U.S. Army's Future Combat System Plans Robot Soldiers
The U.S. Army's Future Combat System is working to have only robots on the battlefields by the end of the century. Currently they are using iRobot's PackBot robot for bomb-disposal.- As part of the Army's $160 billion Future Combat Systems, to be deployed within the next decade, robot soldiers will be programmed to invade hostile terrain and shoot to kill.
- If all goes according to plan, there could be virtually no humans on the battlefield -- at least on our side -- by the end of this century. And while "Transformers" remains science fiction today, "RoboCop
- These cyborgs are only part of the coming robotic revolution.
- Robots are changing the way we live and work.
- At banks, they provide account balances and dispense cash.
- We can't -- and shouldn't -- stop technological advancement, but surely there's a difference between helping society and replacing a human with a robot.
- While robots might communicate better than some doctors, this may be pushing the envelope.
- AFX financial-news service, has used robots to crunch market numbers and file roundups, sometimes in 0.3 seconds flat.
- "An autonomous robot could have been programmed to have made the same decision," Arkin says, "and perhaps in a more effective and safer manner."
- So let us prepare for the inevitable new world of pervasive robotics.
- We must decide what we want robots to do for us and what we insist on doing ourselves.
- The time to take charge is now -- before the transformers do.
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