Readying Robots For War

In future wars, robots may drop from the sky by the hundreds from unmanned aircraft, swarming like giant insects over battlefields in coordinated, terrifying assaults.

"The best I can say at this point is the Army in general is aggressively looking at applying robots in all future operations." Col. Bruce Jette

Link: www.cbsnews.com...

all i need now is some emp grenades

The fact of a "Robot Wars" is quite capable in the near future. Honestly I promote a world with a Mecha battle, such as Gundam Wing, or Robotech or Bubblegum Crisis, on of the many Mecha animea's out there. We already have small robots (droids) that are armed with small arms fire, but mostly they are used for scouting at this moment. The fact that one day we might have a Death Scythe or a Heavy Arms running around makes my blood race with excitment.

However, I think that the thing to watch would be who will be *programming* these soulless mechs-o-death? What criteria will these programmers be given to program those 'bots on issues such as "amount of civilian deaths accetable or not" & "Which types of constructions will be considered as viable targets". Personally, I pity those who hear such news & immediately start thinking about similar games & cartoons...The real-world mecha battlefield isn't going to be anything like they portray in animae cartoons or manga comics.

A machine is only as smart as its programmer & a person who spends most of his time at a keyboard isn't likely to understand how to organize a program that will be dealing with the real world. For example, even if the 'bot is programmed with a list of enemy military units, how would the 'bot react when those units start using unconventional weaponry & seek to hide behind the populations of innnocent people (as some military units do now)? How could such a programmer foresee *every* type of battlefield situation so that he could "instruct" the 'bot on how to handle those situations?

Can we say, "Loose Cannon? I knew you could!"


[Edited on 18-1-2003 by MidnightDStroyer]

You�ve raised some excellent points of consideration MidnightDStroyer. I�m only guessing that the more sophisticated robots would have an interactive functionality and be remotely controlled by military personnel.

However, no weapons system is 100% failsafe and always able to separate lethal from safe targets, it will be interesting to see how the military goes about devising their control safeguards.

All the Best,
Deep