Your opinions on killer robots wanted!

[sabotabby]

Opinion Survey on the Use of Robots Capable of Lethal Force in Warfare!

Sample question:

45. Please list any specific issues or concerns that were not addressed in this survey that you may have with the potential military use of robots capable of taking human life. Be as specific as possible.

Sample responses:

• Making it easier for the U.S. to start wars without risking backlash over soldiers' deaths.

• Robot overlords starting wars on their own accord and turning us into their slaves.

Post your issues and concerns here!

(Hat tip: krinndnz.)

Comments

[ironed_orchid]

Mammas, don't let your babiez grow up to be batteries for robot overlords!

[threeliesforone.livejournal.com]

hello! does no one watch battlestar galactica?

heh.

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

Man, if killer robots looked like Boomer and Six, I'd be joining on the side of the killer robots LIKE THAT! *snaps fingers*

Mmmm. Killer robots.

[peterbilt-47.livejournal.com]

There was also a thing on NPR the other day about doctors & neuroscientists figuring out a way to hotwire prosthetic robot limbs directly into an amputee's nervous system, so they could, in effect, be a bionic man/woman with stength of ten ox. Or whatever.

I believe it's been prototyped on Cheney. His body will die, but his evil brain will live on to control a terminator-like exoskeleton.

[fannishnonsense]

Well, now I'm gonna have nightmares.

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

I think the biggest issues with robots won't that they'll be used as killing machines. All machines eventually get used as killing machines, unfortunately.

What concerns me the most is what will happen as human labor becomes increasingly irrelevant. Already in America 75% of people are in service jobs, most of them low level, like burger flipping. What happens to us, to people, when it becomes cheaper to buy a robot to do that labor than pay a person to do it?

The second issue is very BSG, hehe. What happens when we are more sexually attracted to robots than to people? When AIs get good enough, and robots defeat the uncanny divide, that a robot is a much better partner and lover than a real person could ever be?

[queerasmoi.livejournal.com]

er, I meant to post that burger/salad question in this thread.

[esizzle.livejournal.com]

I think it would be a great world if human labour was irrelevant, than we would have more time to do creative tasks and knowledge-based work instead of living like drones for 8 hours a day. This would save the burger-flipping to dinner time when we are preparing for dinner with a loved-one instead of having it as a mind-less career. Not to mention how much cheaper everything would be if we had solar powered robots doing all this work instead of slow innefficient carbon-fuel-based humans (sweaty and smelly ones that spit in your food for that matter!).

In my belief, however, I don't think that robots will ever take away human labour jobs but will only replace them. Instead of flipping burgers we are punching numbers into a commputer screen all day, for example.

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

Soon, and they're training computers and robots to do this, I suspect that other than for creative labor, even those jobs will simply . . . go away, and be totally mechanized. Indeed, I expect to live to see the day when computers and robots replace even creative labor.

I HOPE that the robotic revolution will mean we get to do what we want, when we want it, but in the current economic paradigm? No, I don't think so.

[queerasmoi.livejournal.com]

An interesting question... I wonder, will a robot sooner be able to learn how to flip my burger, or to toss my salad?

Okay that's pretty bottom-of-the-barrel.

[mistersmearcase.livejournal.com]

Hm, salad as sexual terminology I'm familiar with but "flip my burger"?

[queerasmoi.livejournal.com]

Didn't have to be sexual, but virtually any "verb my noun" combination can sound sexual if you want it to. You gave an example of food and sex, and I gave an example of, well, two examples.

[mistersmearcase.livejournal.com]

Oh ok, because "toss my salad" actually has a reasonably commonly used sexual meaning, so I assumed flip my burger did too.

[queerasmoi.livejournal.com]

lol sometimes when you open up a joke for too long it just decomposes. Like a banana.

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

LOL. The honest answer to your question? I suspect in 20 to 50 years we'll see the first popular sexbots. And in 5 to 10 years I suspect we'll see fully automated fast food joints. ;)

[esizzle.livejournal.com]

wow, i waited my whole life for someone to need my opinion on killer robots!

[livingfossil.livejournal.com]

Will the energy needed for killer robots be drawn from the same pool that provides the juice for myspace? If so, what can I do to make sure that I can still be connected with my friends during war time?

[jhfurnish.livejournal.com]

Even the North Koreans have a credible program in the works for robotic soldiers. This is something many nations are working on, and America's been working on it for a very long time. It's on its way. Not only has America already fielded several different kinds of independent robotic platforms in combat, but more are coming, some of which will indeed replace infantry troops and tank crews. This is no joke and there's nothing fictional about it.

Will these things eventually become intelligent enough to do a Skynet on us, and unleash Terminators on the human race? I cannot say one way or another. It's been predicted so many times for more than a century now, I can't imagine it's impossible. It would certainly be poetic justice.

Expect robot troops; they'll be hovering affairs with mini-heli blades whirring on the top, with cameras and machineguns. They already have remote-controlled versions of these things aloft. The robotized, self-directed variety are only a short way behind them.

[spacemind67.livejournal.com]

Apparently they do that type of research at Virginia Tech where the killings were. I know they were in a partnership with Caterpillar at one point involving robotic sensors or something. A couple months ago I stumbled upon this scary conspiracy page about the robotic demeanor of the killer--yikes!

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=6409

[terry-terrible.livejournal.com]

Robot overlords starting wars on their own accord and turning us into their slaves.

I've always have been paranoid since seeing Terminator when I was kid! It's going to happen you know. Either that or vampire zombies!

[montreality.livejournal.com]

Hey sabo, I have a couple of questions for you about TO since I am most probably moving there in the fall.

I'm looking for apartments right now. How's the area around the Victoria Park subway station like? (safe, shady, etc.)

Also, is there a student price for the TTC metro pass, or do university students pay the adult far (that is around 90 bucks)? And would the pass include both subway and buses?

I'd appreciate any tips you can give me on areas to avoid and areas that are safe and relatively inexpensive (I'm looking through apartment listings and the prices are making me want to cry).

Thanks!

[sabotabby]

Hey, that's awesome! We should hang out when you get here.

Victoria Park is waaaay out there—practically in Scarborough. I have no idea what the neighbourhood's like. If the place is near the station, though, it's on a direct route downtown.

The student pass is only for high school students (@#$%!). I am very bitter about this. But it includes both subway and buses.

Oh yeah, apartment prices, especially compared to Montréal, are enough to make you bawl. Have you checked out Campus Co-op? That was where I lived when I first moved here.

[montreality.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info. I heard a long time ago that Scarborough is kinda shady, or parts of it, anyway. I'm going to Toronto on Sunday and leaving on Monday for some interviews, so while I'm there I'm going to check out the apartment that I found near Victoria Park. I'm really only going because the guy told me I'm "on the top of [his] list" so I would feel guilty if I don't take a look :-/

Campus Co-op sounds awesome, except that I have a dog and I'm not willing to give her up. That's why I'd prefer a 1-bedroom because it's rare that you find people willing to share an apartment with dogs in it.

I'm going to go back to TO at a later date and we should definitely meet up.. my schedule is kinda packed this visit, but I'd love to meet you next time I'm there :)

[lopukhov.livejournal.com]

Can we post photos in our responses?

[sabotabby]

Please do.