[extropy-chat] Re: The Hidden Luddite was Re: peak oil debate

Eugen Leitl eugen at leitl.org
Fri Sep 9 19:33:51 UTC 2005


On Fri, Sep 09, 2005 at 02:45:22PM -0400, mail at harveynewstrom.com wrote:

> I doubt this.  We saw examples in the Iraq war where we would bomb far-away 
> targets based on an anonymous tip only to find out that the tip was false 
> and that we just bombed friendlies.  I also doubt that any smarts will be 
> given to a robot to keep it from disobeying a direct order to attack just 

I understand with best current systems (which are distinct from a mere waldo)
there's still a human in the loop go give ACK/NACK to a fire request. (Do
they have a fire-at-will mode already? I hope not).

While it is easy enough to patch over, it is clear that the future
brings more and more autonomy to military hardware. Ultimatively, the 
systems will actively seek out and terminate targets specified by the 
command.

Without further checks and balances, whatever gets propagated down the
chain (tree) of command will be executed (pun intended), no questions asked.

From a certain point onwards, a fully automated state does no longer need
the citizens. It is perhaps fortunate that the private sector has an edge in technology 
so that particular scenario is overwhelmingly improbable.

Times change, though, when I discussed this 1987 while in the army,
people thought I was on crack.

> because it thinks the targets are not the enemy.  The military mindset is 
> more on enforcing the chain of command than allowing every soldier to think 
> for themselves.  This will even be more so when humans are commanding 
> machines. 

One thing the world doesn't need: executive automation.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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