Totally mechanized infantry

[grumbler]

The thing about AI is that humans are pretty good at pattern recognition, whereas computers kind of suck at it. However, warfare has turned into something where humans aren't very good at pattern recognition either - how do you distinguish between a civilian and a terrorist when the terrorists are acting like civilians? However, if you've got totally mechanized infantry then you might be able to get away with giving them very stupid AI: if somebody shoots at your or at another robot then you incapacitate them (shoot them, taze them, stab them with your T-1000 knife-fingers, whatever), otherwise you don't. With a passive stupid AI you'll wind up with a lot of robots with bullet holes in them, but ideally you also wind up with far fewer US soldiers and foreign civilians with bullet holes in them.

That's actually a very good point, and one I hadn't considered before. Is it original?

[loinburger]

I doubt that it's original, but I can't remember where I'd have read/heard it before