Poll: Armed Military Robotics

[Heronblade]

So, I want to know escapist, what is your view of Armed military robotics?


Mine, its pretty iffy. I have no problem with unarmed drones taking over some roles in the army. Bomb-disposel robots and recon drones are fine, but mostly because they wont be able to hurt people. Other than that, I think we should think VERY carefully before giving robots guns and missiles, ESPECIALLY if they are autonomus. I even have problems with Predator drones taking over air-strike roles usually held by strike fighters. Reasons:

1) People will care if a human dies: I know I am pro-intervention, but it is my belief that if robots did all the fighting, we would go into battle without even thinking about it. Because no one will care if a drone gets destroyed. It is just steel and money to most people.

2) A drone can be hacked: No matter how many firewalls you put around it, a drone is still a computer. That means ANYONE with enough skill can hack it...and then use it against us.

1.) Even if no one dies, it would be far too expensive to just duke it out via drones every time you get ticked at someone. No, people will still go to war for the same reasons and at least approximately at the same rate.

2.) Done, right, no they can't. Let me put it this way, your typical computer is vulnerable on the internet because in order to work properly it must not only be able to transfer data back and forth, but follow the instructions embedded in that data, and be able to reconfigure its programming on the fly. A war drone however can easily be configured so that only certain commands are EVER accepted by remote, most likely by baking a specific set of hard-coded non-rewritable data drives for its main OS. FOF targeting, basic objectives, etc. would all be locked down to physical access only. A skilled hacker could shut it down by remote, or could tell it to change its course, but both actions will bring immediate attention from the machine's handlers and any forces in the region (with the machine squawking its position the whole time). In order to do anything more, the hacker would have to do the work while clinging to the back of the thing while on the battlefield.