Poll: Armed Military Robotics

[BOOM headshot65]

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Crusher.

This 6-wheel drive, 6-ton behemoth is currently under development by DARPA, the high-tech R&D branch of the US Army. Currently, they are working on 3 varients of it: A high-speed ammo/supply carrier (so basically a robotic mule), an armored ambulance, and the one pictured, and armed tank.

"But wait, what is with all the cameras on the front?" you ask. Well, that is the thing. Crusher...is almost 100% autonomus. The only thing it needs from humans is maintainance and an objective. Other than that, it will formulate its own route, re-route itself it it comes across something 6 feet tall or 6 feet deep, and the armed version will have control over its own weapons.

Now, I may just be suffering from the "Terminator Complex" (yes, that is a real phrase), but when I hear about a robot that can basically think for itself and has command over its own weapons, I think we are getting dangerously close to this:

Spoiler: This being....

So, I want to know escapist, what is your view of Armed military robotics?


Mine, its pretty iffy. I have no problem with unarmed drones taking over some roles in the army. Bomb-disposel robots and recon drones are fine, but mostly because they wont be able to hurt people. Other than that, I think we should think VERY carefully before giving robots guns and missiles, ESPECIALLY if they are autonomus. I even have problems with Predator drones taking over air-strike roles usually held by strike fighters. Reasons:

1) People will care if a human dies: I know I am pro-intervention, but it is my belief that if robots did all the fighting, we would go into battle without even thinking about it. Because no one will care if a drone gets destroyed. It is just steel and money to most people.

2) A drone can be hacked: No matter how many firewalls you put around it, a drone is still a computer. That means ANYONE with enough skill can hack it...and then use it against us.

 

[Hal10k]

A military robot would only be a threat to non-combatants if it were to misidentify a target. Anybody who actually programs a robot with a "destroy humanity" feedback loop is just going to get what's coming to him.

1. You're dealing with hypotheticals; at the moment, sending in a robot is infinitely preferable to sending in actual living soldiers. It's easier to fix an autonomous tank than it is to fix a broken human.

2. If it's autonomous, than the only way it could be hacked remotely is if the designer was a monumental dunce. If it can be hacked by somebody standing next to it, then that person can keep it, because it obviously wasn't a very good combat vehicle in the first place.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I'd rather not have robots fighting... I just don't trust them, no sense of loyalty!

 

[Aur0ra145]

Don't we already? I thought some of our UAV's carry offensive weapons.

 

[BOOM headshot65]

Don't we already? I thought some of our UAV's carry offensive weapons.

Some do. But thier firepower is extremely limited and/or they are 100% human controlled.

Our first major one was the MQ-1 Predator Drone:

And now we are up-grading to the more well armed MQ-9 Reaper Drone:

However, both of these are under human control at all times, which I am ok with, so long as they have good anti-hacking systems. What I have a problem with is autonomus drones with guns.

 

[renegade7]

As long as the friend/foe identifier works, I don't see how it could go wrong.

Don't we already? I thought some of our UAV's carry offensive weapons.

I think these are mostly used for surveillance.

 

[Soviet Steve]

They'd turn all future military conflicts in favour of the stronger economic power, which would usually be the west, so I am quite keen on these. Imagine Vietnam if the US could just have chugged robots into South Vietnam for security purposes or have a few 'malfunctions' crossing into Laos or Cambodia wrecking havoc along VC supply routes.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Robots can't make moral decisions.

Let's say it's a robot flying a fighter jet.

What happens if they spot a terrorist hole that has toxic missiles, and there's a village right next to it. The robot won't go "wait...If I blow it up at long range like this, then the village will die, maybe I should call the superiors and send in a strike team instead...". No, the robot will go "target sighted. boom"

Or what if it mis-IDs someone as the enemy and shoots them?

Until we can teach robots to think like humans (....unlikely as all !@#$), then there is NO way that autonomous robots will EVER replace humans in war.

EDIT: Remote controlled bots, on the other hand are fine. There's still a human operating it.

 

[Hal10k]

Robots can't make moral decisions.

Let's say it's a robot flying a fighter jet.

What happens if they spot a terrorist hole that has toxic missiles, and there's a village right next to it. The robot won't go "wait...If I blow it up at long range like this, then the village will die, maybe I should call the superiors and send in a strike team instead...". No, the robot will go "target sighted. boom"

Or, if the robot has any semblance of decent programming, it will be able to recognize civilian targets and target & time its shots for minimum casualties. In extreme cases (say, 5+ civilians), the decision could be turned over to a handler at a base.

 

[GiglameshSoulEater]

Robots can't make moral decisions.

Let's say it's a robot flying a fighter jet.

What happens if they spot a terrorist hole that has toxic missiles, and there's a village right next to it. The robot won't go "wait...If I blow it up at long range like this, then the village will die, maybe I should call the superiors and send in a strike team instead...". No, the robot will go "target sighted. boom"

But most modern munitions are, to be honest, precise enough that it could destroy the hole without damaging the village. Or, more likely, it will flag a human decision maker, and will only react completely autonomous if it detects a direct threat.

Or what if it mis-IDs someone as the enemy and shoots them?

Well, human soldiers do that as well.. and in the recent case of the/those US soldier/s, on purpose. Robots wouldn't 'crack' under pressure like humans and can probably be made more precise than humans ever could be.

OT: No problems with robosoldiers. Roll out the Terminators!

 

[SlaveNumber23]

Only if the robots are controlled remotely by humans, otherwise you know, terminator.

 

[Esotera]

Considering the US military has only recently switched from using XP to Linux on its predator drones, I'm going to respond with a gigantic NOPE.

However, robots fighting robots is actually a very clever idea, and I hope it goes that way in the future. The whole point of war/conflict is to subject the enemy to your will, and contrary to public opinion this isn't necessarily focused on killing enemy combatants. I doubt robots could fully replace humans on the battlefield, but they could definitely fill a lot of roles with more development, and at the end of the day a machine can't currently feel emotion or pain.

 

[Muspelheim]

I'd... Prefer if there were still a human behind the controls in some base somewhere. If not directly controlling it, then at least keeping an eye on it, and prepared to take over manually when needed.

 

[JaceArveduin]

That looks like fun, I want one to be honest. It'd keep them pesky kids off ma lawn!

But yeah, I don't have any of the inhibitions like a few of the people here, and the fact they have no moral stipulations means they are likely to always get the job done.

 

[madster11]

I'd personally be more worried with the ambulance variant.

Any robot can shoot somebody, but if half my internal organs were hanging out i'd prefer if a human was driving me, so that they could go 'hey, that 4 foot deep hole wouldn't damage the vehicle but the person in the back might not appreciate having more of their organs moved to the outside of their body. Maybe i should go around.'

The robot would be all 'Not 6 foot deep? Fuck it then - *CRUNCH*'
And then it would wonder why the squishy human thing inside it just screamed so loud they deafened themselves and passed out.

 

[guidance]

YAYAYA robots, woo go them. You may be able to tell that I like robots. YAYAYA robots, woo go them.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

I can imagine a robot would be incredibly easy to outwit. And how is it supposed to tell civilians from combatants if the enemy aren't in uniform and hide their weapons? I can imagine a 'civilian' walking right up to one of these things and strapping a bomb to it.

 

[Andothul]

To be honest a robot has about the same chance of turning on or misidentifying targets than the soldiers do.