So we've seen the renewal of the Terminator franchise with the latest block buster Terminator Salvation - and don't worry there'll be no plot spoilers here.
The original movie and the concept was great science fiction. I mean the notion of 'the rise of the machines' set against the backdrop of a computer system that becomes 'self aware' moments after being turned on... yeah, science fiction.
As we all know any robotic artificial intelligence would of course be 'programmed' to follow the Three Laws of Robotics as outlined by Issac Asimov..
1. A Robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except when such orders would conflict with the first law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
Ok, so they were created as a plot device in a science fiction story, but they are laws that folks involved in robotics often refer to.
WELL guys, they might sound like good laws, but I have to tell you that we already have 'robots' breaking the first two on a regular basis. Maybe this is not news to you, but when I stopped to think about it I felt a strange kind of turning in the pit of my stomach.
I am a bit of a techno-geek and so enjoy hearing about advances in technology - hell the Rationalist part of me is a science nut!
But when it dawned on me that 'military robots' are currently in active service in Iraq and Afghanistan suddenly visions of Terminator Hunter-Killers seemed far less like a Hollywood fantasy.
We're all familiar with the little remote control 'robot caterpillars' that have been used for many years in bomb disposal situations. The fact that these things are obviously 'remote control' and look like something you might 'knock up' from an old mechano set seemed to dispel any fears or concerns that they could turn on their human masters and wage violent techno-war.
Todays military robots are far from mechano and wire affairs.
TALON is a tractor based robot that can travel through sand, water, up to 100 feet of snow and climb stairs (so it's better then the first Daleks!). Equipped with night vision and infra red sensors it has become an essential aid to soldiers 'in the field'.
HAZMAT TALON is fitted with gas, chemical and radiation sensors, SOTAL (Special Ops Talon) has a range of listening devices and SWORDS TALON is equipped with small arms for combat and guard roles...
So all OK there then, keeping the armed forces personnel safe.....
WAIT a moment... SWORDS TALON carries a gun!!!
Well not just a gun. It can be fitted with a M16 rifle a M240 machine gun, a six barralled grenade launcher or a FLASH incendiary weapon.
Not so passive now eh - in fact a pretty mean fighting machine.
TALON has been in military service since 2000 in places like Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq.
The MQ-9 Reaper (Predator B to give it it's first name) is an unmanned aerial vehicle. This lovely little machine can carry up to 14 Hellfire air to ground missiles; or four missiles and two 500lb laser guided bombs and it will soon be able to carry AIM-92 air to air missiles.
One US Air Force Chief of staff (General T Michael Moseley) is on record as saying:
"We've moved from using UAV's (unmanned air vehicles) primarily in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance roles before Operation Iraqi Freedom, to a true hunter killer role with the Reaper."
'HUNTER KILLERS'... and of course all being ordered to break the second and first laws of robotics as proposed by an optimistic Asimov.
USAF Reaper Squadrons include 432d Air Expeditionary Wing (Nevada, with RAF Sq.39); 30th Reconnaissance Sqd. ; 19th Attack Sqd.: 42d Attack Sqd.; 1st Special Operations Wing; 3rd Special Operations Wing; 174th Fighter Wing to name a few...
No 39 Squadron RAF is UK's Reaper Squadron
As of 2009 the reported number of these remote control and autonomous flying robots stood at 195 Predators and 28 Reapers.
At least with these robots humans are 'in the loop' and therefore are making the final decisions. However artificial intelligence (AI) is developing at such a rate that it is feasible that humans can be 'taken out of the loop'. (Shades of War Games here). This could be desirable from a military point of view as on-the-spot decisions can be made faster by the computer software AI system if it does not have to wait for human input.
The Samsung SGR-A1 is a 5.56mm robotic machine gun that is currently guarding the Korean DMZ. It can track multiple targets using infra-red and visible light. We are comfortably informed that this 'intelligent surveillance, guard robot' can "identify and shoot a target automatically from over two miles away" So although under human supervision the system can be 'automated'
Of course you don't want to kill the wrong people so Samsung have thoughtfully equipped the SGR-A1 with microphone and speakers... "so that passwords can be exchanged with human troops" If the person gives the wrong password, the robot can "sound an alarm or fire at the target using rubber bullets or a K-3 swivel mounted machine gun".
A recent report by the US Office of Naval Research makes for some sobering reading. It is the first report of its kind on military robot ethics and it points out that robots could display significant advantages over human beings as soldiers.
“There is a common misconception that robots will do only what we have programmed them to do,” says Patrick Lin, the chief compiler of the report.
“Unfortunately, such a belief is sorely outdated, harking back to a time when . . . programs could be written and understood by a single person.”
The reality, Dr Lin said, was that modern programs included millions of lines of code and were written by teams of programmers, none of whom knew the entire program: accordingly, no individual could accurately predict how the various portions of large programs would interact without extensive testing in the field – an option that may either be unavailable or deliberately sidestepped by the designers of fighting robots.
This issue is of direct relevance now as the US has passed a congressional mandate that a third of all "deep strike" aircraft must be unmanned by 2010 and by 2015 a third of all ground combat vehicles must be likewise unmanned.
So smart, autonomous fighting robots are here. At the moment they are being kept on a leash; but it is not inconceivable that there is a time coming soon when the leash can and will be taken off.
What of SKYNET?
Well as long as these 'robots' behave according to their programming I guess they'll only be killing, maiming and bombing the 'bad guys'... but when does AI become 'aware'?
Scientists are working on creating an 'artificial brain' and depending upon what sources you read you will discover of estimates of between 5 and 25 years before this is achieved.
If you are a dualist, then this will not really concern you as you will believe that consciousness is something outside of the mechanics of the brain - you subscribe to a kind of 'ghost in the machine'. Unfortunately most neurologists are non-dualists, believing that consciousness is an emergent property of brain function. If they are right then the 'artificial brain' we create will develop consciousness.
I know that this doesn't really seem to have been a topic that a Rational Mystic would normally blog about - I mean where's the mysticism or the pseudoscience?
Perhaps its more about the serious ethical debates that need to take place around this topic that have prompted this outpouring. There's so much here...
Putting issues of consciousness, AI and robotics aside for a moment, we have a range of technologies here that are actually removing some of the barriers to war.
When we wage war, for what ever reason, we accept the responsibility that human lives are going to be lost. If we can now wage war without the potential for loss of (carbon based) life of those on 'our side' in the conflict, then are we in fact removing the one thing that could make us stop and think twice?
In the Star Trek (original series) episode A Taste of Armageddon, two planets were waging a deadly war entirely by computer. The computer would report the damage caused in an attack and the casualties from that attack. The people on the planets would then voluntarily report for 'disintegration'. In this way 'societies trappings' of buildings, commercial infrastructure and material possessions would not be destroyed... but the engine of war would be served.
I get the feeling of some strange parallels here... the notion that warfare can be clinical and clean and sanitised is as far as I am concerned not a good idea!
But there's another futuristic consideration...
What if the robots we build do develop an awareness?
What is our responsibility then?
Should we send these artificial lives out to kill and be killed?
One last point...
Without wishing to sound like a conspiracy theorist it must be noted that however advanced military robots seem to be now the things that we know about are things in the public domain. How much more advanced is the technology being developed in the R&D departments of munitions, science and computer companies... until the discoveries being made there are announced we will never know.
What is in the public domain is always behind what is in the laboratories of the researchers.
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