You might have come across these Boston Dynamics Atlas Robot posts from today:
https://voat.co/v/funny/comments/879979
https://voat.co/v/technology/comments/880243
https://voat.co/v/technology/comments/880204
Amazing technological advances. But for what end?
Boston Dynamics is owned by Google and is working with the military (Darpa) on creating these machines. Why do they need to be humanoid and open doors and lift objects? To have heat-seeking capabilities?
Google owns Nest too (the technology that knows what room you're in and can be programmed to turn on the lights and regulate the heat for you, runs your Nest cams to see and listen inside your home, etc). As we all know, Google knows pretty much everything about you and where you are at any given time of day if you have a smartphone or are online.
Boston Dynamics' (BD) dog robots carry munitions. The Marines said they didn't like them because they were too noisy (which doesn't help them with covert ops in the field). But that doesn't mean BD is not working on making them quieter.
Maybe I'm paranoid and have read 1984 and watched The Terminator one too many times but with all the NSA revelations and living long enough to see transitions in our police force from this to this, it's not entirely unrealistic to imagine a day when these humanoid robots are used against the people; invading houses, knowing which room you're in (thanks to Nest, your phone, your smart tv, and/or the robots' heat-seeking capabilities).
Think you can run outside and hide in the woods? They can find you in the dark and the cold and maneuver through the brambles as well as you can. So can their robot dogs with 340lbs of munitions on their backs. You can knock them down but they'll get right back up.
Seeing the latest robot videos are doing nothing to reverse my concerns. Maybe it's because the technology is being developed by and for the military which really clinches it for me. If the robots were being developed solely for use in civilian warehouses in order to cut human injuries, etc. I'd feel differently.
What do you think?
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[–] 4388114? 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
This technology is inevitable, whether it be developed by us, the Germans, Koreans, Russians, Japanese, French, Chinese, British, whoever. It will be used in the military without regard to economics, as well as in the civilian sector wherever it is economically sensible.