Will drones and remote-operated soldiers ala "Terminator" be good or bad?

[Delta4Embassy]

My concern with such technology isn't that they'll get smart, rise up, and wipe us out, but that as their use increases, the likelyhood of wars will too as the blood gets removed from the equation. If going to war doesn't put anyone's life at risk, there's little reason not to do it. Already seeing this in cyberwarfare with daily continuous attacks against the US. And though such warfare can result in human casualties if you disable infrastructure or open a floodgate unexpectedly, in general the nature of the fighting is mechanical vs mechanical.

Might be fast approaching a time for some kind of 'virtual warfare limitation treaty' with the other world powers like we did with nuclear weapons.

 

[Steven_R]

The goal isn't to take dead people out of war, it's to end risk to your own side. War didn't go away when we developed anti-ship missiles that could fire over the horizon or guns replaced blades or strategic bombing entered the scene. Drones will change the game, but the other side will use drones too and eventually just present a different target or objective to knock out.

Besides, at the end of the day, only infantry can take and hold real estate.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

The goal isn't to take dead people out of war, it's to end risk to your own side. War didn't go away when we developed anti-ship missiles that could fire over the horizon or guns replaced blades or strategic bombing entered the scene. Drones will change the game, but the other side will use drones too and eventually just present a different target or objective to knock out.

Besides, at the end of the day, only infantry can take and hold real estate.

Don't seem to go to war to secure real estate any more. Not since WWII. Seems more a punative thing now.

 

[Steven_R]

Just last week the Russians showed up with boots in the Crimea. The last 20+ years of the Middle East was a result of Saddam trying to annex Kuwait. South Vietnam was invaded by North Vietnam. Just because the US doesn't add to the map doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

 

[RandomVariable]

What will happen and what I would like to happen are always different futures. I would like to see drones take out strategic targets such as terrorists, drug labs, and such. The military transition into a more military-civilian role. Kosovo is something of a case study of the concept. Work is/was happening in the DRC which has had some real success. Its scale was way to small and I think it might not have been followed up. As I mentioned elsewhere a foreign policy is missing in this equation and until that is spelled out we are just shotting in the dark, at least we hope it is dark.

[Looking up Kosovo real quick to make sure I wasn't misstating something I see there are some who are drawing Kosovo-Crimea parallels which I think is a really poor analogy.]

 

[GHook93]

My concern with such technology isn't that they'll get smart, rise up, and wipe us out, but that as their use increases, the likelyhood of wars will too as the blood gets removed from the equation. If going to war doesn't put anyone's life at risk, there's little reason not to do it. Already seeing this in cyberwarfare with daily continuous attacks against the US. And though such warfare can result in human casualties if you disable infrastructure or open a floodgate unexpectedly, in general the nature of the fighting is mechanical vs mechanical.

Might be fast approaching a time for some kind of 'virtual warfare limitation treaty' with the other world powers like we did with nuclear weapons.

It won't be just robots fighting each other you mental midget. It will be robots taking out humans. Robots turning on their masters will be a real threat. One we should be wary of!

 

[JakeStarkey]

"drones and remote-operated soldiers ala "Terminator" [will be used for] good or bad"

Technology is moral sum zero, while humans are plus and minus.

 

[RandomVariable]

My concern with such technology isn't that they'll get smart, rise up, and wipe us out, but that as their use increases, the likelyhood of wars will too as the blood gets removed from the equation. If going to war doesn't put anyone's life at risk, there's little reason not to do it. Already seeing this in cyberwarfare with daily continuous attacks against the US. And though such warfare can result in human casualties if you disable infrastructure or open a floodgate unexpectedly, in general the nature of the fighting is mechanical vs mechanical.

Might be fast approaching a time for some kind of 'virtual warfare limitation treaty' with the other world powers like we did with nuclear weapons.

It won't be just robots fighting each other you mental midget. It will be robots taking out humans. Robots turning on their masters will be a real threat. One we should be wary of!

Given the fact that robots run on computer systems and they send and receive signals to their base the fact that they can be hacked and turned back on their original sender, or any other target, is a real possibility.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

My concern with such technology isn't that they'll get smart, rise up, and wipe us out, but that as their use increases, the likelyhood of wars will too as the blood gets removed from the equation. If going to war doesn't put anyone's life at risk, there's little reason not to do it. Already seeing this in cyberwarfare with daily continuous attacks against the US. And though such warfare can result in human casualties if you disable infrastructure or open a floodgate unexpectedly, in general the nature of the fighting is mechanical vs mechanical.

Might be fast approaching a time for some kind of 'virtual warfare limitation treaty' with the other world powers like we did with nuclear weapons.

It won't be just robots fighting each other you mental midget. It will be robots taking out humans. Robots turning on their masters will be a real threat. One we should be wary of!

Mental midget here is the guy who didn't think I was giving people some credit for understanding the fucking obvious. But thanks for playing.

 

[RandomVariable]

My concern with such technology isn't that they'll get smart, rise up, and wipe us out, but that as their use increases, the likelyhood of wars will too as the blood gets removed from the equation. If going to war doesn't put anyone's life at risk, there's little reason not to do it. Already seeing this in cyberwarfare with daily continuous attacks against the US. And though such warfare can result in human casualties if you disable infrastructure or open a floodgate unexpectedly, in general the nature of the fighting is mechanical vs mechanical.

Might be fast approaching a time for some kind of 'virtual warfare limitation treaty' with the other world powers like we did with nuclear weapons.

It won't be just robots fighting each other you mental midget. It will be robots taking out humans. Robots turning on their masters will be a real threat. One we should be wary of!

Mental midget here is the guy who didn't think I was giving people some credit for understanding the fucking obvious. But thanks for playing.

You two need a couple of drones.

 

[JakeStarkey]

It won't be just robots fighting each other you mental midget. It will be robots taking out humans. Robots turning on their masters will be a real threat. One we should be wary of!

Nobody suggested any such thing.

However, you can keep looking for space ships of apes that are coming to conquer us.

OK, your statement and mine are hyperbolic and useless.

So try again, please.

 

[JakeStarkey]

It won't be just robots fighting each other you mental midget. It will be robots taking out humans. Robots turning on their masters will be a real threat. One we should be wary of!

Mental midget here is the guy who didn't think I was giving people some credit for understanding the fucking obvious. But thanks for playing.

You two need a couple of drones.

The state police and state NG are developing drone technology to take out militia centers and drug labs.

Cutting edge stuff.

 

[RandomVariable]

Mental midget here is the guy who didn't think I was giving people some credit for understanding the fucking obvious. But thanks for playing.

You two need a couple of drones.

The state police and state NG are developing drone technology to take out militia centers and drug labs.

Cutting edge stuff.

I read about this a couple months ago in an article and looked it up to get my facts right. Found this:
On the Horizon: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

October 1988

On the Horizon: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
By James W. Canan
Senior Editor
The Pentagon is putting up $2.5 billion in earnest money to develop UAVs. The Air Force is dead serious about employing them—but in addition to, not instead of, manned aircraft.

During the Vietnam War, an Air Force reconnaissance drone lost power, came down in the Gulf of Tonkin, and stayed afloat. A heli*copter was sent out to retrieve the drone and the pictures it had taken of enemy targets. The chopper also failed, plopped into the drink, and began to sink.

Three crewmen clambered out of the foundering helicopter and clung to the bobbing drone until they were picked up by a US Navy ship. After they were brought aboard, a sailor who had witnessed their rescue asked them: "How did all you guys get into that little airplane in the first place?"

This story may be apocryphal, but it makes the point—people tend to think of aircraft as naturally con*taining humans.

...

 

[RandomVariable]

The drone was probably classified and they had to make up something. I would have loved to hear that one.

 

[Steven_R]

I, for one, would be thrilled if warfare was replaced with oversized versions of Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em Robots.

Maybe we could get all the government of the world to get rid of armies and navies and air forces and just settle international disputes with something like that tv show Robot Wars.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Where airplanes, tanks, machine guns????

Should we get rid of them??? As far as I am concern we can use drones for good and we can use them for bad. The three tools above can only be used for bad!