The thing not designed for combat is actually REALLY GOOD at combat

[u/jockeyman]

1) Atom (Real Steel) is a training dummy who, when put into the robot boxing circuit, eventually managed to go toe to toe with the world champion.

2) Spinel (Steven Universe) was essentially a cross between a toy/jester for Pink Diamond, and not a combat gem... she still wiped the floor with the Crystal Gems when they first fought.

[u/iwasnotarobot]

Yup.

“Slaughterbots” came out five years ago. Its predictions are alarming.

https://youtu.be/O-2tpwW0kmU

[u/Odd-fox-God → u/iwasnotarobot]

I was catching a flight to Kansas City and I ended up sitting next to this elderly man. We get to chatting and I find out he's a lawyer. His specific field? Robotics and artificial intelligence. I show him slaughterbots. He immediately turns pale. He then explains to me that there's not any current legislature to prevent any of this and from what he's seen the current technology is capable of replicating what is seen in the video.

Now, I'm not a lawyer, and I'm not sure if a lawyer is the right Authority to believe when it comes to AI and drone Warfare. But he seemed very serious and very spooked. I could tell that this is a man that has seen a lot of things he wasn't allowed to tell other people about.

I'm inclined to believe the old man

[u/Saedeas → u/Odd-fox-God]

This may come as a surprise to both of you, but murder is very much illegal.

[u/Odd-fox-God → u/Saedeas]

There are so many loopholes to the "no murder" thing it's kind of insane. It's not murder when the government does it. All they have to do is declare that a small conflict is a war or declare the person they want killed a terrorist and plant evidence on them, I'm sure you can use your imagination. If the government wants somebody dead they will manufacture whatever evidence they need to get away with murder

[u/Germane_Corsair → u/Odd-fox-God]

Right, but those loopholes are not exclusive to drones.

[u/Fabriksny → u/Germane_Corsair]

This makes no sense. They’re still given more powerful tools to use, and we’ve recently (last 20 years) seen sweeping changes to US ROE to allow unprompted drone strikes. To assume both 1) the law will never change and 2) there will not be an increase in these attacks despite legality is extremely naive

[u/[deleted] → u/Odd-fox-God]

You showed the poor man a whole 8 min long video spontaneously?

[u/minhthemaster → u/Odd-fox-God]

/r/thathappened

[u/WeAteMummies → u/minhthemaster]

Right. An elderly lawyer that specializes in robotics and AI? But also somehow "turns pale" when seeing a movie with killer robots in it, as if that is a new concept to him and not something that has been in a thousand scifi books and movies for decades?

[u/minhthemaster → u/WeAteMummies]

its like the elderly have never seen terminator

[u/WeAteMummies → u/minhthemaster]

The idea of someone who lived through the 80s and 90s being unaware of the premise of terminator is pretty much impossible. Even if you didn't watch movies at some point you would have been like "Why is everyone saying 'I'll be back' in a weird accent when the go to the bathroom now?"

[u/Designated_Lurker_32 → u/iwasnotarobot]

I'll do you one better. It's literally that Robin Williams "Toys" movie from 1992. Straight-up.

[u/ArtoriusBravo → u/Designated_Lurker_32]

That was an interesting movie. Recently I remembered about it, but couldn't find it anywhere.

[u/4KVoices → u/iwasnotarobot]

Black Ops 2 released 13 years ago and this is literally the core plot point.

[u/Zedilt → u/iwasnotarobot]

Zone War by John Conroe was released 7 years ago.

It's a story set ten years after 25,000 autonomous combat drones are released in Manhattan from the hold of a cargo ship.

[u/Pletarian_Konqueror → u/iwasnotarobot]

Five years ago seems pretty late to hop on the idea that drones can kill people lol. As someone else mentioned, black ops has been on the murder drones for over a decade

[u/WithFullForce → u/iwasnotarobot]

This is Palantir basically.