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Just like with the transistor on a chip for computers, the internet,
and GPS satellites , robots are the next big thing the military
technologists are perfecting.<br>
<br>
I hate war as a reason for doing anything , but without the USA
military it is unlikely we would have developed the modern
technological world we do now at anywhere near the speed we have
without military applications to pay for the R&D and initial
field-testing.<br>
<br>
Ordinary business people just do not have the financially motivated
drive to start and finish these kind of mega-projects.<br>
<br>
The universal replacement for human physical bodies is perhaps 10-20
years away thanks to General Dynamics.<br>
<br>
Now if Kurzweil, Gates, Allen and Dell and a consortium of
biotech-based billionaires can convince these same guys that longer
lifespans and more durable human bodies are useful to enable
extended space voyages to successfully colonize other worlds,
beginning with the moon , that one might get the same mega-project
status.<br>
<br>
Or perhaps it will be a Chinese military project, as they seem to lack
the ethical timidity to undertake such things.<br>
<br>
<br>
-------- Original Message --------
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">Subject: </th>
<td>[extropy-chat] IHT: 'GI, Robot' rolls toward the battlefield</td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">Date: </th>
<td>Wed, 16 Feb 2005 15:16:19 +0100</td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">From: </th>
<td>Giu1i0 Pri5c0 <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:pgptag@gmail.com"><pgptag@gmail.com></a></td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">Reply-To: </th>
<td>Giu1i0 Pri5c0 <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:pgptag@gmail.com"><pgptag@gmail.com></a>, ExI chat list
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org"><extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org></a></td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">To: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:hitbangpost@googlegroups.com">hitbangpost@googlegroups.com</a>, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:transhumantech@yahoogroups.com">transhumantech@yahoogroups.com</a>,
ExI chat list <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org"><extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org></a></td>
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<br>
<pre>The robot soldier is coming. The Pentagon predicts that robots will be
a major fighting force in the American military in less than a decade,
hunting and killing enemies in combat. Robots are a crucial part of
the U.S. Army's effort to rebuild itself as a 21st-century fighting
force, and a $127 billion project called Future Combat Systems is the
biggest military contract in American history.
The military plans to invest tens of billions of dollars in automated
armed forces. The costs of that transformation will help drive the
Defense Department's budget up almost 20 percent, from a requested
$419.3 billion for next year to $502.3 billion in 2010, excluding the
costs of war. The annual cost of buying new weapons is scheduled to
rise 52 percent, to $118.6 billion from $78 billion.
Military planners say robot soldiers will think, see and react
increasingly like humans. In the beginning, they will be
remote-controlled, looking and acting like lethal toy trucks. As the
technology develops, they may take many shapes. And as their
intelligence grows, so will their autonomy.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/02/16/business/robot.html">http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/02/16/business/robot.html</a>
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