Pentagon hires British scientist to help build robot soldiers that 'won't commit war crimes'

[katty]

more:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3536943/Pentagon-hires-British-scientist-to-help-build-robot-soldiers-that-wont-commit-war-crimes.html

Pentagon hires British scientist to help build robot soldiers that 'won't commit war crimes'
The American military is planning to build robot soldiers that will not be able to commit war crimes like their human comrades in arms.

By Tim Shipman in Washington
Last Updated: 7:36AM GMT 01 Dec 2008

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. There's a few more billion...

Down the rathole. We *might* end up getting a new car washing technology out of it.

[yurbud]

15. they should spend the money on politicians who don't ORDER war crimes

[amdezurik]

2. well there would be one good part in this

if all the troops were 'robots" there is no way the ones giving orders could bump the blame down the ranks...

[eShirl]

3. because machines are not prosecutable?

they couldn't, by definition, commit a crime?

[laconicsax]

4. The picture below the break makes the article.

Pentagon hires British scientist to help build robot soldiers that 'won't commit war crimes'
The American military is planning to build robot soldiers that will not be able to commit war crimes like their human comrades in arms.


By Tim Shipman in Washington
Last Updated: 7:36AM GMT 01 Dec 2008


The Pentagon aims to develop 'ethical' robot soldiers, unlike the indiscriminate T-800 killers from the Terminator films

The US Army and Navy have both hired experts in the ethics of building machines to prevent the creation of an amoral Terminator-style killing machine that murders indiscriminately.

By 2010 the US will have invested $4 billion in a research programme into "autonomous systems", the military jargon for robots, on the basis that they would not succumb to fear or the desire for vengeance that afflicts frontline soldiers.

A British robotics expert has been recruited by the US Navy to advise them on building robots that do not violate the Geneva Conventions.

[FVZA_Colonel]

9. Man, it must be nice working for an editor who has enough of a sense of humor to let that by.

I can't imagine an American paper letting that happen.

[Joanne98]

5. There goes more jobs!

[Lautremont]

6. Exterminate!

[KatyaR]

7. Seriously--

can we call them Cybermen? Oh, wait, I think the BBC has a trademark on that name . . . .

[Fearless]

8. Could the gov't be MORE VAGUE?

Will it plant daisies?

[laconicsax]

10. It's a misleading headline.

They're dumping billions into research how to program ethical behavior based on the Geneva Conventions into a robot like this one:



They want to make sure it won't go on an indiscriminate killing rampage before they spend more money trying to build it.

[Fearless]

12. That's not a waste of money...

How about assembling a panel to decide if this is a good idea. Undoubtedly the fundies will want to create on to debate the ethics of creating humanlike robots. And they're probably going to want in on the first panel as well, so that might complicate things a bit.

NTF
:kick:

[Demeter]

11. Why Don't They Reread Asimov, For *** Sake?

Because killing people was a violation of the First Law!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_Robotics

In science fiction, the Three Laws of Robotics are a set of three rules written by Isaac Asimov, which almost all positronic robots appearing in his fiction must obey. Introduced in his 1942 short story "Runaround", although foreshadowed in a few earlier stories, the Laws state the following:

“ A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

[mopinko]

13. wont commit, or wont argue, wont tell, can't be prosecuted?

why don't i believe this story?

[Moochy]

14. There is absolutely no way

that this could go wrong...