Pentagon hires British scientist to help build robot soldiers that ‘won’t commit war crimes’
on 12/01/2008 at 08:32 AM
I remember this part from robocop 2. murphy was given so many prime directives, he went insane an electrocuted himself to clear his ram
Posted by furball
12/01/2008 at 03:18 PM
I’ve worked on electronics for decades, and I am frankly impressed with what has been done in recent years. Nonetheless, no program written, nor any likely to be written anytime soon, can compete with humans for giving innovative responses to rapidly changing situations. And yes, that means you can program it not to commit “war crimes”, but it also means that a “programming malfunction” can do damage to the limits of the machine’s armament.
Have fun beta testing this thing guys....
“One of Igor’s former masters had *made* a tick-tock man, all levers and gearwheels and cranks and clockwork. Instead of a brain, it had a long tape punched with holes. Instead of a heart, it had a big spring. Provided everything in the kitchen was carefully positioned, it could sweep the floor and make a passable cup of tea. If it *wasn’t* carefully positioned, or if the ticking, clicking thing hit an unexpected bump, then it’d strip the plaster off the walls and make a furious cup of cat.”
- Terry Pratchett, “Thief of Time”
