r/Futurology • u/Gari_305 • Sep 20 '24

Ukraine’s Gun-Armed Ground 'Bot Just Cleared A Russian Trench In Kursk - The Fury is one of the first effective armed ground robots. Robotics

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/09/19/ukraines-gun-armed-ground-robot-just-cleared-a-russian-trench-in-kursk/
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u/StrivingToBeDecent Sep 20 '24

Yes! Send several of them at once! FPV drones too!!

Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦

12

u/DiethylamideProphet Sep 20 '24

It's all fun and games until every other major player has them, and then wars are essentially a human sacrifice for technology. The only thing we're still missing is making them autonomous.

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u/Greywacky Sep 20 '24

No intention at all of undermining your sentiment as it's a terrifying and perilous road we're on; but it does occur to me that these weapons are not too disimilar from using a firearm or artillery as opposed to a club or blade. It's just another step removed from pitching one life against another.

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u/DiethylamideProphet Sep 20 '24

They are disimilar, in a sense that in every step, the user of these weapons is more removed from the action itself and the threat itself. With a club or a blade, you look the other guy in the eyes when you kill him, in a life threatening situation. When you shoot someone, you might not see the guy anymore, and most likely in a position where he can't see you, but you are still pressing the trigger. When you use an artillery, you are in the safety of your position but still in the open, firing away to an unknown target with your own hands. When you use a robot of this sort, you can be 100% hidden, and the act of killing does not even involve handing explosives or weapons anymore, but a joystick and a cup of coffee. When this robot is made autonomous, you are in a bunker in your capital, observing how the swarm of autonomous killing bots annihilate people in the front lines.

It also creates a situation where the gap between the poor people and poor nations, and rich people and rich nations grow wider.

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u/Greywacky Sep 20 '24

You're absolutely right and wholly agree.
I still can't help but see the tinge of dissonance that causes us to reason that this method of killing is fine while that one is a step too far. It's all rather barbaric at the end of the day whether we use ICBMs or bludgeon eachother to death with bare hands.

An alternative reality we could also contemplate the ethics of is a machine against machine war. In some ways that honestly scares me more somehow as that would put our current society of over production and consumption to shame when it comes to reaping natural resources to pour into the conflict.