Its Official: Robots Are Now Injuring And Killing HumansBy Nicholas West There can be no debate about the use of killer robots in the military. We are in the middle of an admitted global drone arms race in which there are mass civilian casualties occurring under a specious U.S. legal framework that has thus far not even excluded its own citizens from being targeted for assassination. There is also a host of ground- and sea-based systems that are equally lethal and continue to be tested in massive joint military exercises. Time after time we have seen that military developments normally first employed over there eventually trickle down into the everyday lives of citizens at home. Sometimes the technology is beneficial, most often it is not. When weapons of war are handed down to local police, for example, we cant be shocked when we are soon having debates about militarized police in the United States. Artificial intelligence is another area that that has ushered in dual-use technologies such as drone surveillance and warfare, robot security guards and police, and self-driving vehicles for military and for civilians. In all cases we are now seeing disturbing misapplications as well as outright system failures. In fact, we are seeing many firsts that are threatening to become a trend if not quickly addressed and reined in. Just a few weeks ago we witnessed the first human death reported from a self-driving vehicle when Teslas autopilot sensors failed to detect an oncoming tractor trailer, killing the test driver. Previously, there were ominous signs of this potential when Googles self-driving cars first had failures that resulted in them being hit, but later actually caused an accident with a bus. Aside from the technical challenges, questions have been raised about the ethics and morality that will be required in certain fatal situations. That area, too, is raising eyebrows is it right to sacrifice the lives of some to save others? The standards are already becoming morally complex. Google Xs Chris Urmson, the companys director of self-driving cars, said the company was trying to work through some difficult problems. Where to turn toward the child playing in the road or over the side of the overpass? Google has come up with its own Laws of Robotics for cars: We try to say, Lets try hardest to avoid vulnerable road users, and beyond that try hardest to avoid other vehicles, and then beyond that try to avoid things that that dont move in the world, and then to be transparent with the user that thats the way it works, Urmson said. (Source) These incidents and dilemmas have thus far occurred during training and testing, which might mitigate some of the seriousness, but nonetheless points to some genuine flaws that should preclude these vehicles from being widely employed. As a quick aside, its essential to keep in mind that Isaac Asimov offered the world his Three Laws of Robotics in 1942; although they appeared in fiction, they since have been widely acknowledged within mainstream robotics, and in their original form are of such simple perfection that there is really no excuse for the errors that we are seeing: Nevertheless, artificial intelligence has already gained a foothold in all types of real-world service industries, as well as security, despite it not being a stretch to imagine the very same challenges and dangers that have appeared with self-driving vehicles and other autonomous systems. A marketing robot made the news for having got lost, leaving its staging area and wandering into a busy traffic intersection in Moscow, Russia. It was downplayed as a little adventure by the robots owner, but the fact is that an autonomous robot failed to keep its bearings and wound up posing a genuine threat to human driver safety. The truth is that researchers are still in the process of developing foolproof sensor systems for robots to recognize their surroundings, yet they continue to be deployed into the real world. Case in point: the security robot. Security robots have become a special area of interest for developers. Since at least 2013 there has been a worldwide initiative into robotic security focusing on prisons, care facilities, schools, and malls. However, a recent run-in with robotic mall security didnt go well for one toddler at Stanford Shopping Center in California. The parents of a young boy who got knocked down and run over by a security robot at Stanford Shopping Center want to get the word out to prevent others from getting hurt. They said the machine is dangerous and fear another child will get hurt. Stanford Shopping Centers security robot stands 5 tall and weighs 300 pounds. It amuses shoppers of all ages, but last Thursday, 16-month-old Harwin Cheng had a frightening collision with the robot. The robot hit my sons head and he fell down facing down on the floor and the robot did not stop and it kept moving forward, Harwins mom Tiffany Teng said. . Maybe they have to work out the sensors more. Maybe it stopped detecting or it could be buggy or something, shopper Ankur Sharma said. Harwins parents say whats even more worrisome is that a security guard told them another child was hurt from the same robot days before. (Source) [emphasis added] Here is that security robot in action: But this still pales in comparison with what happens when security robots are given weapons which is exactly what happened in the recent Dallas shooting. As Claire Bernish reports in her article Decision to Blow up US Citizen With Robot Was Improvised in Less Than 20 Minutes, a robot that was previously used with benign intent to reach out to a suicide threat was modified to become an instrument of death equipped with a pound of C-4 explosive: Manufactured by the military-industrial complexs darling, Northrop Grumman, this tactical robot is driven by a human via remote control, weighs 790 pounds and has a top speed of 3.5 mph, as the Washington Post described. It carries a camera with a 26x optical zoom and 12x digital zoom. When its arm is fully extended, it can lift a 60-pound weight. The hand at the end of the arm can apply a grip of about 50 pounds of force. Interestingly enough, the $151,000 tactical robot provided a far more life-affirming service just one year ago. According to Metro UK, the same model once assisted the California Highway Patrol when negotiations with a man threatening to kill himself by jumping from a San Jose overpass failedby delivering a pizza. . In just one year, a pizza-delivering robot with the potential to save human life during bomb threats or similar situations became a casually-deployed, due process-stripping weapon of war against a U.S. citizen. We are now left to wonder what more is on the horizon as artificial intelligence advances to the point where humans feel compelled to completely take the leash off of this technology even in war and domestic security. China already is prepared to unleash its robot army as a means of combating terrorism. And we are now being warned by the United Nations that terrorists very well could establish their own killer robot army which will presumably require us to counter that with even more lethal robotics in yet another arms race. It appears that we might have to be prepared to come full circle in this march toward technology being used to provide security at the very root of this drive will always be a human component. Until we solve the issues surrounding our own misapplication of morals and ethics (our real military, police and security injure and kill other humans after all), we might be destined only to provide a more lethal upgrade of ourselves. Nicholas West writes for selfnewsPost.com. This article may be republished in part or in full with author attribution and source link. terrorists very well could establish their own killer robot army Of course they are already, pouring millions of dollars into continues research. Its official alright. Officially more bullshit. The entire situation is another hoax or false flag carried out by the rogue criminal US government to further their criminal agenda. Abomination of Desolation or that maketh desolate is that system of thought which, putting Matter(illusion/reflection) in the chief place, and making it the Source, Subtance, and Object of Existence, abolishes God(cause/refraction) out of the Universe and the Soul out of Man, and thus, depriving Existence of its Light and Life, makes it empty, desolate, and barren, a very abomination of desolation. We comprehend spiritual truths in proportion as we become spiritualized in our nature. We will understand the Divine Law in ratio to our obedience of the Divine Law. The understanding of Spiritual Law is in the BECOMING and not by reason of intellect or faith. When you use robots, drones with AI you LOL! We COULD just drive our own cars. Drones arent robots. They are still just remote controlled airplanes operated by a human being. Same thing with the robot that killed the Dallas BLM terrorist. The media is disingenuous when they call these machines robots. They are NOT automatons. They make NO decisions. Artificial Intelligence: Real intelligence would be a first for many The only thing real about Dallas, was that Debbie did it. But then that was way back when, before paid crisis actors by the many dozen, the only robots of concern just now be those that stare in comatose awe at the tell-lie-vision, green screens be what fills their head. 