(they had one getting stuck in a bit of snow for example - so live somewhere cold ).

But after that all those movies/stories may come back to haunt our descendents? Maybe this is the reason for that free game 'America's Army' - get a load of kids already 'programed' to be used to simulating a soldier?

[OzzyKP]

America's Army

I am a virtual killing machine

[Immortal Wombat]

EMPs

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Immortal Wombat
EMPs

I wouldn't doubt they might start borrowing the technology NASA uses to build rad hardened electronics into their space probes and adapting it to shrug off EMPs.

[Dis]

edit: after completely reading the article, it seems they aren't true robots. just remotely controlled vehicles. big deal.

[Elok]

What, were you thinking Voltron, or just Terminator?

[Dr Strangelove]

Designing a robot that can distinguish between friend and foe (and lket's not ofget the neutral innocents too) will be quite a job.

Just out of curiosity, what will they use to power the "smart dust"? Sure they're small, but today's electric batteries aren't that powerful.