Could Robot Warriors Become Terrorist Weapons?
In an amazing feat of hyperbole and a logical leap big enough to challenge Evil Knievel’s failed Grand Canyon jump, University of Sheffield Professor Noel Sharkey is warning that robot terrorism is coming–in the not-to-distant future.
According to a report in Science Daily, computer science Professor Sharkey, whose credentials include being the lead judge for a television show called Robot Wars, extrapolates from the current crop of human-controlled robots on the ground and in the air in Iraq and other fields of battle to terrorists grabbing–perhaps kidnapping–one of these bots, copying the design and spitting out a new army or terrorist bots.
No doubt Sharkey is on the money about the proliferation of robots in battle and it is true that the Department of Defense and, likely, other nations, are looking to build military robots that can “pull the trigger′ on their own.
However that shift to autonomous robot warfare is a significant one that will likely endure heated debate before it really happens. Sharkey also seems to think that sophisticated robot building expertise is everywhere and that the parts and skill needed live in the mountains and caves where the terrorists are currently hiding.
Original post by Lance Ulanoff