Sipsey Street Irregulars: Oh, great. 'Killer robots' to be debated at UN

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Oh, great. 'Killer robots' to be debated at UN

A killer robot is a fully autonomous weapon that can select and engage targets without any human intervention. They do not currently exist but advances in technology are bringing them closer to reality. Those in favour of killer robots believe the current laws of war may be sufficient to address any problems that might emerge if they are ever deployed, arguing that a moratorium, not an outright ban, should be called if this is not the case.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...: I thought Federal agents were killer robots? They certainly meet the criteria!; May 10, 2014 at 2:08 AM
MamaLiberty said...: Seems to overlook the fact that not all targets will be content to sit back and do nothing...

A serious threat some day? Sure, but not all powerful. What men can invent, other men can learn to overcome.; May 10, 2014 at 7:52 AM
Anonymous said...: I have written on this before, but technology's march always always and without exception favors guerrillas over government.

Don't worry. Those in FREEFOR are working on our own intelligent drones.

The same ICs that enable $300m government killbots by necessity must also be sold to Chinese toy manufacturers if the silicon fabs wish to recoup their investment in facilities and R&D.

Therefore, the resulting scenario that will occur with certainty is that the $50,000,000 govthug killbot patrolling your neighborhood is taken out in short order by a swarm of 50 repurposed Chinese children's toys costing $10 each.

We techies got this.; May 10, 2014 at 9:43 AM
Shawn McEwen said...: Yeah this seems like a great idea. Let's make warfare much more expensive and totally remove the human element on the battlefield simultaneously! What's the worst that could happen?

What I find hilarious about this whole thing is the line that says "Please prove you're not a robot" below my comment window.... crap.; May 10, 2014 at 1:03 PM
Toastrider said...: I would be slightly more worried if computer AI didn't continue to trip over its own feet like a drunken Ted Kennedy on the way to the bathroom.

Call me when Skynet becomes operational and starts churning out T-800 units.; May 10, 2014 at 3:35 PM
Unknown said...: One question that comes to mind, if you were the target of a killer robot,in an effort to defend yourself is there a more effective type of bullet/projectile designed for the destruction of metal and plastic verse tissue and organs.; May 10, 2014 at 6:41 PM
Anonymous said...: What we NEED is a practical, working man- (or at the very least vehicle) portable EMP device with a highly directional emitter. A directional EMP "gun" should be able to deliver electronics-lethal levels of EMR to a specific target without needing the enormous energies of an omni-directional device. Such a system would not be subject to inverse-square-law power density losses at increasing range such as are natural for omni-directional radiators.

Such devices should make excellent defenses against drones or even fully independent AI based systems. Additionally they should be useful to shut down comm gear at an enemy outpost immediately prior to a guerrilla attack. They could also play hob with aircraft avionics both in military aircraft and softer civilian aircraft.

All of this, I am well aware, spells romeo ... echo ... victor ... oscar ... lima ... uniform ... tango ... india ... oscar ... november; May 11, 2014 at 11:21 PM

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.

Sipsey Street Irregulars

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Oh, great. 'Killer robots' to be debated at UN

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