Thursday, February 18, 2016

The Future Of Warfare Is Killer Robots, Software, And Even Biology

Мobile security robot Taifun-M. © OAO "Izhevskiy radiozavod"

David Ignatius, Washington Post: In Munich, a frightening preview of the rise of killer robots

The Munich Security Conference is an annual catalogue of horrors. But the most ominous discussion this past weekend wasn’t about Islamic State terrorism but a new generation of weapons — such as killer robots and malignly programmed “smart” appliances that could be deployed in future conflicts.

Behind the main events at the annual discussion of foreign and defense policy here was a topic described in one late-night session as “The Future of Warfare: Race with the Machines.” The premise was that we are at the dawn of an era of conflict in which all wars will be, to some extent, cyberwars, and new weapons will combine radical advances in hardware, software and even biology.

Espen Barth Eide, the former foreign minister of Norway, imagined a future weapon that fused GPS guidance, facial-recognition technology and artificial intelligence, enabling it to be programmed like an electronic hit man. Kenneth Roth, the head of Human Rights Watch, noted the advantages of such “killer robots” for military planners: They don’t get tired, they wouldn’t get scared, and they would exercise consistent, if merciless, judgment.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: How long will it take to fully implement such a future .... I give it a few decades.

1 comment:

Bob Huntley said...

A few decades and ten days for the hackers to break in.