Kadath

Are we actually arming machines?

http://news.com.com/Army+to+deploy+r...l?tag=nefd.top

I checked Foster-Miller's website, and they link to Time and Wired, so it does appear to be. This worries me.

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kinsaj

yeah.. i saw something on the history or discovery channel... showed videos of launching the rockets.. some really cool-ass shit. The access codes are insane, so no big wories bout enemies controlling them

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boom

MrTuffPaws

Yeah, even the police have used robots with a shotgun on them. Wave of the future. We can bomb people over the internet.

Suave

Haha. The new casualties of war: on one month, 53 U.S. soldiers got carpal tunnel in the fiercest battle of the decade...

Lebell

Very real and not new.

They already have put missiles on ummanned drone aircraft.

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MSD

Better to have robots in teh line of fire than my friends in the military. Why does that worry you?

syquestrd270

I think the concern is that we will become insensitive to the horrors of war when we're not actually doing the killing with our own hands. Just another way to make it easier for people to kill without thinking... it's just (like) a video game.

dickdoc

SkyNet is here.

Kodega

Hmmm, hackers are the Army of the future it would seem. Still, isn't there a quote about war needing casualties least we grow to fond of it? I'm feeling to lazy to look it up.

Suave

Something along the lines of "It is best that war is so horrific, lest we grow too fond of it."
I butchered it a little, but that's fine.

jfelco

i guess movies like terminator and war games were no too far ahead...

socal

where can you get one?

Knoweffects

anyone ever read about stanley milgrens research? its alot easyer to do horrible things as long as you are not within the immediate area / view of the victim

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Coppertop

I agree that these are definitely not new. Police have used these robots for some time, armed with a shotgun, flashlight, camera and whatever else they need. Ditto on the unmanned drones armed with hellfire missiles and god knows what else. Go to this website to see videos of the future of this technology.

Moonduck

Nice Gen Lee quote, Suave!

Seen these before, been around a while. While I am admittedly nervous (and who wouldn't be that has seen Terminator?), I think they're cool as hell. Anything that helps us to accomplish the mission while allowing more of our boys and girls to come home is a Good Thing.

Taowulf

Our politicians have had this problem for years.

MageB420666

That is assuming that the future *enemies* don't have the same technologies as well. Wouldn't it be much better if wars were fought with only equipment casualties?

Of course as soon as that started happening, the control centers would be targeted so the technicians would start being killed, and then once the technicians are all hidden away where they can't be hit, the general populace will be targeted and WWII will seem like a minor skermish compared to the slaughter that will follow. Maybe this will finally teach us to stop fighting wars, but I doubt it.

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mkultra

One good thing about keeping people away from the danger themselves (aside from the obvious cheapness of a robot being damaged vs a human soldier dying) is that the person on the other end will be less likely to take actions that are uncalled for because of fear of their life. Example: The taped shooting of the Iraqi insurgent that went around a week or so ago, where they were clearing the house and the wounded guy started moving on the floor and got shot in the head. Which ever way you feel about it (that's another arguement entirely) I think its obvious if the soldier hadn't been in amped up on adrenaline and fear about the guy he would have been more likely to wait to see if he was a threat before shooting him. So the whole seperate from battle thing does have two sides to it. Also, since the whole thing is being run through a central system and is being taped/overseen by superiors there it is less likely that major war crimes can be commited by a 'lone nut' that slipped by the psych screen when he joined up. The guy on the computer starts acting wierd and shoots random non-combatants you just push a disconnect button instead of having to deal with them armed and in the war zone.

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Thermopyle

My god! its just like in Terminator!!!!!

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