when it comes to killing people.
The next generation drones will kill people based on software algorithms:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-auto-drone-20120126,0,740306.story
New drone has no pilot anywhere, so who's accountable?
LA Times]
The Navy's new drone being tested near Chesapeake Bay stretches the boundaries of technology: It's designed to land on the deck of an aircraft carrier, one of aviation's most difficult maneuvers.
What's even more remarkable is that it will do that not only without a pilot in the cockpit, but without a pilot at all.
The X-47B marks a paradigm shift in warfare, one that is likely to have far-reaching consequences. With the drone's ability to be flown autonomously by onboard computers, it could usher in an era when death and destruction can be dealt by machines operating semi-independently.
Although humans would program an autonomous drone's flight plan and could override its decisions, the prospect of heavily armed aircraft screaming through the skies without direct human control is unnerving to many.
Ya think?
All military services are moving toward greater automation with their robotic systems. Robotic armed submarines could one day stalk enemy waters, and automated tanks could engage soldiers on the battlefield.
"More aggressive robotry development could lead to deploying far fewer U.S. military personnel to other countries, achieving greater national security at a much lower cost and most importantly, greatly reduced casualties," aerospace pioneer Simon Ramo, who helped develop the intercontinental ballistic missile, wrote in his new book, "Let Robots Do the Dying."
Mandatory viewing for idiots developing these projects:
Terminator
Colossus: The Forbin Project
Fail Safe
War Games
Star Trek: Doomsday Machine
Star Trek: The Ultimate Computer
The Matrix
Battlestar Galactica (new series)
Alien
Blade Runner
I am sure folks here can suggest other titles.
And just to make sure you know this is where it is going, one last quote:
The X-47B will not only land itself, but will also know what kind of weapons it is carrying, when and where it needs to refuel with an aerial tanker, and whether there's a nearby threat, said Carl Johnson, Northrop's X-47B program manager. "It will do its own math and decide what it should do next."
Whether people live or die will soon be a math problem solved by a computer. Will Microsoft be the mother of SkyNet, or will it be Apple?
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