Military Robots
- US Mechatronics has produced a working automated sentry gun and is currently developing it further for commercial and military use.
- MIDARS, a four-wheeled robot outfitted with several cameras, radar, and possibly a firearm, that automatically performs random or preprogrammed patrols around a military base or other government installation. It alerts a human overseer when it detects movement in unauthorized areas, or other programmed conditions. The operator can then instruct the robot to ignore the event, or take over remote control to deal with an intruder, or to get better camera views of an emergency. The robot would also regularly scan radio frequency identification tags (RFID) placed on stored inventory as it passed and report any missing items.
- US scientists at MIT are known to be “looking into building a mechanical super-fighter … able to heal his own wounds, leap buildings, deflect bullets and even become invisible” which “won’t be ready for at least 10 years.”
- Tactical Autonomous Combatant (TAC) units, described in Project Alpha study ‘Unmanned Effects: Taking the Human out of the Loop’ – TAC robots are seen as being faster and more lethal than human soldiers, and able to work in more hazardous environments. This study, which was done in 2003, saw TACs as a reality by 2025.
Defense contractors in the USA are hard at work developing autonomous “robot soldiers”, but most current models look more like tanks than humans. There are problems with threat recognition and response; some models will not shoot cows with guerillas crouched behind them, but will fire at anything stenciled with an AK – 47 silhouette.
In December 2003, the Associated Press reported that The Pentagon had purchased several Segways, as part of a research program called “Mobile Autonomous Robot Software”, an attempt to develop more advanced military robots.
The implications of mastering and using this type of technology are wide, with the possibility of advanced artificial intelligence causing unforeseen consequences (especially if weaponized machines are ever given AI on the level of sentience), the possibility of robots being hacked into and used against the owners or the possibility of simple machine breakdown leaving soldiers defenceless if robots are relied on too much.
In literature, a play published in 1921, ‘Rossum’s Universal Robots‘ by Czech writer Karel Capek, tells the story of how people built better and better robots until they finally built robots to fight wars. In the end, the robots decide that fighting is crazy, and take over the world. This idea has since become a common staple of fiction in books, films and television. Its popularity fueled the common (but principally erroneous) belief that machinery is entirely physically superior to biology.
