Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Robot Wars!
I guess you're not a true blogger unless you provide a link to the New York Times every once in a while. So here goes!
Robot soldiers, eh? Sci-fi authors have known for a long time that this would eventually happen. Now the question is when will they be able to develop a fighting robot that can transform itself from an all-terrain vehicle into a humanoid soldier?
But in all seriousness, the idea that kept coming back to me while reading this article was as follows. What happens when in, say, a hundred years or so, a lot of nations have robot soldiers? Specifically, what happens when a robot army goes to war against another robot army? They'll shoot at each other and destroy each other, but no human lives will be lost--just a lot of money.
Traditionally, one of the main purposes of going to war has been to convey a message to the opposite side and force them to accept it (usually, the message seems to be some variation of either "You are now subject to my control," or "I am no longer subject to your control"). One of the main reasons a warring party will surrender (that is, accept the message of the other side) is because the cost in terms of human life has gotten too high. What will happen when there is no human cost? Will armies keep fighting forever, destroying each others' robots until someone just runs out of money to build more of them? Won't this seem less like conquest or defense, and more like pointless violence or flashy display of military wealth?
Robot soldiers, eh? Sci-fi authors have known for a long time that this would eventually happen. Now the question is when will they be able to develop a fighting robot that can transform itself from an all-terrain vehicle into a humanoid soldier?
But in all seriousness, the idea that kept coming back to me while reading this article was as follows. What happens when in, say, a hundred years or so, a lot of nations have robot soldiers? Specifically, what happens when a robot army goes to war against another robot army? They'll shoot at each other and destroy each other, but no human lives will be lost--just a lot of money.
Traditionally, one of the main purposes of going to war has been to convey a message to the opposite side and force them to accept it (usually, the message seems to be some variation of either "You are now subject to my control," or "I am no longer subject to your control"). One of the main reasons a warring party will surrender (that is, accept the message of the other side) is because the cost in terms of human life has gotten too high. What will happen when there is no human cost? Will armies keep fighting forever, destroying each others' robots until someone just runs out of money to build more of them? Won't this seem less like conquest or defense, and more like pointless violence or flashy display of military wealth?
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