
News — At The Edge — 8/26
These August days at the end of summer are great for you and me inasmuch as edge news slows to a trickle. To wit, there is only a single article this week.
However, this lone article is of immense importance. It pertains to a petition for the UN to ban autonomous weapons — wars involving killer robots and artificial intelligence. While this should be a no-brainer, given the structure and impotence of the UN there is virtually no chance the petition or the ban succeeds.
That is exceedingly unfortunate. It likely means we are too stupid to adequately control ourselves and or the machines will come to view us as a dangerous pathogen. (See my article, Our Twilight Zone & What Comes Next)
Also, I just posted a new article on Medium you might find of interest entitled, Ghost of Christmas Past?
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Elon Musk leads 116 experts calling for outright ban of killer robots -
“UN recently voted to begin formal discussions on [autonomous] weapons [and]…AI and robotics companies have sent an open letter…calling for it to prevent the arms race that is currently under way for killer robots…[because] threatens to usher in the ‘third revolution in warfare’ after gunpowder and nuclear arms….
’Once developed, lethal autonomous weapons will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend….AI technology has reached a point where the deployment of autonomous weapons is feasible within years…[and] experts fear that offensive weapons that operate on their own would lower the threshold of going to battle and result in greater loss of human life….
[Tech] founders call for ‘morally wrong’ lethal autonomous weapons systems to be added to the list of weapons banned…in 1983, which includes chemical and intentionally blinding laser weapons….[These] autonomous weapons systems…have a very real potential to cause significant harm to innocent people along with global instability’….
[However] lethal autonomous weapons are already in use…[and] in development, with prototypes available for land, air and sea combat…[with] Russia, the US and other countries are currently developing robotic tanks that can either be remote controlled or operate autonomously…[the] US’s autonomous warship…launched in 2016…[and] autonomous submarine systems…being considered for long-range deep-sea military use.” https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/20/elon-musk-killer-robots-experts-outright-ban-lethal-autonomous-weapons-war
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May you live long and prosper!
Doc Huston
