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Crabcakes5_ t1_isom8xu wrote

Reply to comment by Grapesoda5k in NATO countries are getting serious about sending armed robots into battle by Gari_305

If everyone fought entirely with droids, no one would need to die in future wars. They would be fought entirely with money and manufacturing.

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Trips-Over-Tail t1_ispdxnn wrote

1: This technology won't be available to everyone for a long time.

2: Without the risk of flag-covered coffins the political barriers to war will be greatly reduced.

3: Technology used by the military will soon be used by the police.

4: People still live in areas wars are fought over.

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Grapesoda5k t1_isomvk2 wrote

Until a country decides to send them against a helpless human population.

What did you watch Robot Jocks last week and think this is a good idea?

"If" isn't a thing. Why would any country put their future in the hands of robots?

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Crabcakes5_ t1_isonv63 wrote

You inevitably run into the reality that doing so would be mutually assured destruction by the promise that the opposing side could then do the same to your people. The idea that we're going to keep sending soldiers to fight wars when robots become vastly superior is a losing proposition by all accounts of game theory. And, in all likelihood, when this is achieved, we will see treaties emerge that forbid use on civilian populations just as we've seen for dozens of other weapons in history. Of course, terrorist states will always break these rules, but in the end, the cumulative number of lives saved would vastly outweigh those lost.

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seclusionx t1_ispjp1e wrote

Lol @ treaty preventing usage on civilians.

Source: any fucking war.

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Grapesoda5k t1_isooula wrote

Until a country pays the robot manufacturer to favor them over their enemies or they start using EMPs or tactical nukes in retaliation.

A country could reverse engineer a captured robot and figure out a way to cripple them all or turn them against a home country.

It's not a good idea for numerous reasons.

Life isn't a TV show.

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AnOddFad t1_ispe33s wrote

Sending robots against humans would be a waste of resources.

A country that wastes robots on humans leaves their own country vulnerable when they could be saved for fighting against other robots.

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Grapesoda5k t1_ispesft wrote

Unless your armed the soldiers with cooking oil to pour on the robots.

There are plenty of low tech solutions to such terrible ideas.

A robot army would have a central control location vulnerable to conventional weapons.

And signal blocking would be an issue if they're controlled remotely.

Or just tie one down and upload a virus.

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Test19s t1_ispdixr wrote

The point of war isn’t to win a sporting contest but to incapacitate the enemy. These will likely be used against infrastructure or worse against civilians if they force a faster surrender. An absolutely loyal drone army is capable of incredible evil if it falls into the wrong hands.

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Agecom5 t1_ispfp12 wrote

This isn't a good thing, civilian casualties can never be taken out of the equation and by making it a "money problem", when war showed itself to be incredibly profitable, encourages war.

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_AutomaticJack_ t1_isql211 wrote

Yes, because all military actions are always entirely force-on-force and there isn't any collateral damage or, God forbid, dictatorial autocrats waging genocidal wars of territorial expansion where killing civilians is explicit the point. That would never happen.

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11fingerfreak t1_ison6ac wrote

Uh, they’ll use the droids to kill us. Lots of humans are gonna die. Lots.

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Crabcakes5_ t1_isoo8qh wrote

Nuclear weapons are perfectly capable of doing exactly the same thing, but that hasn't happened yet. Why? Because no one wants the same thing done to them in retaliation. Droid armies wouldn't be used on civilians due to the fear that the other side may use it on theirs.

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11fingerfreak t1_isoxtlv wrote

Maybe in the very, very distant future after most humans are dead, sure, they won’t use them on civilians since they’ll exist in so few numbers as to make it meaningless.

These weapons are likely to see battlefield use in our lifetime. Wealthy nations (basically just NATO) will have these. That means when the US invades someone (which we most certainly will at least 2-3 more times in our lifetime) the opponents will most likely have human soldiers and humans living in the cities. Our robots will slaughter their soldiers. Our robots will occupy their cities. Our robots will kill any of their citizens that resist. There’s no need to discuss the robots our opponents will have because they won’t have any.

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