The Beginning of the Robot War Age

I came across a video on how tiny helicopters are able to fly in formation, do figure eights, and land all at the same time.

I was so amazed at it that I ended up watching the video several times.

And after watching it for the third time, I was as both fascinated and disconcerted by it all.

Pros

Fascinating because we finally have the technology to have aircraft, though still tiny, move in unison. Imagine its applications in things like spraying crops, deliveries, and even undertaking rescue activities.

An entire fleet of full-scale unmanned vehicles could make landing and take-offs on busy airports much more efficient. Even just a few half-scale units can be used to protect endangered animals and track poachers. Why even a pair of small-scaled one ones can be used to news stories during dangerous situations.

And if we look at the software coordinates the synchronized flying, the technology can be applied to Nano robots can be used to enter the body and conduct operations. They can be directed to cauterize cancer cells without having to cut a patient open.

And once the operation is done, the Nano robots can be safely ejected from the body via defecation of urination.

Terminator, the movie Franchise

But after reading the article Dark Future, Part 2 – Terminators, I cannot help but think this is the beginning of the Terminator Age.

For those of you not familiar with Terminators, they are cyborg assassins designed to wipe out the human race after Skynet, a computer, gains sentience.

In the first movie of the franchise, a cyborg, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger gets up close and personal. Later in the franchise, various air vehicles make their appearance, raining destruction from up high.

Cons

As the article described, we already have computers with artificial intelligence so good, they are so efficient at destroying their human opponents.

And now, this artificial intelligence leaps from the virtual world to the real one.

In some of the games I have seen, computer controlled air craft are able to efficiently search and destroy targets in the air and on the ground. They do it rapidly without emotion and hesitation. Can you imagine bringing that efficiency to the real world?

I’m not concerned about a computer gaining sentience at this point yet, but having humans set the targets and parameters is just as scary.

Now battling something big like a man-sized cyborg or an F15-sized aircraft is one thing. But what happens when the battle takes place in the human body.

Being much smaller, it is more cost effective to just inject a set of Nano assassins into one’s bloodstream and just wait for them to wreak havoc. It is chilling.

And while people will argue that this will never happen because people will not allow it, history has something else to say.

The machine gun was invented in order to promote peace and the atomic bomb was invented to end wars. Even today, we’ve got drone air planes fighting wars in order to avoid putting people in harm’s way. And though they are still controlled by people, they already have a certain level of autonomy.

War Coming

Make no mistake, there will be a war coming.

And though all the warning signs are all up, it may already too late to stop the wheels from turning now that Pandora’s Box has been opened.

Battles between men and machines are written for the future. I just hope that extinction of the human race is not part of what is to come.