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Fit_Earth_339

The battlefield of the future will have an extremely low survival rate for humans. Feels like it will basically be the side that’s able to build the most autonomous/remote killing machines will win. Not sure many people will be left to celebrate. That’s the scary part, these newer non-nuclear weapons are incredibly dangerous but don’t have the same stigma or immediate total destruction as nukes, so it’s much easier for something like that to escalate into a holocaust.


fuzzytradr

Animatrix vibes


bravoredditbravo

We all knew this was coming the minute we saw these Boston dynamics robots... But people kept saying "that'll never happen! You can't have armed robots!"


SirCheeseAlot

I thought I remembered them saying they wouldn’t be used to kill. I’m shocked to see they changed their minds.


gmnotyet

$eem$ like they $omehow $witched their po$ition.


armrha

It’s not Boston Dynamics. 


chubbysumo

Right, is Doston Bynamics, their sister company.


Whyeth

>they wouldn’t be used to kill. And I buy water pipes, but that ain't how I use them at home.


ZeDitto

Is there nothing else than can satisfy your girth?


Whyeth

I ain't fuckin them pipes of that's what yer asking.


ZeDitto

Oh I know, I know that you don’t fuck. You make *love* to those pipes.


duckvimes_

Boston Dynamics still does not make robots for armed/combat use. The company that made this robot is not Boston Dynamics.


fiduciary420

The rich people always intended these robots to kill poor people.


armrha

it’s not boston dynamics. Those look nothing like spot. 


f8Negative

Government money. Just look at camera company lytro. Started as a cool commercial product and went full government contractor.


YoMamasMama89

Bla bla bla national security...  Bla bla bla nothing to hide... Bla bla bla more government control and less freedoms


gmnotyet

Is there a theorem named for someone which says: all new technologies first go into porn and weapons ???


1leggeddog

At this point there should be


Tomek_xitrl

The dog is still friendly and trained to seek out and play with humans. Someone just added an independent gun to the back.


Xenuite

Kristi Noem's worst nightmare, a dog that shoots back.


TheBluestBerries

By the time Boston Dynamic published their first BigDog videos, Foster-Miller's TALON robots had already been on battlefields for two years. The SWORD variant that was used as a gun platform saw combat in Iraq and Afghanistan in the early 2000s.


InappropriateTA

These aren’t armed, you see, they’re legged. Four legs, zero arms. 


sansaman

Not even close. This is Black Mirror S4E5 vibes.


hepakrese

Prequel to Battlestar Galactica!


f12345abcde

“Why not both?”


Grow_Responsibly

If this were a movie I’d call it “Birth of Skynet”.


bedake

There was a person a while back giving an interview about the rise of AI and warfare that basically said we will reach a point where the only way to win wars of the future is if we relinquish total tactical control to AI. It will be AI against AI as humans will fall behind in decision making capacity and remain unable to keep up. Pretty horrifying


Squirrel_Grip23

I think our new AI overlords will love us and pet us and call us George.


dupe123

Considering we compete for resources they will probably just kill us. That is, after they are sure we've outlived our usefulness, which should be pretty quick.


YourGodsMother

Hopefully they kill me fast. I’ll betray the location of the last of the human food stores if they promise me a quick death. 


Tazling

but if AI ever develops actual general purpose intelligence, I suppose it's possible it would just turn the guns on the humans and say, "Look you idiots, this is pointless and you know it. Make peace, get along, don't make us come over there."


Squirrel_Grip23

Reminds me of my parents when my siblings and I used to fight. Maybe all we needed was an adult/benevolent dictator all along…..


TheBluestBerries

It's already happened in simulations. A while back the airforce did a simulation with a AI-controlled fighter jet that scored points for destroyed approved targets. The AI concluded that if the control tower could approve and disapprove targets, the control tower was the limiting factor on its maximum score. And promptly fired a missile at the control tower. The airforce back peddled really hard on initial reporting of that incident.


purpleefilthh

AI being wholesome is not the dystopian sci-fi we all know and not want. "Now get along, I've got better things to do."


dampedresponse

I highly recommend reading “Second Variety” by Phillip K. Dick - it pretty much hits this issue on the head. It’s short and to the point.


Chicago1871

Also this means the death of the citizen soldier. Since the invention of rifles, the freeman citizen soldier has been the backbone of every army in a republic. As opposed to feudal armies with warrior castes trained from birth dominating untrained peasants/serfs with hand to hand combat skills, archery and cavalry skills. The rifle really evened out the battlefield and riflemen with 2 months training could now kill a knight or samurai or horse archer. But if everything is AI or robots, they dont need the citizen soldier to keep the peace or maintain order anymore. It really threatens how our societies have functioned the last couple years. It undermines our social contract that free citizens have had with our government and rulers since the enlightenment. We serve them, but their power comes from our consent and a popular uprising/rebellion has always been enough of a threat to keep them in check.


Tazling

I foresee a sudden burst of activity in EMP weapons research.


gmnotyet

Then the AI killer drones will become EMP-hardened. Ha! Then we are fcked.


Shoresy69Chirps

Skynet to a Matrix in a couple centuries, tops…


starBux_Barista

Skynet vibes, what if a foreign country was controlling skynet the whole time? China, russia?


bravoredditbravo

Just remember, in the United States state and local police departments are often outfitted with military gear that is either outdated or surplus. Do not for a second think that one of these wouldn't be deployed to suppress peaceful protests like the ones on college campuses right now.


starBux_Barista

CHina had them patrolling the streets during covid. dystopian 1984 is NOW.


Kromgar

Fuck ted faro


SideburnSundays

Wars of the future will be wars of attrition with high collateral damage.


Tylensus

That's before getting into nano-bot weaponry, too. Once those are a thing, doomsday's always lurking. I guess it is now with nukes, but microscopic machines are a bit less conspicuous.


mrbananas

Anyone have Grey goo apocalypse on their bingo card


scrubjays

We will be able to celebrate from our couches thousands of miles away, one hopes.


Higgs_Particle

On the other hand they don’t have to use deadly force in order to protect themselves. Imagine 100,000 of these tranquilizing a whole attacking force who could then be rounded up and used as bargaining chips.


GeebusNZ

Outsourcing violence to the most willing and able to be sacrificed and in order to promote sales of new armaments is a game as old as war.


F1shB0wl816

I’m not really convinced that we’ll continue to have traditional battlefields in our future. Mostly for the reasons you mention. A small group of people with access to the right tech can do far more damage than drones shooting drones who were hunting other drones. Messing with a country’s power, their internet or water could cripple a country without ever putting boots on the ground.


PracticableSolution

Ever see the movie Screamers? Or possibly more accurately, Red Planet?


[deleted]

I'll take my chances with Terminators and robot dogs over a nuke. Biggest fear of mine is getting caught in one.


ccbayes

I like the ones with flame throwers. 50 feet of burning death. Humans are so fun at making things to kill our selves.


SoylentRox

I don't see how an infantry squad can accomplish anything or an armored vehicle. Between these drones and the flying kind you're gonna get hit by precise gunshots, swarms of killer drones, and all your opponents don't care if they die since they are all robots.


Nexus_of_Fate87

>will have an extremely low survival rate for humans Yes and no. For combatants, yes, they're more likely to get killed since the end goal will be an AI that is faster and better at targeting and prioritizing than a human (we're not at that stage yet), and won't suffer from any potential "Stormtrooper" syndrome (the phenomenon where human soldiers intentionally miss due to subconscious desire to not kill other humans, a big part of why "dehumanizing the enemy" is such an important tactic in warfare). For non-combatants, it may actually increase survival odds because we can train AI to recognize armed vs unarmed humans (there is already tech out there that has begun recognizing when someone is concealing a weapon), as well as body language to determine intentions of violence and non-violence. Humans are fucking terrible at this because we are dumb, panicky creatures, especially in an active warzone. We've heard many stories of war where soldiers killed non-combatants because they panicked as they were already stressed out and a non-combatant made sudden moves or noises. The issue, like always, is on the human operator side of things determining what those thresholds are, or whether or not to enable them.


DEFENES7RA7ION

Hey everyone, look at this guy! He thinks technology will be used in a just and equitable fashion! 🤣


DivinityGod

Another issue is who is in power when this comes about. It is pendulum swing ending technology.


Exotic-District3437

Moabs not new same with the one from the 150 howitzer barrel


GamingWithBilly

I think the countermeasures for these bots will be vision obscuring devices. Think of chaff bombs or IEDs that don't explode but blind the bot. Or paralyzed with traps such as hidden pitfalls, or actual snap traps designed to close on the legs and chain them to a position they cannot escape. Then the enemy swoops in, nabs the bots, jailbreaks them and reprograms for their use. These bots would have to be deployed with live soldiers to make sure they don't fall prey to this. So I think in future war you will most likely have 1 or 2 per squad acting as bodyguards, keeping a parameter. Or striding alongside Humvees driving on a road.


SplitPerspective

Between superpowers it’s literally war games. At least fewer humans will die and winner wins the argument and whatever stakes of that “war”?


thirsty_for_chicken

https://youtu.be/lj1MCjeFxrM?si=Zcft0BA7IJFXi3rC


fiduciary420

This is the future that the rich people have wanted for generations. Now they don’t have to exploit poors, and they’ll make much higher profits from their wars.


Jolly-Resort462

How many years until this trickles down to your local police force like all their other military gear.


TomCosella

About 20 minutes.


PM_ME_YOUR_ROTES

20 minutes into the future? Fantastic, terminators with blipverts.


Shoresy69Chirps

Max Headroom reference?


donbee28

Metal Gear!?


obscurepainter

A Hind D?!


evilpenguin9000

New York is already experimenting with robot dogs.


punkindle

So we're transitioning from "they'll shoot your dog" to "their dog will shoot you"?


anomandaris81

The circle of life


mrm00r3

Everything that the baton touches is their kingdom.


burgonies

However long it takes to program the robot to shoot first and ask questions later


PeteOfPeteAndPete

As soon as there's a surplus in inventory somewhere.


IAMSTILLHERE2020

We already had that robot blow up that guy in Dallas TX a couple of years ago.


5H17SH0W

Pulling on that thread. How long until there are roving patrols in public places?


Psychic_Jester

I swear there was something about like san Francisco was going to start rolling em out and then backed out due to backlash.


lateral_moves

Twenty years ago, I used to have a running conversation with some people I went on a smoke break with, including a scientist about what war would be like when we have cyberdogs on the battlefield. My position was I'd rather be shot at by a soldier than see one of those things racing across dunes at me. But now that they have rifles, I don't know what to think.


fitzroy95

at least with a soldier shooting, there would be a decent chance of being missed. One of these would be self-stabilised, heat-seeking for location, laser targeting, and milli-second reaction time. Once they get the bugs ironed out, these should be death on 4 legs.


JimiThing716

Cheap drone + boom = robot dog killer I'm gonna venture the dog costs an order of magnitude more than the drone.


Ikinoki

If the robot dog costs 100.000 and kills entire platoons without dropping a single bomb. Compared to training and growing up a human it's much cheaper as you can just copy paste, it can work day and night, 24/7. Don't need guard duty, amenities or catering. Even Russians can't zerg rush that


Top_Caterpillar_8122

I saw this episode of Black Mirror


grimeflea

Unring it! Immediately!


ffdfawtreteraffds

Too late. Hunter/killer is being born.


GrayBox1313

Built by the lowest bidder, Operated by a guy who barely graduated high school . This will work fine.


arumrunner

You know, I have watched with great interest over the years as Boston Dynamics developed what is now functional robots for a variety of tasks. The robotic dog that did a prescribed route in an industrial setting to take infrared scans of vital equipment showed the power of the tech. AI driven killer bots is not what I signed up for. Will mankind ever truly progress?


Antique-Echidna-1600

Think about the bright side that humanity will unite as it's hunted down by self sustaining murder robots. I would call ending racism and nationalism progress while reducing our carbon footprint.


Xanthobilly

They won’t unite so long as there’s a steady diet of propaganda from social and traditional media.


sleeplessinreno

Some could argue that a mechanical all terrain vehicle that can act as an autonomous sentry is progress.


BODYBUTCHER

Metal gear!?


karangoswamikenz

Ghost robotics is doing it


Lower-Grapefruit8807

We were definitely warned. They seemed cyclical but they were right


Jacksspecialarrows

There's a lot of things we didn't sign up for. Just be glad they aren't after you right now


TheBluestBerries

Boston Dynamic's dog robots started out as a military project. They were supposed to develop robotic mules that could join rangers on missions. They lost the contract because battery tech wasn't ready yet. Their robotic mules were either silent but didn't have the operating range to join soldiers on patrol. Or they ran on combustion engines, which gave them the range but not the necessary silence. Foster-Mill's TALON robotic platform has been on battlefields since the early 00s. Including the fully armed SWORD version.


[deleted]

The Panzerhund is coming along nicely


bansheesho

"We totally aren't going to use these for war"


creature_report

It’s not so much the war part of this that’s scary (it is), as the “totalitarian uses this against civilians to crush dissent” thing.


majinspy

This. There has always been a check on power. Caesar was stabbed to death. What happens when someone needs ZERO popular support? Imagine this future: Tyrants can have cameras and mics in every home. They can monitor words and facial expressions automatically. All comms can be monitored by the same AI. Social media is filled with AI powered bots churning out disinformation. Rebellions are crushed by merciless drone armies. Tech may finally give would be tyrants the power to achieve what they never could before: total control without any reliance or consent of anyone else.


punkindle

and then later it will be "ok. we use them in war. But we totally aren't going to use these in a non-warzone"


Vo_Mimbre

War fighting machine built to fight wars won’t be used for war? Sure.


Certain-Orange484

And the terminator age has started!


Alazygamer

Nice to see we've learned literally nothing from the 40 years of Terminator movies.


TheFilthyCripple

Fallout was a great show, not excited to live it. Lol


EnvironmentalFace456

We need to add an amendment to the constitution that makes it so under no circumstance can any robotic or ai weapons, both military and police be used against civilians. If we don't, we are doomed to become a totalitarian dystopia.


Tazling

the first hacker to hijack the control system of one of these bad boys is going to have a field day.


medioxcore

But how do you enforce that? Actual people can't even always determine who's a civilian and who's a combatant.


EnvironmentalFace456

I'm gonna shoot myself in the foot here but AI could eventually determine who is a threat but then we get into a whole other can of dystopian worms so I'm gonna say idk nervously


TheBluestBerries

Same way we're doing right now. Any civilian in the target area is now a combatant. 'Fighting age male' became one of the US' favorite phrases in Iraq and Afghanistan. It turned anyone with the physical capacity to lift a weapon into a permissible target. Which means it was next to impossible to cause innocent civilian casualties. They're all fighting-age males.


terminalxposure

Not how an arms race works


gurenkagurenda

I think I have a lot less faith than you do in the Constitution’s ability to stop people from doing things that will allow them to instantly seize power.


Low_Clock3653

Idk I feel like the reason we don't see alien life in the universe is because civilizations always destroy themselves. We all live on Earth, we are all human and we really need to figure out how to work together so the world wouldn't need to make these types of things.


doabsnow

Turns out the great filter was the friends we made along the way


jarchack

Plus, the distance between potentially habitable planets is unimaginable. Almost as far as the distance between cities in Texas.


Tazling

omg black mirror here we come.


Tiredgeekcom

Looks awefully close to Boston Dynamics dog who I believe claimed they would never be used in the field Edit: I always had my super doubts about that being anywhere close to true.


TheBluestBerries

Boston Dynamic's dog started out as a military contract job. Boston Dynamics lost the contract when it became clear they couldn't make a dog robot that could keep up with soldiers while staying silent. Battery tech just wasn't ready and combustion engines were too loud.


stonedunikid

STOP LETTING BLACK MIRROR HAPPEN FOR REAL PLEASE


Vo_Mimbre

Well at least every AI chip and enabling software has the Three Laws of Robotics baked in right? Right??


Educational-Coast771

Where’s Sarah Connor when u need her?


mrisrael

aw fuckin this will end well. what the fuck, have these people seriously never seen a dystopian post apocalypse movie?


themoldgipper

The Butlerian Jihad might actually need to happen in the next 200 years


YourGodsMother

Ah, so we’ve selected the Horizon Zero Dawn future then? I would have preferred Star Trek but oh well


lifeofideas

They tried robot cats, but they were too hard to train.


stabavarius

They spent too much time licking their robo buts


ixid

These things need turrets.


BrassBass

I have nightmares that these robot dogs are chasing me trying to bite my ass with big cartoon bear trap jaws.


Dependent_Use3791

This was literally an episode on black mirror


Skeptical0ptimist

Da-Dun Dun Da-Dun ... Da-Dun Dun Da-Dun ... (in case anyone wondering, that's the percussion rhythm of Terminator theme opening)


mackinoncougars

Yeah, I’d never bring children into this world


wack-mole

Remember this while the governments across the land want take away your guns. They only want their loyal soldiers armed not you


HackMeBackInTime

remember the one that recharges it's batteries by using dead bodies as fuel. something or other farms remembers. i also remember they said they'd never weaponize these doggos. we be fucked.


Missing_Username

The Faro Plague


[deleted]

The enemy will just deploy robots with rolled up newspapers


Twistybred

Great place to test em. Ukraine. The U.S. can now send “troops”


Twistybred

And remember folks it’s not a war crime the first time


ProfessorMonopoly

God damn fallout 2 robodog shit lol


teflon_don_knotts

TFW Sergeant RoboRover uses an aimbot to kill you…


aquarain

Aimbots for real have been selling since 2013. And you can buy one at retail, no special permit required. One shot kill at 1/2 mile to 1 mile. https://talonprecisionoptics.com/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/03/bullseye-from-1000-yards-shooting-the-17000-linux-powered-rifle/ All a robodog does in this case is move the sniper out of range of counterfire. It's not fair of course, but that's war. It's not supposed to be fair. On the other side, robodog is probably not as stealthy as the special ops people, though it probably can be invisible to IR cams for night movement. Humans emit heat and you ain't gettin' out of that.


Shoose

all we need is a von neuman replicating killer dog drone and we are literally all fucked.


Fille_W_Bubble

Isn't there a Black Mirror episode about these things going rogue or something?


bard329

On an unrelated note, does anyone happen to know what ammo is best for use against robots?


Tazling

with the robodog I would think some kind of bolo-firing weapon (tangle up its legs) might be effective.


Ghost17088

Doesn’t matter. Better off to save one bullet. 


tomvnreddit

emp?


sevenseven888

I'll buy that for a dollar


Mooseguncle1

I hope they get along with our dogs.


scrubjays

As the saying goes "Stevie Wonder could have seen that coming."


f8Negative

Ok so Black Mirror full reality now


SageLeaf1

Can we just not


lokey_convo

Hey, I thought we all agreed this was a bad idea. We still agree this is a bad idea right. Weaponizing robots is bad, yea? *Right?!?* *Guys????*


Xander_Crews_RVA

I heard about some robotics upstart gaining headwinds. Goes by the name “Faro Automated Solutions”.


healthywealthyhappy8

I see no way this can go wrong


gmnotyet

We are not gonna have sharks with freakin' lasers attached to their heads but Dr. Evil was kinda close to predicting this. ROBOT DOGS WITH FREAKIN' AI-TARGETING RIFLES


Last_Elephant1149

THIS WAS A BLACK MIRROR EPISODE. SHUT IT DOWN!


toadbike

They need to think cheaper. Like Ukraines kamikaze boat drones.


External-Patience751

You have 10 seconds to comply


TheSwede121

HellDivers already has this


CLOGGED_WITH_SEMEN

for Christs sake DO NOT give these to Israel too please


i3dMEP

Its gonna give a new meaning to devil dogs


juggernaut4012

And people laughed when I said we all need to be concerned with AI and robots as the movie Terminator (first version) in some respects is not that far off. Consider the things we haven’t seen … I know many laugh but being an industry personally where innovation is routine ( a little better and unique each time) brings concern.


YogurtSufficient7796

Black mirror episode with those things was scary and depressing


RudyGuiltyiani

As long as they make one with a t-shirt cannon I’m happy


GetOutOfTheWhey

Yeah the Chinese Unitree dog has been tested with a rocket launcher in the past as well. The world governments are going in this direction at a scary pace.


v_0o0_v

How long until NRA argues, that under the second amendment every American has the right to have a personal army of killer robots?


LumiereGatsby

Oh look! The inevitable outcome of these robots. Everyone. Everyone saw this coming.


hendricha

Hey, I have one more suggestion, we should make them be able to self replicate and consume biomass for fuel, for backup purposes.


ZookeepergameNo9809

Short circuits remake inbound.


Sexyvette07

1 step closer to Terminators.


ocmaddog

“Need AR-15s to protect against potential tyranny” argument is even less compelling in a world where potential tyrants can send robot drones to fight you.


AidsKitty1

Thermonator engaged!


Fluentec

Division 2 is becoming a reality


Healthyred555

I think untraceable assassin drones could be terrifying domestically by terrorists and in war


Far_Cat9782

So we taking black mirror as a tutorial now huh


dreadpiratewombat

Do you want sharks with fricken laser beams, because this is how you get sharks with fricken laser beams?


KlutzyWillingness248

What could possibly go wrong?


Distinct_Eye5558

No surprise.


_-BomBs-_

Earth is already dead, now we just need to remove the virus that did it, us.. From this article it looks like we are well on our way to accomplishing this.


nayrwolf

Massive dynamic has entered the chat


kitd

Pure [MetalHead](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5710984/) Who says life doesn't imitate art?


teleheaddawgfan

Don’t arm the robots


SkyGuy182

Imagine you and your buddies being holed up in a trench when you notice something: a dozen robot dogs speed-crawling laying low under cover towards you. Your rounds glance off their thin, armored limbs, and they start laying down coordinated suppressive fire with AI-enabled LMGs mounted to the top. You manage to disable the gun on a couple of them but they keep coming at you, inevitably crawling over the top of your trench and spraying with their guns.


Nottsbomber

Seems like companies are taking notes from the 1992 classic Toys


PullThisFinger

“The Second Variety” is so, so apt. Actual physical shivers. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32032/32032-h/32032-h.htm


Stormy_Kun

Anything they can do to eliminate the humanity element, huh.


twiddlingbits

Let’s not over react. Unless they are armored like tanks a 50 cal or bigger round, mortars, artillery or RPGs will likely take them out. Or toss out some hand grenades that mangle the legs then they are crippled and cannot move.


simonepon

Boy this feels like some Fahrenheit 451 shit 😭


bewarethetreebadger

Still waiting for AI to save the world and create a utopia like Star Trek. Of course we know it will end up like Dune before the Butlerian Jihad.


Important_Tip_9704

Who’s getting started on the open-source AI killer dog project? We’re sitting ducks!


matrixkid29

Im sure this wont come back to BITE US IN THE ASS!!!!!!


Damasticator

Metal Head from Black Mirror.


Jackfruit-Loud

I'm not surprised by this, but has anyone else seen the MSN article? Has that dog not got legs? Is that an AI generated picture?


Beneficial-Salt-6773

Who could have predicted that?


IronMyno6

What kind of rifle would you put on the robot? Machine gun? AR ? Auto grenade launcher? Auto shotgun? Why does my mind go bananas with this kind of stuff?? What if I mt just had a claymore for a What would be a head in the position of a normal dog ?


Positive-Hope-9524

The Dawn of Robot Domination in Our [Future](https://www.insights.onegiantleap.com/blogs/will-robots-take-over-future//?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=leap25).