Puppet Presidents and Robot Soldiers – only in America!
by nano Monday, Dec 1 2008, 9:29am
international / social/political / commentary

In a press release, we are sure the Pentagon and White House will soon regret, America’s genius military technology developers revealed their feeble (insane) attempts to legitimise war with “moral” robots -- for Pete’s sake! America seems to have forgotten that the most immoral activity any society could engage in is WAR! However, that oversight is understandable as the USA is currently the world’s leading genocidal nation -- over one million dead Iraqi civilians testify to the fact!

The Pentagon is currently ‘toying’ with robotic technology in an attempt (now get this) to develop a soldier robot -- KILLING MACHINE by any other name -- that will not commit war crimes or contravene the Geneva Convention; if I hadn’t read it myself I wouldn’t have believed it!

After installing a PUPPET president in the White House who commits war crimes with gay abandon and condoning an administration that regards flouting the Geneva Convention as a challenge, the Pentagon is attempting to rehabilitate America’s reputation with ‘killing machines’ – makes sense (if you’re nuts!)

Rather than confront its criminality and psychopathology America, like any lame addict, is attempting to justify its actions and feign legitimacy. We note the recent presidential campaign was characterised by candidates normalising war with insane slogans such as “I know how to win wars; bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” and from the future Sec. of State, “OBLITERATE Iran!”

The article cites semi-robotic UAV (drone) technology currently in use in Afghanistan without the slightest regard for the fact that UAVs kill at least 20 innocent civilians for every enemy targeted – a stunning record, no doubt!

The civilised world may have some sobering news for the homicidal maniac nation. WAR as anything other than a last option is emphatically rejected by all civilised societies –- Israel excepted, of course! All attempts to normalise or otherwise soften the world to killing will be met with emphatic rejection and the contempt such ‘solutions’ deserve – you SICK fucks!

We leave the reader to assess the following report for themselves:

Robot soldiers to get a kinder software side
December 2, 2008

WASHINGTON: The US military is planning to build robot soldiers that would not be able to commit war crimes.

The army and the navy have hired experts in the ethics of building machines to prevent the creation of an amoral Terminator-style killing machine. By 2010 the US will have spent $4 billion ($6.1 billion) on research into "autonomous systems", the military jargon for robots, on the basis that they would not succumb to fear or the desire for vengeance that afflicts front-line soldiers.

A British robotics expert has been recruited by the navy to advise on building robots that would not violate the Geneva Conventions.

Colin Allen, a scientific philosopher at Indiana University, has just published a book summarising his views titled Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right From Wrong.

He said: "The question they want answered is whether we can build automated weapons that would conform to the laws of war. Can we use ethical theory to help design these machines?"

Pentagon chiefs are concerned by studies of combat stress in Iraq that showed that a high proportion of front-line troops supported torture and retribution against enemy combatants. Ronald Arkin, a computer scientist at Georgia Tech university, who is working on software for the army, has written a report that concludes that robots, while not "perfectly ethical in the battlefield" can "perform more ethically than human soldiers".

He said that robots "do not need to protect themselves" and "they can be designed without emotions that cloud their judgment or result in anger and frustration with ongoing battlefield events".

Airborne drones are already used in Iraq and Afghanistan to launch air strikes and robotic vehicles are used to disable roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices.

But this generation of robots are all remotely operated by humans. Researchers are now working on "soldier bots", which would be able to identify targets and distinguish between enemy forces and soft targets, like ambulances or civilians. Their software would be embedded with rules of engagement.

Dr Allen applauded the decision. "It's time we started thinking about the issues of how to take ethical theory and build it into the software that will ensure robots act correctly rather than wait until it's too late."

Telegraph, London

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/12/01/1227979933594.html