H15023
Headlines : "War on Terror"Armed Robots on Patrol in Iraq
Many will recall the ominous opening sequence in Robocop when reading this story.
A robot of the sort commonly used for bomb disposal has been retooled to act as an armed patrol unit. Three such units have been deployed, and the military wants more (of course). They wield M249 rifles and are remotely controlled by a soldier through a terminal.
An eye-popping video of the robot in action is found on the Wired blog, where one commenter quipped, “I sincerely hope that these things constantly yell ‘EXTERMINATE... EXTERMINATE’ while they are active.”
The video is located here on YouTube.
[Posted By Beagle17]Republished from National Defense
The U.S. Army quietly entered a new era earlier this summer when it sent the first armed ground robots into action in Iraq.
So far, the robot army’s entrance into the war has been a trickle rather than an invasion.
Only three of the special weapons observation remote reconnaissance direct action system (SWORDS) have been deployed so far.
The Army has authorized the purchase of 80 more robots — which are being touted as a potentially life-saving technology — but acquisition officials have not come forth with the funding.
Posted by Beagle17
RSS here: feed43.com/beagle17.xml Grew up in Nova Scotia. Hold BSc. in Biology and Grad. Diploma Journalism. Moved to Korea in 1997, and Taiwan in 1999. Currently teaching, writing, and doing Web design. Concerned about depleted uranium, Islamophobia,...
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that doesn’t look like it could withstand a hit from an RPG, or a few baseball bats, for that matter.
I hope these things get a fatwa sooner or later.
remember these things? How long till they get guns too?
America’s Robot Army
I think its becoming clear that Americans are going to have to DO something to stop our military industrial complex. Either that or look forward to an armed robotic bear climbing the stairs to your apartment, demanding you pay your overdue parking tickets.
RON PAUL 2008
or plan B:
Seriously though, let’s put an end to this nonsense.
I have that book, and despite the comical/ fictional pretense its actually very helpful if you no nothing about robotics.
“which are being touted as a potentially life-saving technology” This could be true, given that robots will recxord everything… less racist outbursts and dead civvies in warzones?
I wonder how successful these things will be. The tech looks good on paper, but IEDs can hurt tanks and APCs wont they eat these things up, these things which probably cost more than tanks and APCs? How much money are we going to spend on building crazy things that are subpar to what we already have (tanks and APCs). I realize the “sniper alley” scenario might be tough for a tank, but isnt it US policy to take out a building if that is the case? Or give the soldiers safety with artillery backing?
Will they call piloting these things “video game duty”?
on a side note, this IS the Dalek forerunner. They probably will yell something like that, and if they dont, it wont be long until pranksters duct tape a karaoke machine to the side and do it themselves.
I wonder how long until the AI software in these things rate better performance than human pilots from afar?
THE UNITED STATES ARMY FIELD MANUAL
The Law of Land Warfare, 1956
2. Purposes of the Law of War
The conduct of armed hostilities on land is regulated by the law of land warfare which is both written and unwritten. It is inspired by the desire to diminish the evils of war by:
a. Protecting both combatants and non-combatants from unnecessary suffering; b. Safeguarding certain fundamental human rights of persons who fall into the hands of the enemy, particularly prisoners of war, the wounded and sick, and civilians; and c. Facilitating the restoration of peace….Can a robot show mercy? The reason why it is men and women fighting on the ground is based on their ability to abide per see with the code of conduct.
Sending in robots will deteriorate what little restraint combatants still have.
I pity a US soldier being taken prisoner after these have taken lives.
We’re talking “operators”. Anyone who read the accounts of B52 crews after their bombing runs on North Vietnam, heard about the dissociation from the actual events taking place on “the ground”. Pilots were flying at such high altitude and were so isolated they couldn’t see what they were causing; it was abstract for them.
Peace
bacchus—
what do you propose be done to stop the “complex”? only reason i ask is that nothing has ever worked before.
you might like the doc “why we fight”.
i’ll keep a homemade EMP zapper at my front door just in case robobear comes a’knocking.
All you can do is be a good citizen and don’t frequent websites like this.
Oh, and make sure to pay your taxes, and be white.
You’ll be ok.
No one ever straps heavy explosives to themselves and takes a stroll on Capital hill…
I’ve never really understood why…
Becuase there is still stuff to see on tv.
I’ve never really understood why…
What good is a false flag if it killz all yer puppetz.
What do we do? I think there are three steps;
1. Use the internet & face to face conversations to bypass the media & wake people up. Thomas Paine did more for the Revolution than Washington, and the internet is the new printing press, as movies like this demonstrate.
2. Reclaim the right to vote. It’s our duty to take baseball bats to any voting machines that are being used to rig elections. Direct action would be more useful here than on a D.C. sidewalk. Remember the Boston Tea Party? No Taxation without Representation!
3. Once we have free-flowing information (already happening) and elections we can trust, it’s just a question of giving enough people hope that a politician can win who’s not a member of the War Party (Ron Paul®, Mike Gravel (D), Kucinich (D), or a third party candidate like Nader (G) all fit the bill).
Of course it wouldn’t stop with electing a non-fascist, but that’s a prerequisite for positive change.
I’m not talking about converting Bush supporters here, I’m talking about giving the pissed off majority of Americans who never vote or protest enough hope to see an alternative as possible. People’s attitudes are changing drastically, and people are starting to see through the lies, so I think it’s possible. Plus, we’re talking about a future where the government takes more than half of your money every year to spy on you and build robo-death-bears, how hard is it to come up with a better model?Hope. Good word.
I’ve ordered a copy of How To Survive a Robot Uprising, thanks for the tip.
Subjects include but are not limited to :
How to spot a hostile robot.
How to escape a humanoid robot.
How to survive a car chase with an unmanned ground vehicle.
How to escape a robot swarm
How to escape from a smarthouse
How to thwart robot spies.
How to fool face recognition.
I wonder if it’s been translated into Arabic.
The author is a Ph.D. candidate at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University.
Cojones. Better word.
Simply awesome. Just put some flying cameras around the city filming the battlebots and we can watch as they clean sweep the city. They could put it on pay-per-view and get some of the costs back.
Why not virtual reality goggles and cable channels. You’re on to something here …
Although there’s a lot of funnies you could crack at this development, in all seriousness it’s a fucking worry. A malfunctioning robot guns down a bus full of schoolchildren – gee, it’s tragic but you’ve gotta expect ‘teething problems’, don’t you?
No-one to blame here, folks.
I know that this happens in Iraq anyway, but if you remove the human factor even further, the likelihood of things going hideously wrong can only increase. I hate those bastards at DAARPA, I honestly do…
I suggest a very good short sci-fi novel that pictures an operator only US waged war.
Forever Peace,
by Joe Haldeman
That novel was really, really interesting.