February 16, 2005


Rockin' the Gange at the Pentagon?

Looks like someone has been hitting Preznit Reznit Doper's stash in the sock drawer again...

The American military is working on a new generation of soldiers, far different from the army it has.

"They don't get hungry," said Gordon Johnson of the Joint Forces Command at the Pentagon. "They're not afraid. They don't forget their orders. They don't care if the guy next to them has just been shot. Will they do a better job than humans? Yes."
...
The military plans to invest tens of billions of dollars in automated armed forces. The costs of that transformation will help drive the Defense Department's budget up almost 20 percent, from a requested $419.3 billion for next year to $502.3 billion in 2010, excluding the costs of war. The annual costs of buying new weapons is scheduled to rise 52 percent, from $78 billion to $118.6 billion. (emphasis added)

Think about it this way...this could be the biggest "defense" contractor boondoggle in the history of the world. The only "defense" going on here is corporate contributors protecting their bottom lines selling more systems that will never work.

Imagine if you will, robot soldiers built by the lowest bidder running the latest Windows OS. There's a scary thought.

Gee, make way for a cheesy script from George Lucas starring the Governator..."Return of the Defense Contractor Terminators ... Attack on the GAAP". I can hardly wait. And they've already planned to spend on this for the next sixty-plus years, how considerate of them.

Of course, this will all be paid for with revenue-raising Tax Cuts. Of Course.

posted by Jo Fish on 02.16.05 at 12:23 AM





Comments:

Should these new soldiers be led by a robotic Commander-in-Chief? Any candidates? Would Rove continue as the wizard behind the curtain?

posted by: Shag from Brookline on 02.16.05 at 06:31 AM [permalink]



Will these robotic soldiers have the ethics not to fire on civilians, unarmed children, infants?

Will these robotic soldiers not be deployed against peaceful demonstrators in US cities, such as New York, Portland Oregon, or Seattle?

(ok, waiting for the Schwarzenneger/terminator jokes to start coming in, sigh)

posted by: Alan on 02.16.05 at 11:41 AM [permalink]



If these robotic soldiers work as well as that strategic missile defense system we've just deployed, we're screwed.

posted by: Len Cleavelin on 02.16.05 at 12:29 PM [permalink]



Not that long ago there was a contest for a robot vehicle to navigate a course on its own, with no outside control. It may have been for a new generation of rovers for NASA. No one came marginally close to finishing the course.

The drones are remotely piloted, so you will need operators for every one of these things for the foreseeable future. Mobility isn't an easy thing to engineer.

posted by: Bryan on 02.16.05 at 09:46 PM [permalink]



AI is working on it...

posted by: Mr. Murder on 02.18.05 at 04:00 AM [permalink]






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All the original material © 2002-2003 Jo Fish
steal what you want, all I ask is an attribution of some sort
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