By Peter Cochrane, 7 August 2007 10:43
COMMENT
Written at a quiet café on the outskirts of Cambridge, UK and dispatched to silicon.com via a corporate WLAN
Even before I was born the 'Three Laws of Robotics' had been voiced by Isaac Asimov through his short stories and debated by philosophers.
At the time it all seemed pretty academic and soundly in the realms of science fiction. But soon World War Two, the invention of the transistor, the space race and the arrival of the microprocessor quickly made it all very real.
Today the production of just about everything we eat, wear, use and interact with involves robots - a lot of robots! So fast has the transformation been that we have not, by and large, bothered to invoke any laws to ensure that safety of man over machine which Asimov outlined. In the meantime the sci-fi industry, with Hollywood's help, has had a ball with robot-based stories such as Terminator, I, Robot et al.
In the real world we don't have to look far to find the more sinister side of these invaluable and all-human-life-supporting machines. A couple of years ago I first encountered a robotic mine destroyer that looked very similar to an intelligent torpedo.
More recently there has been the terrestrial version. This looks something like a small lawn mower, sans handle and tether, and can be used to locate land mines or targets. It can also be used as a mobile land mine. In the extreme these can be designed to roam through buildings and search caves and battlefields for anything giving a healthy infrared signature. Then they just 'cuddle up' and explode!
Last month it was revealed that the first flying remotely operated vehicle (ROV) with guns had been given operational status in an arena of war.
This week I came across the first land based ROVs to be deployed with guns and rocket launchers. See related news stories here, here and here.
So what happens next? I reckon the human will soon be removed from the loop altogether and these devices will be let free to hunt down prey and autonomously make the decision of whether their victim lives or dies on the battlefield.
We might well also see them shouldering some responsibility for civil policing in cities and problem areas. When all this happens we should remember: we gave them the guns; we chose to arm them; and we chose to ignore Asimov's rules.
Comments
There are 12 comments. Join the discussion
1. Captain Sensible
Its the difference beween intelligence and wisdom.
You have to be clever to be able to build AI killing machines ... but stupid to do it.
Understandably, we don't like our human soldiers killing or being killed ...... but delegating killing to machines solves the wrong problem.
2. Karen Challinor
depressing thought isn't it
the military seem to want to turn warfare into an arcade game and remove the horror from the event, probably because it upsets the soldiers and a soldier who is upset won't necessarily follow orders they might not agree with
once conscience and human emotion is removed from the equation, once the enemy is dehumanised, depersonalised and reduced to a few pixels on a screen it's so much easier to kill them
especially if you don't have to look at the dead bodies afterwards
3. Stuart Fawcett
Its great to be philanthropic with our own resources, but when your driven by any motive beyond your own direct control you justify extremes. Whether the motive is a private army to protect a companies investment in natural resources against locals, advantage on the battle field, local terrorism or altruistic policing in difficult situations. Isn’t this our constant dilemma – amplify injustice to justify greed & power, or balance the freedom of all to fairly develop positive potential for the world as a whole. Maybe for as long as the machines don’t have emotion they are at least only guilty of following our instruction.
4. Richard
Imagine "war robots" which become faulty, subverted... or frightened!
The curse of the unexploded landmines which litter so many countries would be trivial compared with an infestation of "war robots."
Just imagine an infested area where such devices lurk for years or even decades, waiting to ambush their prey.
-----
Sadly, TV reports have made war into a nightly entertainment:
All the excitement; none of the pain; none of the horror... none of the reality.
5. Alex
Armed, remotely operated aircraft have been operational since at least 2002.
6. Peter Cochrane
Captain Sensible = In all the goodness (and there is so much) that humanity holds, there is this self destructive streak that persists. Perhaps one day it will all come to reasonable end. My take is that total globalization might just do it. It is pretty difficult to have a war with another country when they supply all your underwear! Peter
7. Peter Cochrane
Karen = It all started with catapults and we have just become more and more sophisticated over thousands of years....Peter
8. Peter Cochrane
Stuart = I think I would add that it goes with distributed responsibility and only having to deal with a fraction of the problem at a time. Peter
9. Peter Cochrane
Richard = And it will happen....it always does! Peter
10. Peter Cochrane
Alex = Yep - but not in squadrons. Experiments of this kind go way back to WWII. The next step will be autonomy! Peter
11. Chris Stevens
Many great inventions have been developed as a consequence of military need and funding. Take for example the DARPA funding of the internet or the massive ramp up of production of penicillin for the World War.
Man has been inventing weapons since the stone age and no bleating from the comfortable middle class is going to change that reality.
12. Euan McMaster
So what happens when the "other side" has autonomous robots as well ? Will wars come down to pure economics - who can afford the larger number of robots.