[extropy-chat] 70% oppose resumption of military conscription

Adrian Tymes wingcat at pacbell.net
Mon Jun 27 01:11:13 UTC 2005


--- The Avantguardian <avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Yes but while robot soldiers would be fine in a search
> and destroy mission or a pitched battle, they would be
> horrible for the mission in Iraq.

Actually, they might be even better in Iraq.  Limited power supplies?
No problem: a secure, mobile HQ/supply depot is always somewhere in
the city.  No identified combatants?  No problem: redundant systems
mean you can take a few shots and return fire after knowing where fire
is coming from (not to mention knowing you're under fire at all).

> Our mission in Iraq
> currently is more like humanitarian aid than war.

Raiders attacking unarmed supply convoys has been an ancient problem.
A remote-controlled robot convoy, once its remote operator determined
it was under attack and that only raiders were nearby, could blow it
up.  Maybe it'd take a few of the raiders with it; it'd definitely
deny the raiders of their objective (if the blast designers made sure
the cargo would be rendered useless).  Not an option with manned supply
convoys.

> We
> are not there to kill people and break things.

Solution: send out robot scouts that can afford not to fire first, even
when knowingly walking into an ambush.  Lose a 'bot, lose a 'bot.  Lose
a human being to trip a trap?  Not happening.

> We are
> there to build a democracy. I don't think the
> Terminator to be quite the olive branch we want to
> extend to the Iraqi people right now.

One of the lessons from the Terminator series is that it's not the
robot, it's the intelligence that controls the robot.  Robots can serve
and save humanity just like real people do, if their controllers wish
it.



More information about the extropy-chat mailing list