First Armed Robots on Patrol in Iraq (Updated)

If these robots kill an innocent civilian, who will be held responsible?

I sincerely hope that these things constantly yell "EXTERMINATE... EXTERMINATE" while they are active.

Now I wonder if these have speakers to relay voice commands ... and if it would ever be used to ask the whereabouts of a suspected insurgent.

I can see it now. Robot rolls up to unsuspecting Iraqi walking along the street.

"Have you seen Seriah Khannor?"

**When the "DRAFT"! , MAKES A COME-BACK!

CAN I GET ONE OF THOSE!; TO GO IN MY PLACE???.

Or better yet!, can I operate it from my basement??.

I'm willing to save the tax payer the travel cost to there and back again!.

*scary terminator music ensues*

Now all those years of playing DOOM will finally pay off.

Don't armed UAV's like Predator and Hunter
count as "Robots"?

They've been killing enemies for some time
now.

Michael Moore-

Why Issac Asimov, of course!

Oops......Isaac Asimov

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screamers_(1995_film)

Autonomous Mobile Sword

Wow, this is really a low point in the honor and integrity of our armed forces. The more we remove ourselves from the moral responsibility of taking human life, the more we will be willing to take it without regard to the consequences.

To me this is another reason why we can't win this struggle against these extremists, they are all to willing to put everything on the line, while we look for ways to get out of the fight and engage from air conditioned command centers.

"If these robots kill an innocent civilian, who will be held responsible?"

Probably no one, they'll write it off as some sort of malfunction and bad officers will finally free themselves from the responsibility of command.

Specially made for those causes that are worth killing for but not worth dying for.

Did anybody here see that movie 'Evolver' with the tiny robot that kills off its opponents? I'm pretty sure it was called 'SWORD' too. Hilarious.

Well at least are troops are not being killed, but our tax dollars are still not in the right hands with Bush/Cheney.

These sound like remote controlled vehicles...not robots. When I think of a "robot" , I'm thinking autonomous machines that you can switch on and let loose. Anything for a headline I guess.

Do they still get 72 virgins if they get whacked by a machine? Is a machine considered an infidel?

As for disconnect from personal risk; was not one of the tope terrorists in Afgahanistan taken out by a Predator controlled by some guy sitting in Langley? If so, the ability to whack these lunatics from range is good because it certainly must be demoralizing for outfit if their biggest and baddesy are getting obliterated by some geek sipping his Starbucks half a world away.

"If these robots kill an innocent civilian, who will be held responsible?"

Simple. The squad commander. This includes non-weapon malfunctions as well such as traffic accidents.

"To me this is another reason why we can't win this struggle against these extremists, they are all to willing to put everything on the line, while we look for ways to get out of the fight and engage from air conditioned command centers."

Actually, as with the U-Boat commanders in WWII, the extremists are too willing to die. The end result is that little if any combat experience survives the encounter to train fresh recruits. In the end, all they have are fresh bodies and very few combat veterans. A willingness to die in combat is highly effective in the short term. But a military which places it's assets ahead of its infantry will inevitably succeed in the long term.

Give the robots autonomous control over their weapons and link them into a hive mind AI system and use them to secure Iraq's borders to prevent weapons and insurgents getting in.

Seriously. This will save the lives of american soldiers.. and some of you people complain? Go D.I.A.F.

"If these robots kill an innocent civilian, who will be held responsible?"

Uhhh, the person operating it maybe? These are not autonomous, they are radio controlled. Its no more of a disconnect from launching rockets from hundreds of miles away which has been done since WWII. It is actually a lot more personal than almost every kind of naval, air, or mechanical warfare since the person operating the machine still sees the gun fire and the person die in real time on their camera. They are also most likely sitting in the next room or behind a wall for cover so they hear it, and we check the dead so they will see the person up close anyway.

This is no different that any other human controlled weapon we, or any other country, use. The day a computer starts deciding when to fire and at whom, then you may all begin your hand wringing and doomsday calling.

According to:

http://www.spacewar.com/news/robot-05zzv.html

a robot-mounted sniper detection system
has already been demonstrated.

I wonder when/if we'll see a robot with
auto-shootback capability against enemy
snipers to hit them before they can evade
or take cover?

So this robot is IED proof????

I cannot seriously beleive we are going down this road, what kind of people are we when we send machines to fight our fights? Sad day in history.

Man... All of you clowns claiming these robots equal a sad day for our fighting forces are mind-numbingly stupid.

Better our soldiers should take bullets themselves?

What kind of people are we when we send machines to fight our fights? SMART PEOPLE YOU MORON!

Well i am sure some lawyer is getting ready introduce the robot protection Act. They will have to have lubrication breaks, robot compensation insurance, the army will have to follow OSHA standards etc.. And for mister "it's a low point in the honor and integrity of our armed forces" just follow the link
http://www.fortliberty.org/patriotic-humor/how-about-a-nice-cup-of-shut-the-fuck-up.shtml

well,
another way to kill innocents.
blame it on the machine.

http://tinyurl.com/368ztq

Number 5 is alive and pissed off!!!

Get em' Johnny!!!

Three Laws of Robotics

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Wow, now imagine controlling this from your iPhone, that would be extreme cool!

According to some of you idealists, a battle is not a battle unless people on both sides die. So therefore you are idealizing about our young men and women dying at the hands of scum.
You my friend should be the civilian that Johnny 5 shoots, '' accidentally ''.

I wonder how hard it will be to hack and re-program them?

umm....what if there are two guys??? it aims at one and the other one pick it up from behind??? Woohoo! insurgents get a new toy to reverse engineer!!

Robots don't kill innocent civilians,
People controlling Robots, Kill innocent Civilians.
Who says they are innocent anyway? Do you KNOW what they did last summer?
Did you see them when the lights were out that night in bedroom when they were all alone?
How about the hand holding incident. Innocent? Let God sort 'em out...

i want a speaker on it to say "allah ahkbar kiss my @$$" right before it fires.

After Asimov passed on, the 4th law was found in his sock drawer, apprently it was coded into all Roomba's:
A robot must not pass by a crumb or speck of dirt unless it violates the other five laws.
(Five? Check that underpants drawer, lego mindstorms?)

for urban conflict?? Its so easy to avoid them, just close the damn door!! how is it going to open the door? How is it going to avoid tipping over in places with rubble?? SWORD has no way to clear obstacles unless it RPGs it. This is useless unless its mounted on airbourne devices.

Bleh, your ignorance of urban warfare is remarkable.

Dear bleh, why all the negativity bro? haha what if there are 50 of these put around a hostile neighborhood in inactive mode or just sitting there waiting for the terrorists to make a move? think that might make them just a little bit nervous about pulling some crizzap like coming out at night to set up roadside bombs or maybe taking a shot at one of our guys on patrol??? they wouldn't even know if they were turned on or not it would be enough deterrent probably. also read an article awhile back there's a new system with microphones that can locate a sniper shot in a second how about adding that to this baby then it could swing and shoot at that spot! thing is the midevil rock throwers and throat cutters days are numbered. technology is going to take them and their soviet era RPGs out soon enough!

This would be excellent if they could add some sort of force feild that would protect the bot from rpgs and what not you'd have an amazing useful machine...especially when it comes to rounding up and hog tying crazy liberals

"What kind of people are we when we send machines to fight our fights? "
Why the fuck is it "our fight", you moron? Because George "the idiot" Bush says it is? As if...

Dear curved, duh like dude... where do you live i want you to meet my whiney cry-baby angry loser lib hog tying robot... with force field included. as if... LOL

You know what, I bet all the people whining about how wrong it is to use a robot proxy (all this thing is is a giant fancy RC car with a gun) aren't soldiers, have never been soldiers, and don't know anyone in the military. It's really easy to be "ethical" when it's impersonal soldiers who you think must be bad in some way.

Personally, this seems like a really fancy bullet-proof vest, ethically speaking.

"Specially made for those causes that are worth killing for but not worth dying for."

I would hope there are still some people who believe that a cause that is worth killing for should be considered even more carefully than a cause which is worth dying for.

Why are the wearing helmets at the shooting range? Are they that bad?

Now even old farts that can't hoof it into the battle can now get some kill'n in remotely! Sweet!

Let's hook this puppy up to Unreal Tournament! I'll off a few people remotely. No game is as real as the real freaking thing!

And I want a .50 cal so I can cut people in half and layout thar innards in a nice crimson spray! YEA BABY!

I love the video. They sound like radio control toys. LMAO! The Iraqi kids will love them!

You guys realize these are REMOTE CONTROLLED robots, and not autonomous ones, right? Right? These comments about "who is to blame if the robot kills someone" are ridiculous.

that's the problem with spineless liberals. they won't fight for anything unless it's gay marriage. LOL there's a dozen reasons why we're in iraq so let me educate you. I'll give you a just a few of the best ones since i'm sure you have a limited attention span.

1) iran is building a bomb and their president says daily that he wants to wipe an entire race of people off the face of the planet so it's important for us to have a presence there to make them think twice about that sort of slaughter. Being a compassionate lib i'm sure it wouldn't bother you a bit if 7 million jews were driven into the sea... none of our business right? matter of fact barak hussein obama just said that about the iraqis the other day. "we can't be concerned about genocide in iraq if we pull out." what a guy!

2) the entire world including the idiot Bill Clinton believed saddam had WMDs. Bill Clinton and his ENTIRE administration spent eight years proclaiming saddam had WMDs. Is he a liar? Was Germany, France, Russia, Egypt, Australia, all lying too? Was the UN confused when they voted unanimously about the fact or is George Bush soooo clever he fooled every intelligence agency on the planet into thinking saddam had WMDs. Maybe he tricked Bill Clinton too for eight years into believing it... while he was still governor of texas!!!!

3) After 9/11 we couldn't afford to have a maniac dictator with a grudge against us having those kinds of weapons AND after the war in afghanistan it's a fact that the rats were leaving the ship there and saddam was letting them come in and set up shop in iraq. Al Zarqawi the DEAD leader of al qaeda in iraq was even injured in afghanistan and treated at one of saddam's hospitals. Al ansar Islam got busted up planning a massive ricin attack on great britain. before we invaded!

4) the entire world's economy depends on the oil coming out of the middle east. THIS IS A FACT LIKE IT OR NOT. if saddam or iran took over the region the entire world would be thrown into a world recession. hence our presence there again to make sure that that does not happen.

5) here's 400,000 reasons to dispose saddam. we've pulled over 400,000 men, women, children, and infants from mass graves so far. i'm sure you're one of the libs that thinks we're supposed to do something about darfur right were 200,000 have died so far and you probably agree that bill clinton was the first black president when he sat idly by and watched a million rwandans be chopped to pieces. the irony abounds!

6)so lib boy are you an eviromentalist? saddam was systematically draining and destroying the ONLY natural marsh lands in the middle east as a means to commit genocide against the marsh arabs that had lived and coexisted with the marsh before Biblical times. do a google search on saddam and marsh arabs you moron.

oops sorry this was intended for the "curved" dude and his idiot bush and why are we in iraq comment.

that's the problem with spineless liberals. they won't fight for anything unless it's gay marriage. LOL there's a dozen reasons why we're in iraq so let me educate you. I'll give you a just a few of the best ones since i'm sure you have a limited attention span.

1) iran is building a bomb and their president says daily that he wants to wipe an entire race of people off the face of the planet so it's important for us to have a presence there to make them think twice about that sort of slaughter. Being a compassionate lib i'm sure it wouldn't bother you a bit if 7 million jews were driven into the sea... none of our business right? matter of fact barak hussein obama just said that about the iraqis the other day. "we can't be concerned about genocide in iraq if we pull out." what a guy!

2) the entire world including the idiot Bill Clinton believed saddam had WMDs. Bill Clinton and his ENTIRE administration spent eight years proclaiming saddam had WMDs. Is he a liar? Was Germany, France, Russia, Egypt, Australia, all lying too? Was the UN confused when they voted unanimously about the fact or is George Bush soooo clever he fooled every intelligence agency on the planet into thinking saddam had WMDs. Maybe he tricked Bill Clinton too for eight years into believing it... while he was still governor of texas!!!!

3) After 9/11 we couldn't afford to have a maniac dictator with a grudge against us having those kinds of weapons AND after the war in afghanistan it's a fact that the rats were leaving the ship there and saddam was letting them come in and set up shop in iraq. Al Zarqawi the DEAD leader of al qaeda in iraq was even injured in afghanistan and treated at one of saddam's hospitals. Al ansar Islam got busted up planning a massive ricin attack on great britain. before we invaded!

4) the entire world's economy depends on the oil coming out of the middle east. THIS IS A FACT LIKE IT OR NOT. if saddam or iran took over the region the entire world would be thrown into a world recession. hence our presence there again to make sure that that does not happen.

5) here's 400,000 reasons to dispose saddam. we've pulled over 400,000 men, women, children, and infants from mass graves so far. i'm sure you're one of the libs that thinks we're supposed to do something about darfur right were 200,000 have died so far and you probably agree that bill clinton was the first black president when he sat idly by and watched a million rwandans be chopped to pieces. the irony abounds!

6)so lib boy are you an eviromentalist? saddam was systematically draining and destroying the ONLY natural marsh lands in the middle east as a means to commit genocide against the marsh arabs that had lived and coexisted with the marsh before Biblical times. do a google search on saddam and marsh arabs you moron.

Yeah, I think we shoulda tested SWORDS out at Berkeley first... damn dirty hippies

you're not smart, you're cowards.
why is it only american lives that matter? what about the inocent Iraquis? u americans are so selfish and arrogant. anyway i see the robots as an improvement, at least they don't rape young girls before shooting them in the head right infront of their soon to be dead parents, like your sick soldiers do.

can anyone say "Johnny 5" from the movie "Short Circuit" LOL.

hey ryan... i would like to issue you a challenge. what's 2+2? careful and take your time or you might hurt yourself since it's obvious you're such an un-arrogant american hating genius. LOL So what country are you from? Just wondering if any sick American soldiers saved your dumb#ss from being a lampshade?

I won't be happy until we have hulking chicken-legged bots unpredictably nailing corporate slimeballs out of 50-story office windows with grenade launchers.

Sorry... "50th-story"

I'm South African, americans don't help anyone, only themselves, it is for your benefit that you're there and you're an idiot if you don't know it, and a lier if you don't acknowledge it.

Those robots would look good rolling thru American cities, supported by Mexican army units,and Blackwater troops, to round up all the citizens, and place them in those FEMA camps.

Robot: Please drop your weapon. You have ten seconds to comply.

Civilian: I don't have a weapon?!

Robot: You have five seconds to comply...

Oh those were the days - before scary sci-fi movies became reality.

As Roscoe P said, "I love it, I love it, I love it."

THIS gives me hope for America!! An undefeatable army, with a new generation raised on 1st person shooter video games.

I can see it now, the MMORG crowd takes the front line and troops can come home safe and raise their families in peace.

1. turn on radio jammer

2. pick up free machine gun, grenades etc.

ryan, oh you got me! good one ignore the facts and call me names. LOL

still didn't get your answer on 2+2 are you still working on it?

by the way, yeah the whole oil just for us deal is working out real well for us! record high oil and gas prices and we've spent $800 billion so far on the war in iraq. man oh man are you smart we're really making out like bandits on all this free oil we're stealing from the iraqis! LOL

as a side note i have a few south afican friends here and you have my sympathy regarding the current state of affairs in south africa that they tell me about. the united states had no business sticking their nose in there... but you can thank your good friends the hypocritical American liberals for that. of course they felt the Dutch needed to give south africa back to the natives right? Never mind that the Dutch had been there longer than we have here and of course we solved our native problem by either killing them or stuffing them into reservations. that's classic loser liberal logic 101 sort of thinking.

hey mr t. regarding your mexican fema army predicion... just say no... put down the crack pipe and walk away. i pity the fool! hmmm!! LOL

How can anyone think this is sad? Is it sad to wear armor because you might not die when shot like you're supposed to? It's simply a new advantage on the battlefield. It's no different than when someone first used a catapult instead of a sword.
I personally don't support this war, but now that it has gone on longer than WWII, it's about time we saw some new technology to improve our hand.

i'm not even going to pretend to know what u're talking about, call me an idiot if you like, but i don't support or justify what happened in south africa, neither should you justify what your county is doing to iraq, it's plain wrong.

hellooo ryan... the lights are on but nobody home?

The United States is in Iraq just for the oil. Gee, gas is over $3 a gallon at record highs here as is oil prices and we've almost spent $800 billion on the war so far and the Iraqis haven't paid us a nickel!

Yeah, this is working out just swell for us greedy Americans.

If you'd like to see someone that's ignorant of the facts may I suggest a mirror. Go watch another Michael Moore movie! LOL

I'll just look for the canisters of nanites laying around, often conveniently hidden behinds things, and upgrade myself to take these out as I confront the extensive forces of MJ12... Oh hang on, this isn't a game is it?

Mike O'Brien, you sir are a fool. Every item on your list is flawed but let's just go for an easy one:

5) 400,000 people in mass graves

WRONG. The number is 5,000 people. Not that that's not still bad, but just a good example that you are spewing crap.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1263901,00.html

Does this mean if we deploy 150,000 of these things that we can go home?

how can you shoot your mouth off saying we're in iraq for the oil when you don't even know what you're talking about? you have to look at the geo-economic and political implications of what was happening there? saddam was a freaking mad man that attacked his neighbors twice. he was a megalomaniac that gas and slaughtered his own people on a regular basis. he attacked raped and pillaged kuwait unprovoked no less and the reason the saudis let us base our forces there was because even they knew he was a nut case and they were next! i didn't see south africa rushing in to stop saddam from taking over the world's oil supply. what do you think would happen if he had accomplished that? the sanctions were crumbling and saddam would've been up to his old tricks again soon enough. all of our economies run off of oil yours included and you can't have some psychopath dictator attacking all of his neighbors were over 40$ of that oil lies trying to take it all over! if we were such a horrible and bad country we could take the oil from iraq, saudi arabia, and even iran if we really wanted to but we haven't you moron. we could've occupied japan after wwii and we didn't instead we helped them with our money to rebuild their country, we didn't have to help germany rebuild either! it was called the marshall plan look it up some time! why don't you read a little history about the united states before you go shooting your mouth off making a fool of yourself. this is the most generous country in the history of the mankind bar none. we have to police the world for the rest of you and this is the thanks we get... ignorant slurs. by the way you think the germans would've stopped in north africa if we hadn't fought them? i'm sure they would've made their way to your little paradise soon enough had they won wwii. think about it dutch boy.

Ahhh, more half truths, over simplifications, and denials spewed angrily from a simple mind that believes itself to be exceedingly intelligent. Gives you a warm fuzzy feeling about the future of humanity, does it not?

Sorry that's probably not explicit enough. Yes I mean you Mike.

read the post o'brien. i never mentioned oil, you did. i said you're there to help yourselfs, there's political reasons to all this and ur country is not going to spend all that money you mentioned, nor is it going to send troops just to help some third world backward country that nobody really ever thinks about, there;s something in it for america's benefit. i don't pretend to know what. but war is a bussiness anyway you look at it, you built some terminator robots and spend millions of dollars doing it, fuck it lets go use it on some rural country, who gives a shit.
Sadam had weapons to use against americans, then americans come to invade his country....so he buries them??... what kind of logic is that?
there's plenty of other countries out there that need some real non-war type help, go spend 800 billion feeding mozambique if you really want to help

speaking of fools See (C) Doug... and of course we all know "the guardian" is an impeccable source! LOL

saddam gassed 5,000 kurds in one day you crap spewing idiot.

Saddam faces genocide trial over '180,000 Kurd deaths'

By Oliver Poole in Baghdad
Last Updated: 1:26am BST 05/04/2006

Saddam Hussein is to be charged with genocide over a 1980s campaign against the Kurds that led to the deaths of an estimated 180,000 people, Iraq's chief prosecuting judge announced yesterday.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/04/05/wiraq05.xml

what about the marsh arabs Dougie?

This Briefing Paper details the ongoing campaign by the Ba'athist government of Iraq against the Ma'dan or so-called Marsh Arabs-the mostly Shi'a Muslim population that inhabits the marshlands (al-ahwar) in southern Iraq around the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Numbering some 250,000 people as recently as 1991, the Marsh Arabs today are believed to number fewer than 40,000 in their ancestral homeland. Many have been arrested, "disappeared," or executed; most have become refugees abroad or are internally displaced in Iraq as a result of Iraqi oppression. The population and culture of the Marsh Arabs, who have resided continuously in the marshlands for more than 5,000 years, are being eradicated.

http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/mena/marsharabs1.htm

yeah, saddam was a real swell guy pal!

send it after the enemies in our own country

you have me soooo angry C Doug I can't see straight. LOL intelligence is a relative thing CD and yes compared to your blazing intellect i would consider myself a genius. any comments about the 180,000 kurds saddam killed and the magically disappearing marsh arabs? i won't hold my breath. cheers goofball.

DANGER DANGER - trailer trash on rampage, don't give o'brien a gun!

hey ryan, mozambique is your neighbor why don't you feed them? history will tell about the iraq war when iraqis are a flourishing democracy 30 years from now you'll think of the foolish comments you've made today. after wwii there were people that said the japanese could never be a free people and that they had lived under emperioral rule and their culture would never accept democracy. here we are 60 years later good friends and allies playing baseball with each other. luckily we ignored the idiots then that said the japanese could never be free just like we are now with you cynics. america's reward will be a free, happy, and grateful nation of iraq just like japan is today. like i said we've done this before Japan and South Korea are prime examples and we'll do it again. the reason the terrorists don't want us to win their is because when the rest of the arab world sees iraq flourishing and us letting them thrive they won't be able to convince their people we're the great satan they've been saying we are. it's all about hearts and minds and like i said history will tell.

Yeah, the Guardian is unreliable, but Mike O'Brien is infallible.

No one says Saddam was "swell". Just pointing out that your facts aren't straight. But I guess there's no point highlighting your lack of credibility when you're going to use words like swell and do it for me.

Anyway, enough's enough. This page is about killer robots, not Iraq. Take care.

ryan, i can tell you must just be some goofy kid that doesn't know a thing about the real world. you say things based on emotion and then admit you haven't a clue but gee this is the way i feel. hmmm... by the way i have ten guns including an AK-47... so where do you live again? please be a little more specific this time! or if you'd like you can just come visit my trailer! ah just kiddin.. maybe LOL

True true C Doug... you can't believe everything you read anywhere's now days. i'm outta here. nice chatting to you all and same to you take care.

It's nice to see this technology trickle down to the US military. I assume they are going to use id. Software's DOOM veterans circa 1994 for the aiming? :)

Way to go, Mike!! Way to turn the snide comments into honest debate. The Bush haters, America haters, and conspiracy theorists can't stand it when facts get in the way of their emotional agenda-driven insults.

Keep fighting the good fight, man.

Gee what a great idea...Now if we can just get them to think for themselves.....meet ED209! You know, I really have to question WHY we make videos about how these work, WHERE all of the weaknesses are and post it on youtube where ANY terrorist can download this and use it to DEFEAT IT. Think that the RUSSIANS and CHINA don't do the exact same thing?? Just a thought. We need to keep our "secrets" to ourselves. TV is breaching our security in too many ways lately....

Hey Mike O'B,

I won't pretend to match your sheer brilliance, but here is a quiz for you to test your knowledge of why we are in Iraq:

1) What country was home to all but 4 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11? (And while you are at it, how many of the remaining 4 were from Iraq?)
2) What country is home to the majority of "enemy combatants" in Gitmo?
3) What country is home to the majority of "foreign fighers" in Iraq?
4) What country is home to Bin Laden?
5) What country did Bush just announce billions of dollars in military sales?
6) What country is Bush on hand-holding terms with its leader?

If you know the answers to these questions then you are smarter than me (though mainly because my head has already exploded). And while you are at it, please do tell us what 2+2 is equal to. . .

Talk about GONZO personified!! I need one of those on my TX ranch. Keep those damn looky-loos off of my property. Hey check out my new cd comin' out this September - LOVE GRENADE!! Me and the boys were workin' up a sweat on a daily basis to make the ultimate Nuge dynamo!! WANGO down to yer local record shop at buy it when it's available or visit my website. Best rockout I've done in years. The NUGE

I, for one, welcome... er uh, never mind.

Mike O'Brien,

I won't waste my time explaining why people like you and the neoCONS are why we will never know world peace. You're like belligerent toddlers: "MINE, MINE, MINE! I'M NOT LISTENING, NYA NYA NYA!".

The only point I'll make is that maybe you should try to use that shriveled little grey thing rattling around inside your skull and realize that W. & company could give a crap about you & me (assuming you aren't filthy rich) except to get our votes. All that oil money and war spending is going to fat-cat executives and non-wealthy Americans are paying for it!

Get your head out of your rear-end!

Hey Flavor!!

How about unfair analogies for $200, Alex?

Last I saw, neither Bin Laden nor Al'Queda ran a country. I think that's what we're trying to do, m'kay?

Saudi Arabia is the answer and if you rread any of George Tenet's book, you'd know that the Saudi government was crucial in thwarting many other planned attacks by Al'Queda shortly after 9/11.

Nice try.

Mike O'Brien calm down, cease flaming.

Yes Saddam was a crazy murdering dictator. I thank the US for dealing with him. My only complaint would be that it would have been better if the US had done this the first time around, and then Iraq could have been on the road to stability long ago.

Your argument that oil isn't a motivating factor due to high oil prices is flawed. Oil prices now aren't your motivating factor; its future oil prices. If you force your stability on Iraq, then future oil prices will be much lower (than if Saddam was still there and still being an idiot).

Mike, I see you are well-informed, but you may benefit from a less-confrontational argument technique.

I think they are stupid & a waste of money. I'm around a corner, pressed up against a wall, this thing comes along, I just tip it over, or smash the cameras, or toss a grenade on it. Waste of money, right?

*last I saw, neither Bin Laden nor Al'Queda ran a country. I think that's what the US is trying to prevent in Iraq now, m'kay?

*correction

Check it out. The nuge just posted..typical. the rightwing fag who thinks hes god or something. kill any bambi's lately ted? You coward. Those are kool toys. Where can i get 1?

Iggy, you are just plain wrong.

Anybody...I mean anybody can make money off this war. It's called the "stock market" and even poorly informed folks like yourself can open up an online account and buy Haliburton or Raytheon or Boeing or Honeywell etc.

These so-called "rich cats" that are going to make soooo much money in Iraq would make just as much in other investments if there were no war. Everyone...I mean everyone knows, that you have to have money to make money. Right? And those that have money will continue to make more and more money, at the expense of the little guy. Right?

To assume that we went to war just to make a few people rich is a concept that simply lacks common sense. (besides the fact that there is zero evidence to support this theory)

O'Brien has his head on straight, unlike some people here who have made it blatantly obvious they have no idea what they're arguing for.

Mary,
I don't think this thing will be used in close-quarters combat where you can flip the off switch or tip it over. It will most likely sit on a street corner and blast the bad guys from a 100-200 yards away. A burst of 5.56x45mm rounds traveling at over 2500 feet a second will ruin any insurgents day. The insurgents I have seen in combat on film are cowards. They spray and pray, then duck and run. This guy is not going to flinch, laying down accurate fire all day and all night. If they do manage to knock it out, who cares. If we kill a dozen of them in the process it was worth it. Extra bonus is no photos of dead american soldiers for the anti-war and terrorist propagandists to use for their benefit. Money well spent in my opinion.

this video is incredibly propagandistic.

"someone at ground zero came back wiht the idea to put a weapon on it"

oh please what a crock of sh1t. we've had the idea to weaponize robots since as long as robots have existed. nothing but propaganda trying to stir up feelings about 911, which, by the way was not carried out by al quaeda..

dummies.

timothe, I concede that anybody with the desire and wherewithal to play the stock market (not everyone has it) can make a little bit of money. However, many of us with a bit of conscience can't stomach having anything to do with it; we would then be war profiteers too.

No, rich executives couldn't make just as much money because they would have a smaller bottom line. Do you think that it's one or the other: they get millions and billions in compensation or they play the stock market?

"To assume that we went to war just to make a few people rich is a concept that simply lacks common sense. (besides the fact that there is zero evidence to support this theory)"

History dictates common sense on this issue. War profiteering has probably been around since the very first tribal war. Do a search for "Iraq war profiteering" and you'll find plenty articles citing evidence.

If these robots kill an innocent civilian ........

Posted by: Michael Moore
----

Claims of Innocence mean nothing, they are only proof a foolish lack of caution.

Peter,
The first gulf war actions were only given the authority to remove Saddam from the territories he invaded. No permission was granted to march to Baghdad and overthrow Saddam. It was also widely believed that a weakend and humiliated Saddam would be easily overthrown by his own people. Sadly, this did not happen.

If stability is won in Iraq and their oil goes on the free market, then everyone's fuel costs will go down. As it was during the 90's only those nations willing to corrupt the oil for food program got their hands on Iraq's oil. Suspiciously enough, the nations that were accused of doing so are those same nations that have done everything they can to stand in the way of our mission in Iraq. Hmmm, France and Germany.

Qbit, does the Q stand for 'Quaeda'?

So, Qbitch who was responsible for the attacks on 9/11? Is it the Jews or Bush as his war mongering cronies turn to be the evil masterminds?

I love these things. Seriously.

If you hippies would shut up the point is that these things kill iraqi's that shoot at us. We have robot soldiers what could be more awsome.

Dave, if you warmongers would just shut up, we wouldn't need this stuff. But no, you have to have your pissing contests and the people who just want to live in peace pay the price.

This thing needs a RedOwl gunfire detection thingy on it. Now that would be cool. Imagine that someone fires and the robot aims at him, waiting for the operator to identify the target as an enemy, fine tune the aiming, and pull the trigger.

Can I fit one in my jon-boat on my next trip to help hurricane victims?

Can they paddle too?

Oh Good, Now the Bad-Guys know All about the New-Weapon ! **************

5 camera’s, what kind of weapons it carries , also
Bad-Guys > 1 each “RPG†weapon $800.00
USA >1 Each Robo Weapon (Guessing ) about $175,000.00 of My Tax-Money.
One Bad-guy > with his $800.00 RPG, shoots my $175,000.00 Robo weapon
Question? Who is the looser ?

It looks ok when nobody is shooting at it, doesn't it?

But there's no armor. Its sensors and weapons are unprotected from small-arms fire. It can't duck or hide in a foxhole. You might as well paint a bulls-eye on it.

A sniper will take it apart in seconds.

Which leads me to wonder, what exactly is this thing for?

If you want to deliver massive firepower on a target 400 yards away, the US Army is already lugging around a heck of a lot of weapons systems that can do that better than any army on Earth. Being a hostile 400 yards from our troops is an unhappy experience.

If you want to engage in a closer-in firefight, you would want troops who can use terrain to their advantage, or at least RPVs armored against small arms and grenade launchers.

The only time this converted bomb-disposal RPV will be of any use is if the targets aren't shooting back. There's a word for that: assassination.

How, exactly, does assassination fit into the concept of nation-building?

Hearts and minds, people. Al Jazeera will have a field day with this bug-eyed monster whirring along Baghdad streets looking for soft targets that don't shoot back.

in the year 2010 the robots known as "swords" unit it power and.... may god be with us

Only $175,000???!!! I'll take 3 for me and 9 for my buddy Hugo down in .......oops. I mean my buddy Dave in Venice Beach.

Can you teach them to understand....errr speak Spanish?
Can they swim?

I'm gonna mount one on a skateboard!!!

I am soooo stoked dude!!

that's nice...

the stupid american people giving money to the weapon makers and thinking that's all for the soldiers.. you are so funny.

Congratulations for creating a whole new area to spend money on.
Someday you will discover that you are all alone in the world, being hated by all the rest...

Hmm - an expensive, powerful weapons system that can be disabled with a balloon full of paint :)

But does it run linux?

Too bad the enemy has bipedal motion instead of being a fixed piece of paper. I wonder if it can deliver the same amount of accuracy when it's aimed at a moving target.

David, if you watch the video, the link to utube, they talk about using these in close quarters. Watch the video to see one of the prime selling points. I agree, though, it seems these robots could be used to save our guys lives in open field combat, but I still see problems with that also. The enemy could just throw some tarps over them, or soil or just blow them up with a missle. There are real flaws with this technology, pls. just do not be sold by the hype. These things cost a fortune! I still think it will be easy to undermine this technology and it is just a waste of our resources.

There's always just one voice about the 'benefits' of an arm. What if terrorists use an arm like this to defeat te 'evil west'?
Arms = Wasted Money

and now for some robot music...
http://www.badongo.com/file/3932484

...this thread just proves that no-one is correct yet everyone's quick to judge each other...

:)

Let's say you need to check out some building but have no idea whether it's set up to explode, filled with militants or is just some poor civilian's house. Which do you send in first:

a) A bunch of soldiers nervous about what might be on the other side of the door - who could end up shooting first rather than guessing and gambling with their lives any further.

b) A remote-controlled robot whose operator has absolutely no reason to fear for his life and thus is pretty unlikely to open fire at some civilian who was just trying to scratch his butt or something.

First of all, most of these "simple" solutions to disable the robot will also work to kill a real soldier. A $800 RPG can kill a whole squad just as well as a robot.

You idealistic, "brave" people (who probably never saw or understand combat)are horribly misguided.
Why does this make us cowards? Should we just gave each soldier a stick because close range combat is less cowardly than a shot from 100m away? Heck, why not just make them use their fists?

Your misguided bravery is exactly the same as stupidity.

Don't even get me started on "world peace." There is no such thing, especially in a world filled with countless of the gullible, ignorant, and apathetic. It takes just ONE bad apple...

WELCOME TO CYBERDYNE SYSTEMS

"What kind of people are we when we send machines to fight our fights? "
Why the fuck is it "our fight", you moron? Because George "the idiot" Bush says it is? As if...

No, you're the moron - its your fight because you drive a SUV, leave hundreds of electronic gadgets running 24/7, fly to the next city along just to go shopping, expect all the cheapest toys to be shipped to you from across the world. All these things that you want require oil, that's why its *your* fight.

With UAV's in the air and these UGV's patrolling the streets. What a world.

We need to design a training video game... that builds a real/virtual 3d worlds. We can use teenagers to rule the world. After 180hrs of virtual missions ie training who is too know when the mission becomes REAL.

And btw Israel is setting up automated guns soon to be autonomous with shoot to kill orders for no man zones.

I think these are a good step in reducing our combat casualties. And really think for a moment those of you who dislike the US, If we were to give the world a big "FU" and pull all our troops, money, aid relief, etc home, who you gonna cry to? This country helps others in need more than it helps its own civllians half the time. Personally I think we're well over-due for an isolationist period, just flip everyone else the bird and tell them to fix themselves since they want to complain after we make the attempt to fix their problems.

Anyways back on target, if they can build this remote controlled weapon platforms to perform safely in terms of limiting civillian and military casualties, more power to them.

I'd just like to add that Australia only followed the US into the war because our prime minister likes to lick hole, and to secure a source of oil. Our defense minister has admitted as much.

Also, I believe that a large proportion of the USA's economy is actually tied in to the defense forces, so the only way to keep your economy booming is to keep needing the defense force. Hence the invasion. When was the last time you saw anything with "made in america" stamped on it. I can't wait for China and India to knock you on your economic arse. Australia might go down too, but it'll be worth it.

The USA has never stepped in "to help someone else out". You stopped WWII because the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour. You went into Vietnam to "stop the red tide of communism", but only because it was knocking on your door. You have been in the middle east numerous times, because of your obsession for oil. "Truth, justice, and the American way"...not necessarily in that order.

The RC gadgets themselves? What happens when they get radio jammed. Or someone uses a mobile phone nearby. Or it gets too hot/cold and the circuits/mechanics seize up. Or a hose falls off. Or the tracks get to something they can't climb. Or a 'soldier' spills a can of soft drink all over the controls. Or even the gun malfunctions. Ask anyone with half a brain, the more complicated you make something, the more things there are to go wrong. US pilots can't fire a laser guided missile at the right people, how on earth is a ground soldier going to do any better?

Oh, and while we're at it (because I'm probably not going to visit this comment box again), Saddam was a very nasty person. But I can't say George W, or the rest of your sorry presidents, are/were much better.

See you in Silicon Hell.

http://dodaam.en.ec21.com/product_detail.jsp?group_id=GC00452227&product_id=CA00452228&product_nm=Unmanned_tracking___auto_firing_system

UTAFS (Unmanned Tracking & Auto firing System) is a new concept hybrid technology product to control infantry rifles remotely in the field with enhanced night surveillance, detection, tracking and auto-firing capability.

"The USA has never stepped in "to help someone else out". You stopped WWII because the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour. You went into Vietnam to "stop the red tide of communism", but only because it was knocking on your door. You have been in the middle east numerous times, because of your obsession for oil. "Truth, justice, and the American way"...not necessarily in that order." - Sixftdick

Yes, the US entered WW2 on the PACFIC theater due to the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, but you forget we stepped in to help in Europe prior to Pearl Harbor, just as we stepped in to help during WW1. The US didn't have to go over and help, the german forces weren't threatening us, but we stepped in because it was our allies that were in need of help. We went into Korea and Vietnam because they asked for help against the spread of communism, Obviously both the south koreans and the south vietnamese didn't want it, yet if the US hadn't stepped up to the plate to help, do you honestly think they would have kept it out?

MMm, the comments about " a low point in integrity and honour" within the armed forces sounds alot like something someone who hasn't been in combat would say. When you've got your stomach hanging out and your spraying blood onto a wall 15 foot away honour doesn't mean anything. I put life right up above honour and I think that is where it should be. Suggesting that trying to save soldiers lives is dishonourable is stupid, I'm ready to die for my country and I've been through the stress of ops several times, but just as we built armour to keep us safe and get our jobs done I'd appreciate anything that'd stem the continous death toll our armed forces are inccuring.

Didn't the US tell everyone to FOff back in Kosovo for quite a while, seems the rest of NATO did a commendable job there without the US's assistance.

Joe, great comment. I'm glad someone finally said it. For everyone who thinks these methods are lacking integrity and are dishonorable, where is the honor in sitting behind a computer and criticizing the armed forces that keep these wars overseas? If a war ever came to the shores of the U.S., I'd imagine every person who's posted here would be more than happy to have an armed robot or two protecting their neighborhood while they sleep.

Also, since I just saw the latest post, I'd like to say that my views tend to coincide more with those from "liberals" than from "conservatives". Forcing every possible issue into a liberal versus conservative debate is overly simplistic and dangerously antagonistic. I know we love our rivalries in the U.S., but this isn't the Red Sox versus the Yankees -- we should be able to take the best players from both teams, since, after all, it is our livelihood that's at stake. (Sorry if you're not a baseball fan and that metaphor didn't do it for you.)

>WOULD...YOU...LIKE...TO...PLAY...A...GAME?

Indeed... modern Liberals ARE fascists. I can't stand anyone who's that far over to the extreme right. And Conservatives are even worse.

I'm a pacifist for the most part, but I'd make an exception for Conservatives. I'd make those vile stains on the face of existence understand that waterboarding IS torture through first-hand demonstration before I set my new robot killing machine upon their sorry asses. I think the true definition of a Conservative is "coward", and the true definition of a Liberal is "apathetic". Long live the left... vive la revoluccion!

I think "a low point in integrity and honour" is not referring to the soldiers who put their lives at risk for our county's cause du jour. It refers to the collective consciousness and what is acceptable behaviour between human beings.

Put in simpler terms: are you familiar with the chest-beater's term "fight like a man"? Is this fighting "like a man"?

Human combat soldiers have the ability to stand up and refuse to fight when things get out of hand. These robots will do whatever the guy pushing the joystick tells them to do, no matter how intellectually and emotionally disconnected he is with the results. The more soldiers turn into robots, the more death and distruction we'll see because it all gets watered down some little video game.

What about the soldiers in combat that decide they've had enough of being ordered to commit atrocities (and no, I'm not necessarily saying that about Iraq)? Are you saying the Pinball Wizards controlling these robots are just as honorable and have as much integrity as them?

You do, of course, have a point. At least those in power who already treat our soldiers like mindless, emotionless, consciousless robots can now have the real thing. No more sending humans to get killed or severely wounded for a lost cause and then throwing them into the junk heap when they're of no use any more.

Now we just need a robot President. Is a puppet a kind of robot?

This isn't a robot. A robot is able to make it's own decisions. This is a remote control car with a gun. They never said how much battle damage they can sustain and still perform their missions. Just tip the thing over.

using robots to kill people is a very bad idea

I wonder if one of this robots kill an american soldier

I see the Yahoo boards are alive and well here. I am glad you guys found a new home.

Check out the level of hatred between you conservative and liberal Americans! You hate each other even more than you hate the terrorists or the French! Why don't you all just have a big old crazy civil war and kill each other? You can even use some of these fancy robots to kill each other. LOL

"I wonder if one of this robots kill an american soldier"

If that American soldier becomes disillusioned and refuses to fight, I think it's highly possible. The guy behind the joystick, at best, would likely see them as no different than an innocent bystander. We've seen in these postings that there are people who could care less if innocents are killed.

Of course, with the "You're either with us or against us" mentality that our administration pushes, it's even more likely that soldier would be specifically targeted.

It would be nice if the USA spent its trillions of dollars on helping poorer nations instead of invading or bombing the crap out of them. Sometimes I think that if the entire USA sank beneath the ocean, the rest of the world would breath a sigh of relief.

Robots will develop fast, they will acquire greater autonomy and will be able to take decisions ever more autonomously: but if a robot were to take a wrong decision, who would be to blame? If a robot were to kill a man, who would be sentenced? The owner? The builder? The designer? Or the Robot itself?
For these reasons was born the roboethics.
If you want change contribute to roboethics debate, visit www.roboethics.org
or if you are searching video footage on this topics, You can write roboethcis in you tube and discover the no fiction film "Ciao Robot - The birth of roboethics"
(www.ciaorobot.org)
This is the trailer:

Emanuele Micheli

You all are missing the point entirely. A robot can afford to be shot at first and respond in kind, instead of shoot first and ask questions later. This saves the lives of civilians and soldiers. The 'bot can observe while in harms way so the user can have time to make an informed decision. It beats running into an ambush or throwing a grenade into a house full of children.

I think it’s interesting that people here are so concerned with who is taking responsibility for civilian deaths and friendly fire. We ought to be concerned with these issues, but since when has the US ever taken responsibility for the atrocities it has committed? Civilians die all the time in war. Often times they are killed on purpose. “Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, all over Vietnam (Mi Li), not to mention the near complete genocide of every Native American tribe. America wins wars and winners aren't held accountable for the crimes they commit. Civilians die, friendly fire happens, its war. This brings me to my next point.

War sucks. No matter what. Even if you somehow manage to fight a 'Just' war, World War Two maybe qualifies even though we were partially responsible for its cause, it is impossible to fight that war 'Justly'. Meaning even if you are fighting for a good reason, which you almost certainly are not, you’re probably f***ing shit up and killing innocent people while you are doing it. IM NOT SAYING WE SHOULD HAVE LET HITLER WIN!!! I’m merely pointing out that even when we were given an opportunity to fight a Just war Justly we didn’t. We killed people who didn’t need to be or deserve to be killed. This is the nature of war, which is why it should be avoided at all costs. The Iraq war was obviously not avoided at all costs. In fact, unlike both WWI and WWII during which the vast majority of Americans were originally isolationist, most American’s wanted to go to Iraq.

Everyone thinks they know something one way or the other. Everything written here is so absolutely right or left wing, when in reality the world is incredibly f***ing confusing and convoluted. There are arguments and counterarguments to everything. You think you know something until you find out you were wrong. The one thing in this case I can always rely on, I hope, is my knowledge that war is never good and usually unnecessary.

I think that this is quite scary, one trip to defcon or HOPE will show you how easy it is to hack a computer what happens if someone hacks a robot or all of them for that matter. Not to mention the thousand other issues that arise such as liability. If we get robot soldiers we might as well as be invading everyone.

Another tool for the evilarchy.

These signals cannot be fast if they are encrypted, thus there will be a lot of canned functions that take a shorter trigger signal to send and decrypt, but that would make these things predictable.

This great stuff. Now you can enjoy the fun of killing from the comfort of your own home. I like it.

YOu people are paranoid morons. Stay in your basements watching your fat-chick p*rn, telling your mom to do your wash. You wouldnt know the first thing about being shot at, watching your friends get blown to bits, screaning in agony looking down at a missing leg. I do, and would rather have some stupid bot die than a friend. So Fck a sheep you lamers.

If a terrorist kills an innocent civilian, who is held responsible? People will blame the “West†for that as well anyway.

As long as the POLICE can never get their hands on these, it's cool. I'm not quite sure how democracy works when the government can use machines against the people.

Didnt we see this in RoboCop? Does Ed209 ring a bell?

DF is gay

It is not a robot but a man controlled, remote device. SKYNET is not part of the equation and in reality it is functionally no different than a telescopic weapon sight. Confine your whining and whether or not a war is just to the officials we elect. They are the ones who determine when & whom we'll fight. But for the troops on the ground, give them the best tools available so they can do their job quickly, efficiently, and with the fewest casualties to them.

â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘â–‘
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