robogrunts- holy cr*p! the terminator is here!

C

chewie_nz

Banned
ORLANDO, Florida -- Hunting for guerillas, handling roadside bombs, crawling across the caves and crumbling towns of Afghanistan and Iraq -- all of that was just a start. Now, the Army is prepping its squad of robotic vehicles for a new set of assignments. And this time, they'll be carrying guns.

As early as March or April, 18 units of the Talon -- a model armed with automatic weapons -- are scheduled to report for duty in Iraq. Around the same time, the first prototypes of a new, unmanned ambulance should be ready for the Army to start testing. In a warren of hangar-sized hotel ballrooms in Orlando, military engineers this week showed off their next generation of robots, as they got the machines ready for the war zone.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,65885,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1

*********but here's what someone on a different forum posted in response;

Quote:
The future has not been written. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves. I wish I could believe that. My name is John Connor, they tried to murder me before I was born, when I was 13 they tried again. Machines from the future. Terminators. All my life my mother told me the storm was coming, Judgment Day, the beginning of the war between man and machines. Three billion lives vanished in an instant, and I would lead what was left of the human race to ultimate victory. It hasn't happened, no bombs fell, computers didn't take control, we stopped Judgment Day. I should feel safe, but I don't, so I live off the grid --- no phone, no address, no one and nothing can find me. I've erased all connections to the past, but as hard as I try I can't erase my dreams, my nightmares.


Quote:
The attack began at 6:18 PM, just like he said it would. Judgment Day - the day the human race was nearly destroyed by the weapons they built to protect them. The Terminator knew...he tried to tell us. But I didn't want to hear it. Our destiny was never to stop Judgment Day. It was merely to survive it. Maybe the future has been written, I don't know. All I know is what the Terminator taught me...never stop fighting, and I never will. The battle has just begun.
 
as long as we dont let them control everything, and if we control each of them, then 1) they wont be dangerous & 2) we wont be redundant.
 
Would be scarey huh?
A very very small rich human population that runs everything by means of machines and the rest of the people basically die out.
 
Those robogrunts look pretty vulnerable to me. Slow, awkward and very visible. Easy to avoid, go around and destroy on urban environment.
 
Same went with early combat planes of World War I. Couldn't carry much, broke apart if handled roughly...
Look at them now.
This is merely step one. And they're only going to be used for the "hey, go take a look" tasks. Basically it's no different from a recon robot, but it's been added a little something extra to defend itself.
 
Computers can be crashed and robots are basicly big computers, if a terrorist ever manage to create a good enough virus and we have done what congress wants us to " making 1/3 of land forces robotic." then we would be in trouble.
 
Well here's the thing. Lets say a battalion of them malfunction or something. What's your friendly casualty count? Still 0.
 
a wee update;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk wrote:
Pentagon prepares to build £70bn robot army

By Francis Harris in Washington

17/02/2005



The Pentagon is spending £70 billion on a programme to build heavily-armed robots for the battlefield in the hope that future wars will be fought without the loss of its soldiers' lives.

The scheme, known as Future Combat Systems, is the largest military contract in American history and will help to drive the defence budget up by almost 20 per cent to just over £265 billion in five years' time.

Much of the cash will be spent computerising the military, but the ultimate aim is to take members of the armed forces out of harm's way. They would be replaced by robots capable of hunting and killing America's enemies.

Gordon Johnson, of the US joint forces research centre, told the New York Times: "The American military will have these kinds of robots. It's not a question of 'if', it's a question of 'when'."

The American military is already planning units of about 2,000 men and 150 robots, among them land-based "infantry" devices and drone aircraft.

In the far future it is hoped that the miniaturised robots will walk like humans, or hover like some birds. Others may look like insects.

Scientists say that, working at full tilt, the process is likely to take at least 20 years.

Robert Finkelstein, the head of one development firm called Robotic Technologies, said the Pentagon has established the goal "but the path is not totally clear".

In the meantime, the military is developing simpler technologies.

The US military has already bought a tracked robot which can enter highly risky sites such as cave complexes favoured by al-Qa'eda.

The machines have been deployed in Afghanistan's caves, digging up roadside bombs in Iraq and guarding weapons storage sites.

The Swords robots come in several versions, carrying either a machine gun, grenade launcher or a light anti-tank weapon.

It is controlled by a soldier from a distance of up to 1,000 yards.

"We were sitting there firing single rounds and smacking bull's-eyes," said Staff Sergeant Santiago Tordillos, who helped to design and test the robot. "We were completely amazed.''

That human involvement has proved critical in convincing military lawyers that machines can be used on the battlefield. More advanced machines which can decide whether to kill would also be legal, said Mr Johnson.

"The lawyers tell me there are no prohibitions against robots making life-or-death decisions," he said.

The programme is already causing other nations to reassess their military priorities. Britain's Armed Forces in particular will need to follow the American lead if only because the two militaries fight together so often.

While the cost of the scheme is huge, it may ultimately save large sums of money. Professional soldiers, their dependants and pensions are pricey. Once robotic technology is developed, the Americans say, the cost of a robot soldier might be only 10 per cent that of its human counterpart.

A US navy research centre in San Diego has already produced a robot built to look like a human. At 4ft high, it has a gun on its right arm and a single eye and could shoot at a target.

One researcher, Jeff Grossman, said the intelligence of the machines was increasing. "Now, maybe, we're a mammal. We're trying to get to the level of a primate."

When researchers succeed, a number of troubling moral dilemmas will have to be addressed. Some in the American computer business are asking whether it is acceptable to have machines decide for themselves whether to take human life and what will happen when, inevitably, the robot makes a mistake.

Bill Joy, who helped to found Sun Microsystems, said 21st century machines could become "so powerful that they can spawn whole new classes of accidents and abuses".

• The US navy is to name its newest £1.3 billion hi-tech submarine the USS Jimmy Carter, in honour of the former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Mr Carter, the only president to have served as a submariner, will attend the launching ceremony for the 12,000 ton, 450ft vessel at the submarine base of New London on Saturday, with Rosalynn, his wife.



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wrobot17big.gif
 
Eventually.....


Who knows, in the end maybe what we'll see is a fusion of humans and machines. Computer assisted thinking where we'll have the creative mind of the human backed by the powerful arithmetic prowess of the computer.
 
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