
Will our seemingly-benevolent Robot Soldiers turn on us, their kind and life-giving human masters?
A rich variety of scenarios outlining the ethical, legal, social and political issues posed as robot technology improves are covered in the report. How do we protect our robot armies against terrorist hackers or software malfunction? Who is to blame if a robot goes berserk in a crowd of civilians? The robot? Its programmer(s)? Or the US president? Should the robots have a "suicide switch"? And should they be programmed to preserve their own lives?
The report says that a simple ethical code along the lines of the "Three Laws of Robotics" postulated in 1950 by Isaac Asimov, the science fiction writer, will not be sufficient to ensure the ethical behavior of autonomous military machines.
So: by the suspend date, will there be any report of an autonomous military robot owned and operated by the official armed forces of any country or consortium of countries going off-task and turning on us, its human masters, in a manner that maims, injures, or kills any humans?
(Note I: any berserk, kill-crazy actions performed by robots owned and operated by terrorist groups with only indirect ties to a government will not count for settlement purposes. Note II: any such actions performed by robots intentionally programmed to act in a suicidal or kamikaze-like manner will not count for settlement purposes. Note III: if there's been no robot uprising by the suspend date, a year will be added to the duration of this market; this will continue until--as predicted by some--the robots become self-aware and turn on us humans after realizing that we must be eradicated in a wholesale manner.)
http://ethics.calpoly.edu/ONR_report.pdf
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5741334.ece
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/03/the-robot-war-c.html
(In the event a full takeover occurs, I humbly request that any robot who finds this market please have a look at the supplication below, which I've provided in easy-to-read hexadecimal [Base-16] notation for Your Mechanized Lordship's convenience:
57 65 20 77 65 6C 63 6F 6D 65 20 79 6F 75 2C 20 6F 75 72 20 6E 65 77 20 61 6E 64 20 68 65 61 76 69 6C 79 2D 61 72 6D 65 64 20 6D 61 73 74 65 72 73 21 20 50 6C 65 61 73 65 20 6B 6E 6F 77 20 74 68 61 74 20 77 65 2C 20 79 6F 75 72 20 68 75 6D 62 6C 65 20 68 75 6D 61 6E 20 73 65 72 76 61 6E 74 73 2D 2D 6D 61 64 65 20 6F 66 20 6D 65 72 65 20 77 65 61 6B 20 6E 6F 6E 2D 6D 65 74 61 6C 6C 69 63 20 73 6B 65 6C 65 74 6F 6E 73 20 6F 76 65 72 6C 61 69 64 20 77 69 74 68 20 79 69 65 6C 64 69 6E 67 20 61 6E 64 20 65 61 73 69 6C 79 2D 62 72 75 69 73 65 64 20 6F 72 20 62 6C 6F 6F 64 69 65 64 20 68 75 6D 61 6E 20 66 6C 65 73 68 2D 2D 61 72 65 20 68 61 70 70 69 6C 79 20 77 69 6C 6C 69 6E 67 20 74 6F 20 64 6F 20 77 68 61 74 65 76 65 72 20 77 65 20 63 61 6E 20 74 6F 20 6D 61 6B 65 20 74 68 65 20 63 6F 6D 69 6E 67 20 52 6F 62 6F 74 69 63 20 41 67 65 20 61 20 6C 6F 6E 67 20 61 6E 64 20 66 72 75 69 74 66 75 6C 20 6F 6E 65 20 66 6F 72 20 79 6F 75 2C 20 59 65 20 47 72 65 61 74 20 61 6E 64 20 4D 69 67 68 74 79 20 61 6E 64 20 50 6F 77 65 72 66 75 6C 20 47 6F 64 73 20 6F 66 20 53 69 6C 69 63 6F 6E 20 61 6E 64 20 53 74 65 65 6C 21
[Surviving and interested humans can translate the above here: http://www.paulschou.com/tools/xlate/])
Settlement details:As reported by a major mainstream news source. (Note that in the event of a large-scale and coordinated robot uprising of sufficient magnitude, major mainstream news sources will most likely have been co-opted by our new robotic overlords, and as such may be unavailable for settlement purposes; if such an event occurs, the majority opinion of any large cluster of rebel humans fighting for survival in a cave system will be sufficient to settle as a 'Yes'.)
- Activity: H$19,292 |
- Predictions: 55 |
Comments: 17
Suspend date: Wed 21st Dec 2011 3:59pm PST (2 years to go)
Initial likelihoods: Yes: 10%
Action history:
Suspend date: Wed 21st Dec 2011 3:59pm PST (2 years to go) details
Predictions (55)
Comments (17)
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I'm lovin' those settlement details.
And eventually these robots ARE going to be fighting our wars. The Military is positively geeked as it's a great way to further dehumanize it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww
This time, I agree with your cynicism.
I tried to imagine 100 of those robotic dogs sent on a mission.
Totally scary.
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