Sunday, March 24, 2013

FROM STICKS AND STONES TO ROBOTS AND DRONES


THE BIRDMEN DRONE

IN THE BLUE; IT IS STEEL

A MOTOR SINGS AND ZOOMS.


 


From SMOKE AND STEEL by Carl Sandburg

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“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”

Voltaire


 
 

The 1909 Wright Military Flyer
 
 
The RQ-4 Global Hawk
 
 
 


It is no surprise that men are now flying planes without sitting inside the cockpits.

It is something we would expect extraterrestrials to do if they were “visiting” our planet.

If they were, what would we do?

Shoot at them, of course.

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It’s an immense "maybe", but maybe hardware in our newest military “toys” contains parts from an alien technology.

It’s as likely as moon cheese.

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It’s o.k. as long as the most advanced drones stay in the hands of the good guys.

I wouldn’t want the bad guys to have the better robots or drones.

Would you?

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Sticks…stones…swords…spears…arrows… gunpowder…guns…cannons…nuclear energy…rockets…robots…drones…

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Computers.

They can be used for Good and Evil.

Just like Nuclear Energy.

It all depends on how the technology is put to use.

A toaster didn’t become a weapon, except on rare occasions when a person used it to crack the skull of another person.

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It is no surprise that we now have robot vacuum sweepers, robot dogs, and humanoid robots.

I wish I could be surprised instead of just being shocked and dismayed.



A report by Human Rights Watch and the Harvard Law School cites a United States Air Force assessment that “by 2030 machine capabilities will have increased to the point that humans will have become the weakest component in a wide array of systems and processes.”


From U.N. Expert Calls for Halt in Military Robot Development




 

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My bravery is not equal to that of Brave New World.

I am fearful of the brave bearers of these new weapons.

Einstein said,
“Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.”

And Martin Luther King noted,

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."


 

IT’S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES!

 

 

 

 

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