Mechanical Armies

Ever since 1921 when Czeck writer Karl Capek invented the word robot in his play "Rossom's Universal Robots" about highly intelligent mechanical slaves who mount a revolt and kill all humans on earth but one, people have been infatuated about the idea of such a happening. Author P.W. Singer who at 33 years old is a serious fellow at Brookings Institution and can't resist the topic. Though he does not write fiction, he takes the idea as a serious possibility in his book "Wired for War" an account of  the recent military robots. He has written two books about some of the 21st century's most intriguing questions. One is titled "Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry" about the reemergence of the ancient profession of mercenaries. The other book is "Children at War" about the illegal enslavement and recruitment of teenagers and often younger children into armies. Singer says there is around 40 countries making military robots at this time. As he quoted from a unit commander "When a robot dies, you don't have to write a letter to it's mother." Reduced human casualties is the main reason for such robots. Robots are being made with more endurance, firepower, and precision than human soldiers. The idea is to make then more autonomous, able to take decisions according to built in commands, with no fear, pity, revenge, or other human emotion. A big question is whether they should have a system of ethics able to tell soldiers from civilians. Scientists foresee robots with strong A.I. or high level intelligence which worries some. Singer quoted Vernon Vinge a mathematician and computer scientists who predicted over 15 years ago "Within the next 30 years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence, Shortly after, the human era will be ended." Singer hints in his book that he is worried also. "We are creating something exciting and new, a technology that might just transform humans' role in their world, perhaps even create a new species" he concludes " But this revolution is mainly driven by our inability to move beyond the conflicts that have shaped human history from the very start. Sadly, our machines may not be the only thing wired for war." I feel that at this time the military should keep making robots to help save lives and as they say "unman the front line". The program should definetly be monitored closely to ensure that no such robot occurrences can ever become reality. Although I am not particularly worried about the prospect of robots becoming violent because humans create the robots and we create the software that the robots run off of and live by. Also about what singer said at the end of the article I totally agree that robots would not even be needed if the human race was able to put war behind them but as he implies the human race is just wired for war. The topic is very interesting and fun but I hope we only see these circumstances in the movies and maybe we can see robots ruled obsolete because of the absence of war but that is very wishful. 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29142213/