Smart people can be real retards

There's this story here about the rise of autonomous military robots.

What struck me about this piece is a quote from University of Sheffield professor Noel Sharkey

...detachments that will include 150 soldiers and 2,000 robots.

The use of such devices by terrorists should be a serious concern, said Sharkey.

Captured robots would not be difficult to reverse engineer, and could easily replace suicide bombers as the weapon-of-choice. "I don't know why that has not happened already," he said.

But even more worrisome, he continued, is the subtle progression from the semi-autonomous military robots deployed today to fully independent killing machines [PA: the obligatory SkyNet reference]...

Putting on my thinking cap, I can think of several reasons why terrorists aren't using "suicide bomber" robots.

1. Morons are cheaper than robots
2. You need skilled labor to build robots. AK-47 firing skills aren't all that portable
3. You need a LOT of money, a lab, specialized materials, and lots of computer geeks to build a viable robots. Some Junkyard Wars contraption rattling down the streets of Baghdad or Paris strapped with a bomb vest tends to draw attention.
4. Robots need to be transported. COP: "Nice bomb-bot you got in the back seat sir. Taking that shiny new beauty out for its first trial eh?"

posted by Purp at 10:02 AM

| Access Comments