Pentagon's Growing Robot Capability An Ominous Development

[unhappycamper]

Pentagon's Growing Robot Capability An Ominous Development
by Sherwood Ross | July 19, 2010 - 8:57am

The Pentagon is rapidly improving its ability to fight wars with robots. This capability is "bringing about the most profound transformation of warfare since the advent of the atom bomb," says Scientific American, and raises "a host of ethical and legal issues."

"Robots are pouring onto battlefields as if a new species of mechanotronic alien had just landed on our planet," the publication says in an editorial on their development in its July issue. "The prospect of androids that hunt down and kill on their own accord (shades of Terminator) should give us all pause. An automatic pilot that makes its own calls about whom to shoot violates the 'human' part of international humanitarian law, the one that recognizes that some weapons are so abhorrent that they just should be eliminated."

Since 2003, 7,000 unmanned aircraft and 12,000 ground vehicles have entered the U.S. military inventory, "entrusted with missions that range from seeking out snipers to bombing the hideouts of al-Qaeda higher-ups in Pakistan," writes P.W. Singer in an accompanying article titled "War of The Machines."

Singer, who directs the 21st Century Defense Initiative at The Brookings Institution, in Washington, D.C., a non-profit research think tank, says robots include:

~snip~

The prospect of waging wars on battlefields ll,000 kilometers distant by remote control from computer terminals near Las Vegas, Nev., without exposing its own personnel to harm may seem like a dream come true to the Pentagon---but because of its persistent aggressiveness much of the rest of humanity may see it as a nightmare. As the Scientific American article points out, as a result of the deadly Predator strikes, a leading Pakistan newspaper has already branded the U.S. a "principal hate figure." That is, of course, precisely how the "Empire," with its Imperial Walkers and robot soldiers, was perceived by the "human" rebels in the 1977 movie "Star Wars." Need I say more?

[leveymg]

1. We have met the inhuman enemy, and it is . . .

Ahhnold . . .

[xchrom]

2. The war in the Balkans and the war in iraq

Has shown us all that our military wants to fight
from a distance.

If not with robots then from on high in Planes.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. No one could have predicted ...

[TheWraith]

4. Somebody needs to watch Star Wars again, apparetly.

"Imperial Walkers and robot soldiers"

What "robot soldiers"?