A New Arms Race, Robot Style

Normally when you hear the term "Arms Race", the first thing that comes to mind is Nuclear Missiles and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. For me, the idea of the movie War Games comes to mind. One country fires missiles, another country counters those missiles by firing more missiles and eventually we all live in a nuclear winter, fighting off the mutated undead and eating cockroaches to stay alive.

But according to Professor Noel Sharkey, from the Royal United Services Institute Department of Computer Science, there is a new arms race underway, killer military robots.

The professor made the comments in a keynote address to the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). Indeed robot technology is being rapidly developed. Many nations are now involved in developing the technology for robot weapons, with the US Department of Defense (DoD) being the most significant player, according to Sharkey.

Robots are not new to war, as far back as World War II the Goliath Tracked Mine was developed by Germany, and used to blow up tanks and large infantry lines. The Goliath was radio controlled, it was operated by a human being.

In more current times, the United States uses Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and still under some development Unmanned Aerial Combat Vehicles (UACV). Both of these robots are basically run by an operator, miles from where it is actually being used, through very advanced radio controls and displays.

They may not have operators aboard them, but they always have a human being, a living person at the controls and making the ultimate decision.

Currently there is always a human in the loop to decide on the use of lethal force.

The difference with this arms race, is that current technology is removing the human element.

....this is set to change with the US giving priority to autonomous weapons - robots that will decide on where, when and who to kill, according to the professor.

Autonomous. Think Optimus Prime, Starscream and all the other Transformers.

The United States isn't the only country that is developing robots of this nature. Many of our Allies have joined in the aid to advance this technology. On the other side of that, countries that we hold strained relationships with are also developing the technology as fast as we are.

Others are now embarking on robot weapons programs in Europe and other allied countries such as Canada, South Korea, South Africa, Singapore and Israel. China, Russia and India are also embarking on the development of unmanned aerial combat vehicle.

China, whose infrastructure is quickly growing stronger, has the ability to keep up with the United States and it's allies in this war.

The US DoD report is unsure about the activity in China but admits that they have strong infrastructure capability for parallel developments in robot weapons

The only advantage we have with Chinese made military robots is, if they are anything like other products developed and sold from China, the robots will break the instant they hit U.S. soil. That may be one saving grace.

Believe it or not, there are Laws of War that require collateral damage to be kept to a minimum. The robots are being developed so that they will have the ability to decide whether or not a human is considered a hostile or an innocent. The robot will make the decision, there will be no human interaction. The Terminator movies and I, Robot don't seem so futuristic anymore.

The idea came to me, that this must cost millions if not billions of dollars to develop. That third world countries would never be able to keep up. But it is not so.

"With the current prices of robot construction falling dramatically and the availability of ready-made components for the amateur market, it wouldn't require a lot of skill to make autonomous robot weapons." Professor Sharkey is reluctant to explain how such robots could be made but he points out that a small GPS guided drone with autopilot could be made for about $200.

What this basically means is that the United States and other countries, friend or foe, could spend millions of dollars to make highly advanced robot soldiers, while terrorists could create and develop a basic robot, that could detonate without having to sacrifice their lives.

Unfortunately for $200, any terrorist could design, develop and build a robot. Anymore, parts for robots are pre-made and sold on the internet, very easily attainable. A terrorist could arm this robot and basically program it where to go, and when to detonate, without the loss of his own life. This makes this new technology extremely frightening.

This is an incredible time to be alive. We are about to reach an age where the human race can develop and implement robots to pretty much do anything we want. What saddens me is that we aren't developing robots to aid human beings and other countries, or to explore regions where humans can not yet go, we are developing a technology to eliminate and harm other human beings and countries. We are creating a technology to fight amongst each other with.

This also worries me for another reason. One of the hindering points of a war is the loss of human life, and the long term injuries of the human soldiers. This technology eliminates that point. My concern is that the decision to go to war will be made with less concern, due to there being no long term affects to human life, at least our soldiers.

It also bothers me that the conscience of a human entity is being taken out of war. Some human beings are bad enough, a non feeling robot would be worse, possibly. If a a military robot atrociously kills hundreds of innocent people, who is held accountable? Will that responsibility be passed off because it was a robot? Will a blanket pardon be given to the robots and the creators?

I am not a big fan of war. I sincerely wish that global science and technology would develop a cure for war, rather than implement new tools of destruction for war. Global science and technology has the ability to help so many in need, and we concentrate on showing dominance, not the desire to help. Unfortunately with the world that we live in today, everyone seems to be focusing on conquering rather than working together.

If you see DevilsReject building a bunker and storing canned foods, water and weapons in it, that means he read about the government implementing Skynet

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