The Unstoppable Rise of Killer Robots! By Brian Simpson
We don’t hear much about original sin nowadays. The mainstream churches are now basically politically correct forms of social work, and, I am sorry to say, the alternatives seem to have swallowed the Enlightenment idea that technology will bring us the promised land, maybe not utopia, as that is too communistic, but still, some sort of economic land of plenty, with a happy ending for us all. However, there needs to be some people raising the uncomfortable questions, such as whether technology, not just technocrats (an enormous problem in itself), will kill us, as it all self-destructs.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2019/09/21/microsoft-chief-brad-smith-says-rise-killer-robots-unstoppable/
“The rise of killer robots is now unstoppable and a new digital Geneva Convention is essential to protect the world from the growing threat they pose, according to the President of the world’s biggest technology company. In an interview with The Telegraph, Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, said the use of 'lethal autonomous weapon systems' poses a host of new ethical questions which need to be considered by governments as a matter of urgency. He said the rapidly advancing technology, in which flying, swimming or walking drones can be equipped with lethal weapons systems – missiles, bombs or guns – which could be programmed to operate entirely or partially autonomously, "ultimately will spread… to many countries". The US, China, Israel, South Korea, Russia and the UK are all developing weapon systems with a significant degree of autonomy in the critical functions of selecting and attacking targets. The technology is a growing focus for many militaries because replacing troops with machines can make the decision to go to war easier. But it remains unclear who is responsible for deaths or injuries caused by a machine – the developer, manufacturer, commander or the device itself.
No new Geneva convention on AI is going to stop this, because the desire for control that AI offers is irresistible to the military industrial financial complex, who are make the inmates of our lunatic asylums look sane by compassion. Any country that did not develop killer robots would be at a strategic disadvantage relative to others, a form of the parable of the tribes:
https://www.amazon.com/Parable-Tribes-Problem-Social-Evolution/dp/0791424200
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