Slaughterbots...

I saw this today on Fox and wanted to make sure everyone saw it. I don't really care for Berkley very much but having worked in the Defense Industry close to 40 years and holding a degree in Computer Science I have to admit the professor is correct. The scary thing is if he and his colleagues have thought of this then one can be absolutely certain that the defense industry have also. Hell, universities get a huge amount of funding from DoD and the Defense Industry.

The video is about turning over the 'killing process' of one's adversaries to an automated drone. The video is very well done and even the acting is spot-on. I believe this is something we all need to watch because it is very possible especially given the state of optics, facial recognition, electronic miniaturization and AI advancement. Actually, I am not sure one could call it AI as you are simply giving it a set of parameters to operate from, that point is arguable. The next step obviously would be to tie it to something specific to a specific individual, perhaps a birthmark, a scent, or even something as futuristic as remote DNA sampling, the sky's the limit, and you got the perfect assassin to kill one or a million and doing it cheaply. But, even today, given optics + facial recognition including eye, hair and skin color, gender, current clothes worn...well, you could program something to give you a high percentage kill rate on a specific individual. Scary stuff and cheap compared to a standing military...hard to stop also, like stopping a swarm of bees except these bees are smart.

UC Berkeley professor’s ‘slaughterbots’ video on killer drones goes viral

 

I saw the video. I agree this is possible but what I really found interesting is that the good professor seems to think we can end the threat by banning the technology.

 

Good thing flame throwers are legal to own.

 

Flame throwers are a little rough to use indoors

 

You can use a flame thrower in side it's just not recommended.

 

hmmmm....come Farenheit 451 time....inventors and patent attorneys may be among the first to be flamed......

 

Flamethrowers inside are sort of like parachutes, you don't really need a parachute to skydive, unless you plan to do it more than once.

 

Those old movies with the machines taking over, may not be so far fetched anymore. I read an article in a Popular Science or Popular Mechanics magazine years ago, 20+ Years ago , about the technology of mosquito sized drones that could be dropped in the jungles to monitor troop movements , and thousands of them could be dropped at the end of an airfield that when the planes db levels alerted the drones , they would fly up and get sucked into the planes engines and destroy the turbine system causing the planes to crash.
So with the .gov having this technology , why would you think they wouldn't use it ?

 

LOL .... yup bird strike my azz. Nothing much surprises or shocks me any more. Even after Hitchcock's movie I pretty much liked watching birds. This changes things not so much in a good way. I don't like this world as much as the old one. Yes I understand this is just a tool, like a gun. It is also something else that can be misused and to kill anyone.

 

LOL ROFLMAO LOL

 

Battery life...

 

I'll bet they self destruct if you attempt to extract the HE.

 

Yeah, I caught that also. Einstein and others couldn't stop the advancement of nuclear weapons and he thinks mankind has changed?

What I found so interesting is that it would be relatively cheap to make millions of these and the coding (programming) is also relatively simple. Plus, it's like a neutron bomb (yes, I know they're not real) in that the infrastructure remains intact - hell - it's better because a neutron bomb would kill all life, these are specifically targeted for humans so pigs, cows, deer, etc. get a pass. What's scary is we're not talking high-level technology, expertise, or even money is needed

Tell me they are not going to use these. I would bet they have a working prototype now that is target specific for assassinations. You could make a million of these and not come close to the price tag of one F-35.

 

Wait until AI meets the slaughter bot - woohoo won't that be fun. How about getting your federally mandated self driving car hacked by man or machine - bumper cars at 100 MPH.... Zooooooooommmmmm! Give man a rope and he will bend over backwards to hang himself.

Seen some YouTube vids where they make tracking systems for nerf guns. Might need something like that attached to a semi auto shotgun at some point. Then again how are you going to track them if they are quiet, small, and otherwise stealth?

 

Up until this point, only needed to find the squishy bits in command to put an end to an altercation (take out the operator). It was a pretty basic proposition. Yeah I know he could be half way around the globe but FAA has rule for small drone needing to be in line of sight of the operator at all times so that limited the distance one would have to go to put an end to a situation one way or another.

Now with micro drones + AI on the horizon. The bunker is going to need reactive concrete to repulse the first wave .. but after a couple of hundred waves .. well, there won't be anyone left to tell the story of the last stand of the Medicine Men of Missoula Brigade III.

Yep, there's not be a really cool technology that didn't get usurped for alternative reasons.

God bless technology and the violence of men.

 

Yeah, there is no way this old monkey is riding in a self-driving car. I was going to say 'unless I could pull the plug manually' but even then if you are going 70mph it might be too late...

But, isn't this technology amazing - and - we find ways to use even good tech to kill each other. And, here I am thinking how I would do it on the cheap...like using a simple GPS to get a ground coordinate then have one go into search mode issuing the attack command upon acquisition of target or something even simpler like if you know the target's mobile phone number...heh-heh!

 

When SkyNet goes live it won't be armor-plated Arnold Schwarzeneggers that you have to worry about.
It'll be 3D-printed plastic roach-bots that barf contact poison all over your toothbrush.

Or on your mouth in the middle of the night.

 

Don't forget sexbots - really truly a technological happening that's going to be mainstream in a few years. Let an abused android get top notch AI with self awareness. It's what we get when a smartphone becomes more real to us than actual reality.

BTW watch West World. I don't think we are many generations of development away from this - the biggest limitation is likely not the AI but the power source.

 

Yul Brynner'd be wearing a solar collector cowboy hat.....He may be vulnerable in overcast weather, or during arctic winters though....