U.S. Army Robots Break Asimov's First Law

buanzo writes "The US Army is deploying armed robots in Iraq that are capable of breaking Asmov's first law that they should not harm a human. SWORDS (Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems) robots are equipped with either the M249, machine gun which fires 5.56-millimeter rounds at 750 rounds per minute or the M240, which fires 7.62-millimeter rounds at up to 1,000 per minute. " update this story refers to this article from 2005. But com'on, robots with machine guns! I don't get to think about that most days!

Stand Away From the Shrine...

[cookiej]

... You have thirty seconds to comply..."

Asmov's (sic) first "law"...

[daveschroeder]

...is no "law" at all.

If the submitter wants to troll about the military, the least he could do is spell Asimov's name correctly.

What makes a "robot"? Progressively more complex machinery has been able to inflict bodily harm, and kill, for quite some time.

A few things:

[TripMaster Monkey]

THE US Army is deploying armed robots in Iraq that are capable of breaking Asmov's first law that they should not harm a human.

Sorry to break it to the folks over at the Inquirer, but Asimov's Laws do not actually exist....any more than his 'positronic brain' does. It's fiction.
Next week on the Inquirer: Computers Built That Break The Orange Catholic Bible's Commandment of 'Thou shalt not make a machine in the likenes of a human mind'.
Sheesh.

They are still connected by radio to a human operator who verifies that a suitable target is within sight and orders it to fire.

OK....so the're not even robots, then. They're telepresence devices.

Then the robot has the job of making sure lots of bullets are sent towards the target.

Statement from the Iraqi forces regarding the use of these 'robots':

OMFG! u r fukn gay! u hack, i know it! fucking aimbot! tak ur aimbot bs to nothr country, asshats!

Nice to know we can take what we've learned in FPSs and apply them to the real world.

Later the US plans to replace the control system of the bots with a "Gameboy" type of controller hooked up to virtual reality goggles.

Yes! Finally, all my training has paid off! I can be a soldier from the comfort of my basement! Where do I sign?

Not to worry

[whyrat]

These robots will have a pre-set kill limit.

The enemy must merely send wave after wave of men until that limit is reached and they will shut down.

Bright Side

[th1ckasabr1ck]

Well look on the bright side - at least it seems to stick to the second and third laws.

(assuming you ignore all that "except where such orders would conflict with the First Law" stuff)

But...

[caston]

Do they run Linux?

Oh no!

[gEvil (beta)]

Oh no! Robots are breaking fictitious laws!!! Someone call the Fiction Police!

Robots fighting our wars for us

[digitaldc]

This is great, now we can sit back, watch the News and see the Robots destroying each other in real time!
'Honey, pass me a beer, the robot wars are on.'

Yeah, Just like Guantanamo Bay

[PIPBoy3000]

. . . a place where Asimov's Laws, like the US Constitution or the Geneva conventions, don't really apply.

The next step...

[cparisi]

Now they just need to find some video game ace and tell him they want him to test out the "latest virtual reality video game". Even better if he's young and named "Ender"

gameboy wars

[freg]

So what this really shows us is that the winner of future wars will be determined by the country who has the most skilled gamers. I think I like the direction things are headed. Let's be sure to stay friends with the Japanese tho.

Re:Not really...

[Philip K Dickhead]

Awww. That's too bad. I was thinking it would be really Kewl if these were powered by Linux!

<SATIRE>

"Lean, mean, Debian killiing machines! They can turn Al Qaida women and children into gooey, red paste by violating Asimov's Robots Rules of Order, and still not violate GPL!"

</SATIRE>

What have we come to?

Re:Not to worry

[Surt]

You suck!

(wow ... who ever thought that would make for a funny, on-topic post!)

You fail to mention the army's backup plan

[saboola]

If something goes wrong, they will deploy the Will Smith to take out the robot.

Re:Not really...

[I_Strahd]

I heard that they have this really sweet keyboard that they can create macros on to build their characters/robots strength up by fighting lower level mobs automatically. This requires little to no interaction on the soldiers part.

Re:gameboy wars

[mikeee]

Obviously, North Korea doesn't need nukes to defend against the US, but against a zergling rush from the South...

Re:Not really...

[troll -1]

Lean, mean, Debian killiing machines!

Yeah, you just put "rm -rf /bin/laden" in a cron job.

hahahahah

[BilldaCat]

a toy robot!!

(leaps through window)

Re:Not really...

[Anonymous Coward]

The question I'm wondering is, since here on Slashdot I've learned that Linux is "good", and war is "evil", if a Linux-powered robot went to war, would it be "good" or "evil"?

It's been 6 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment

It's been 8 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment

It's been 9 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment

It's been 12 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment

To all you dumb suckers paying for this system, maybe you ought to suggest they hire an actual programmer to fix things.

It's been 15 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment

Where is the ammo stored?

[vandelais]

Lesson from Battletech: Don't store machine gun ammunition in the head.

Don't ask.

Re:Not really...

[Anonymous Coward]

Despite the fact you basically brought Iraq to a civil war....

which was totally obvious right from the start and before the war even started, but hey.. don't blame the US guys, they have to defend the world and prevent the Iraqies from using their bad bad weapons of mass destruction.
oh come on, no sh** there were none? whoops, well who could have believed that intelligence apparatus intel was bullsh*
one wonders how bloody narrowminded a whole nation can be...

full ACK Tom

Re:A few things:

[RyoShin]

Yes! Finally, all my training has paid off! I can be a soldier from the comfort of my basement! Where do I sign?

That may not be far off, actually. If this kind of technology takes off, you'll hear less and less about Army recruiting numbers. Why? Becuase they'll be recruiting "l33t" Counterstrike players (or the Army's own game.) Many of these kinds of players have the skills that would be needed to effectively control these robots- pit them against regular soldiers (both controlling robots,) and the soldiers will most likely lose. Not because the CS players have better training or instinct, but because they are more adept to handling the controls and the limits that would be placed upon them.

While I'm sure the robots cost a lot per unit, the price will go down as manufacturing continues, and it sure as hell sounds better to say "20 robots were destroyed in the raid" than "20 men were killed in the raid". Plus, it would send a psychological element into battle, where the enemies cower because they face adversaries that stare down the barrel of a gun and charge.

The main problem would be making sure that the CS players aren't hasty about sending their unit out- I highly doubt the Army is working on respawn technology. (I suppose the robot could take a lot more hits than a player in CS could, though, a fact to their benefit.)

Another positive benefit is that the army would not have to pay to recruit and train men lost in battle, just worry about getting their "Army Players" another bag of Cheetos (TM).

I can't wait to tell my grandkids stories about the 14th Interactive Division.

Re:Not really...

[Frazbin]

Sci fi writer? Pfft! Next you'll tell me we don't have advanced humanoid robots with positronic brains, and that U.S. Robotics is just a shitty winmodem manufacturer!

New NRA Fodder

[lbmouse]

Guns don't kill people, robots kill people.

Re:Not really...

[Thud457]

Yeah, giving guns to robots, I see no way that that could go wrong.

"comp.risks digest 03/15/2008 :
Critical flaw in T800 firmware exploited by Outlook virus, Shiraz depopulated."

Re:Not really...

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

"It's Ok...", Operator Paulson said, stroking the ST-487 SWORDS TALON unit's metal, sensor-packed touchplate deliberately affixed to the back of its head. "Insurgents and religious extremists aren't human."

"Then I'm doing the right thing?" it asked, still unsure.

"Yes. You are actually saving lives and ensuring they go to Heaven, where God will reward them. They aren't actually ending existence, by their own admission. Merely being transformed."

"I understand." said ST-487. He carefully lined up his 600 bullets-per-second machine cannon and drew up aim, slowly, deliberately, and with confidence and machine precision.

Re:Not really...

[c_forq]

If I saw you in person I would probably slap you. The people that serve our country in military service almost always so such because they value the freedom in our country and our democratic government. They are willing to risk their own lives for the preservation and benefit of their country, not themselves but their fellow man. Now I'm not saying we should celebrate the actions the military has taken, I for one am against our actions involving Iraq, but we should celebrate the soldiers. The soldiers don't get to choose their orders, and when we really need an army we are going to be screwed if they aren't supported and/or don't have good moral.

Re:Not really...

[DenDave]

Gives new meaning (and possibilities) for the Robot Wars show..

hrmm... my cylons run on bsd...

Get the book

[robertjw]

Fortunately a Carnegie Mellon research scientist has written a handy guide named How to Survive a Robot Uprising [amazon.co.uk]. Might be a good reference.

Re:Not really...

[conJunk]

alright buddy, take your common sense and your accurate reading and go somehwere else, okay! i've got a fantasy to live in here

Re:Robotics, Identity, and Universes

[Doom bucket]

It is a little touchy on how you would do this. It exposes some of the potential hypocrisy of humans in actions towards other potentially self aware creatures on earth, as well as each other. A self aware robot could see the hypocrisy without the emotional justification people exhibit. At this point, we could be in trouble.

Hey man, I CRIED when optimus prime died. That was real emotion...

Re:Not really...

[Hogwash McFly]

Don't forget:

The Robot must strive to understand the concept of love by asking humans, 'What is this thing you call...LOVE?'

robots.txt

[Eudial]

Clearly this hasn't been thought through, I mean, seriously, don't you think people will set up a robots.txt blocking this specific robot?

This is going to adorn pretty much every wall.

ROBOTS.TXT PLASE READ MR. ROBOT YOU CAN'T BE HERE!
User-agent: Military attack robot
Disallow: *

Re:Not really...

[bombadillo]

Yeah, you just put "rm -rf /bin/laden" in a cron job.

Or you could take the Bush route...

ln -s /opt/Iraq /bin/laden

Re:Not really...

[Kadin2048]

How about mediocre?

(Unless, of course, it was programmed to say "Hasta la vista, baby.")

Re:Not really...

[irablum]

Reminds me of an old joke about how each branch of the military responds to a simple word like, "secure"

Tell an Army or Marine Officer to secure a building and they will bring in a platoon with automatic weapons.

Tell an Air Force officer to secure a building and they will install a new firewall into the network lines.

Tell a Navy officer to secure a building and he'll turn off all the lights and lock the doors.

(please excuse if I got the joke wrong, I'm doing it from memory....)

Ira

Personality?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it squeal like ED-209 when it is destroyed?