Re: Robots could be used to treat autism

[Guest guest]

You mean like this?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,496309,00.html Autonomous military robots that will fight future wars must be programmed to live by a strict warrior code, or the world risks untold atrocities at their steely hands.

The stark warning — which includes discussion of a "Terminator"-style scenario in which robots turn on their human masters — is part of a hefty report funded by and prepared for the U.S. Navy's high-tech and secretive Office of Naval Research.

The report, the first serious work of its kind on military robot ethics, envisages a fast-approaching era where robots are smart enough to make battlefield decisions that are at present the preserve of humans.

Eventually, it notes, robots could come to display significant cognitive advantages over Homo sapiens soldiers.

"There is a common misconception that robots will do only what we have programmed them to do," Lin, the chief compiler of the report, said. "Unfortunately, such a belief is sorely outdated, harking back to a time when ... programs could be written and understood by a single person."

The reality, Dr. Lin said, was that modern programs included millions of lines of code and were written by teams of programmers, none of whom knew the entire program.

Accordingly, no individual could accurately predict how the various portions of large programs would interact without extensive testing in the field — an option that may either be unavailable or deliberately sidestepped by the designers of fighting robots.

In a message dated 2/21/2009 1:13:08 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, no_reply writes:

If we could somehow turn these robots against the curebies, THAT would be interesting wouldn't it?Administrator Need a job? Find an employment agency near you.

[Guest guest]

What I find interesting is that people keep inventing robots to do

stuff noone else wants to do.

Wanna kill someone without getting killed yourself? Have a robot do it.

Wanna teach an autistic? Have a robot do it.

Society is becoming more and more depersonalized even as they accuse

autistics of being aloof and in a world of their own. At least we have

some grounding in reality no matter what level we are functioning on.

Administrator

You mean like this?

[Guest guest]

" If you could send a swarm of drones to blown up all aspects of

modern technology in a country (powerplants, transmission lines,

water treatment plants, bridges, etc.) to weaken a foe for a while,

then send in robot ground troops to do the dirty fighting, why not do

it? "

I could see this getting rather silly. Let's say there is some

country preparing to attack another country with missiles and a human

invasion force. We might send our robots in to attack them and they

would combat our robots with their robots...even as they proceed with

their designs against that other country. So even with the robots, if

another country can equally match you, you are stalemated...and at

great fiscal expense.

One can argue that human lives are too precious to expend, but

sometimes that lesson is best learned when both sides are made to

take casualties. One side will say " Enough is enough! We are losing "

and the other side will say " Enough is enough! I don't have the

stomach to persist with this slaughter. "

Administrator