Attack of the Flying Killer Robot Insects
How will our robots know friend from foe?
DARPA has recently awarded contracts to several companies to develope a micro-miniature, autonomous, hummingbird-sized robot. The specs are here. The salient specifications for purposes of this post are that this UAV nanodrone will be capable of searching for a target and delivering a small payload.
The defense department's intent is to create a robot that will think for itself - and more importantly - kill by itself, requiring no human supervision.
The specifications call for this robot to be able to withstand several forms of deployment. Delivery by artillery and bomb drop, for instance. The military envisions a bomb, holding hundreds, or even thousands, to be dropped on the battlefield in preparation for war. And during the actual battles, to ferret out hidden enemies or weapons.
These little flying robots would be capable of recon throughout the electro-magnetic spectrum and target acquisition. They would be less than one half as large as the image I am using for illustration, pehaps, less than one fourth that size. They'd be able to enter buildings, find their target and either surveil that target or drop a little, tiny bomb on it.
While this might sound like sci-fi, the design bids are to be in by early 2008.
Recently, however, The Department of Defense began to consider the full implications of deploying completely autonomous robots with lethal potential against humans - friend or foe.
This argument has been raging in science fiction and in colleges and universities for decades.
How can we be certain a robot can distinguish between good guys and bad guys? Do we REALLY want robots to be able to kill humans? Who is to blame if a robot does kill a friendly?
It's good to ask these questions now, rather than to wait until robots make those decisions for us.
.
At every turn man develops technology to kill another human more efficiently. Given the pervasive and persistant nature of the drive to develop this kind of technology, the only conclusion one can reach is that it is being pursued by people with a serious, demonstrable pathology. You don't need a budget, you need treatment.
We're a long way away from this: http://www.bigskyastroclub.org/pale_blue_dot.htm and our incessant drive to create ever better weapons systems is one of the fundamental reasons why we very likely won't make it to the space age [defined by interstellar drive, not driving a half-baked potato cart into orbit].
I'm exstatically happy that I don't have children. I couldn't bear realising they'd have to grow up on a planet like this.
Posted by: Jorge | 10/08/2006 at 06:21 PM
Linked in our Sunday Funnies
Posted by: Jihad_Joe | 10/08/2006 at 06:25 PM
high velocity air streams will defeat this "bug".
turn on a fan.
on high.
considering the size of the "bug" given in the post,
negative pressure, or any high volume air push will
give the onboard controller an "air" speed but a
bogus "ground" speed. the GPS will show proximity
but not micrometers of progress.
besides that, in a war zone, a fishing net is
all that is needed. total zone control.
finally, run through the jungle. it can't keep up.
it must dodge the limbs. you break them.
good news....for supremely urban environments, this
could be the way to go. it would work in Paris but
not Mosul.
Posted by: john of sparta | 10/08/2006 at 06:28 PM
Let's hope for everyone's sake that they are universally lethal to everyone. That they have perfect facial recognition and attack any human in their range. It will be the final solution for the mad monkeys that inhabit this earth, that one of their own designs effectively targets its creators and destroys them without mercy.
Posted by: boomslang | 10/08/2006 at 06:31 PM
SKYNET
Posted by: SKYNET | 10/08/2006 at 06:48 PM
What pantywaist gloom and doom in this commentary. I suppose you would have preferred man stop with rock-throwing?
They will create a feature that will use pheromones to determine the enemy before they unleash these little bugs. And good for progress that it never ends in its quest to minimize human death tolls in the relentless wars that have sparked across this planet since humankind chose to pick up a hoe instead of a spear to maintain his survival.
Posted by: Phoenix | 10/08/2006 at 06:51 PM
BOO!
Posted by: Caspar the Friendly Ghost | 10/08/2006 at 06:51 PM
Picking up the hoe would have resulted in an end to that genetic line so yes the spear is a correct evolutionary response if it's a more efficinet tool than a hoe for the given threat, no?
You PC troopers bust me up : ).
Sasquatch
Posted by: Sasquatch | 10/08/2006 at 07:12 PM
**Posted by: boomslang | 10/08/2006 at 06:31 PM**
Nothing makes me laugh harder than idiots who talk about humans as if they aren't one.
Posted by: tedZilla | 10/08/2006 at 07:35 PM
"I'm exstatically happy that I don't have children. I couldn't bear realising they'd have to grow up on a planet like this."
As opposed to what other planet you silly leftist emo idiot? We are all happy you dont have children too though. Whatever is wrong with you needs to stay out of the gene pool.
Posted by: Pops | 10/08/2006 at 07:39 PM
Sasquatch,
Try reading beyond your eyesight. Had man never picked up the hoe, he'd never have had anything to defend that wasn't his life. And... and.... and......etc., carry on, moron.... The spear served dual purpose - protection against predators and additional cuisine. Man was prey long before he was predator.
Posted by: Phoenix | 10/08/2006 at 07:48 PM
Interesting, but probably a waste of time and money. As previously noted, easy to defeat and limited in application. It might make a good survailiance device tho.
Posted by: sometech | 10/08/2006 at 08:03 PM
OOOOH! I'M A LUMBERJACK AND I'M OKAY! I SLEEP ALL NIGHT AND I WORK ALL DAY!
Posted by: /b/ Ashby | 10/08/2006 at 08:11 PM
But what do you do on Wednesdays?
Posted by: sometech | 10/08/2006 at 08:57 PM
For gawd's sake, don't ask him/her/it what they do on the weekends.
Posted by: Steel | 10/08/2006 at 09:03 PM
BTW.
I have read quite a bit on this subject.
These devices have their highest potential in being dropped and acting a monitors over a wide area OR as mines.
Self-deploying mines.
But, that said, if a swarm of these were deployed in a situation, such as Nasrallah speaking to a huge crowd for protection - it would be like a swarm of bees and he would be dead.
Don't forget the biological agent dispersal potential.
These little toys could go behind enemy lines and infect water sources, food and provisions and even troops.
As ugly as war is - I like the idea of eliminating the warrior and leaving it to devices.
Google worldmapper and find the map that shows relative R&D layout.
In a robot war - the survivors would more likely be the good guys.
Those fuckers livin' in caves and the Stone Age won't have a chance.
Posted by: Steel | 10/08/2006 at 09:10 PM
That is soo cool. We could put poisons on them, stunning electrodes, all sorts of monitoring equip. Lets have them swarm like killer bees. Better yet, we'll coat them with bio-plague agents, and go after all animals in an area. The effect would be limited militarily, but it would put the fear of God back into man.
Posted by: Jason | 10/08/2006 at 10:10 PM
Do it like the swarms of locusts that plague lands every other year. Talk about the fear of God. Send a swarm into the mountains of Afghanistan for starters. Oh! Send a swarm over the poppy fields to decimate the plant with bio-genics that denies reproduction. We could claim we didn't do it. The Russians did it. They're tired of their mafia trying to run the country so they went after the source. Yeah...
Posted by: Phoenix | 10/08/2006 at 10:24 PM
Send them lil bug thingies to the Mexican border with itty bitty paintball guns.
Indelible paint.
Pop them illegals on the forehead when they sneak across with a big ole orange spot.
End of the immigration problem.
Posted by: A Minuteman | 10/08/2006 at 10:33 PM
Wow, these are totally awesome. Who cares if they can determine friend or foe. Like dropping cluster bombs, they would deny all access to an area for both sides of the conflict. Just set up demiltarized zones where you get hit by an attack of fluttering poison bearing mosquitos that go for your eyeballs with a hypodermic syringe. They would also be really good for crowd control, equip them with some sort of tranquilizer or psychoactive drug, depending on whether you want to quell the riot or intensify it. The G8 summit could put it to really good use. Cops could equip them with pepper spray, surveil and subdue. Maybe we could send some over to North Korea to buzz out ole Kimmy boy. Put some bees in his bonnet.
Posted by: Xerxes | 10/08/2006 at 10:45 PM
Yes, but can it find Sarah Connor?
Posted by: A H | 10/08/2006 at 11:26 PM
HA HA.... I love the Ash Wednesday Orange Illegal Immigrant dot. ha ha ha ha...
Yes!! Just have the bug hover on the border. No need for a fence. BUG ZONE! Proceed at your own risk of anointment of Agent of Orange.
Posted by: Phoenix | 10/08/2006 at 11:39 PM
Send them out to Code Pink Rallies where the bugs hone in on all the asses present and paintball a giant pink dot mid-crack.
Posted by: Phoenix | 10/08/2006 at 11:43 PM
Sic some bugs on the good Reverend Phelps and his group of no-minds. Have the bugs inject an ear-worm that plays the Hallelujah Chorus real loud and never stops.
Posted by: Phoenix | 10/08/2006 at 11:45 PM
Send one to Monica Mohls (sp?) of Columbia University with some Gorilla glue to glue her lips together.
I have to stop this..... the potential of these bugs is too much for my imagination.
Posted by: Phoenix | 10/08/2006 at 11:49 PM