CULTURE, SONS & TENDANCES the inauguration of the first 100% They are everywhere. They are upon robotic assembly line by the Fanuc in Japan in 2013, the rise in already part of our daily lives via factory surgical operations aided by computers, global spread of drones, and the the internet and numerous high the robotic vacuum cleaners in the millions technology products. However, their of copies… Everyday, robots gain territory become more and more involved existence remains abstract and does and with our lives. . not correspond to, or rather yet satisfies, our fantasy of humanoid robots, Military robots: androids, and other cyborgs. But let A Dehumanized War us not be too impatient, because If the use of robots as tools for mineappears to be a real progress for following the example of the deve- clearing infantrymen, the use of robots capable from a distance is a whole lopment of the internet, we risk living ofotherkilling advancement. Today, if the use of through major transformations in a killer drones has been made banal to the point of seeming legitimate to a large future closer than we imagine. portion of the population, the distance
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hat is a robot? The term robot was invented by the Czech painter and writer Josef Capek for a written piece by his brother Karel, R.U.R (Rossumovi univerzální roboti) in 1920. The word robot has slavic origins and comes from the Czech word robota (работа in Russian) meaning “work” or “servitude”. The robot is therefore, in its initial definition, an automatic mechanism meant to substitute humans to carry out tasks. With the progress of science, it became a mechatronic package (alining mechanics, electronics, and computer science) going to the point of being intelligent and autonomous thanks to a supply of artificial intelligence. Henceforth, we seek to create systems capable of reacting alone to its environment, that is to say, to certain unexpected events, which will bring robots closer to the autonomous systems imagined by science-fiction. Nonetheless, robots of the type Z-6PO or R2-D2 imagined by George Lucas in Star Wars, machines capable of learning in an autonomous fashion and developing a cognitive dimension, are only aspects of robotics. Drones or submarines piloted by distance by humans are also robots.
It will be all entirely different when robots will be able to take initiative, in compliance with their manufactured program, to shoot at humans. Such is the case with “autonomous lethal weapons”, robots capable of selecting and combating targets without human intervention. Here, the X-47B developed by the Northrop Grumman company for the US Navy, is a prototype for a stealth drone equipped with a reaction motor and a range of nearly 4,000 kilometers, capable of taking off, navigating, choosing a target, shooting it down, and landing, all in an
An open letter against this kind of robot was published in July 2015 and signed by thousands of key figures, including a majority of researchers in artificial intelligent (A.I) and in robotics including Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, and Brittish astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. In this letter, the signers worry of an imminent danger: “Artificial intelligence has reached a point where the deployment of these systems will be materially, if not legally, doable in the next few years, not decades, and the stakes are important: autonomous arms has been described as the third revolution in war technique, after cannon powder and nuclear arms.” And if the promoters of “killer robots” find that these soldiers of artificial intelligence will better respect international human rights because they don’t respond to human sentiments (no useless deaths caused by prejudice, fear, panic, anger, or revenge), their detractors use the same argument to support the notion that a robot does not have a morals and is devoid of empathy. Facing the robotisation of arms, humanity today faces questions of the ethical and ontological order that will determine our future. Caught in the trap of its genius creation, man will certainly have to restudy the laws of robotics formulated by writer Isaac Asimov regarding autonomous robots (robots provided with an electronic brain). Law Zero: A robot cannot harm humanity, or, from its inaction, permit that humanity be exposed to danger. First Law: A robot cannot harm a human being, nor, by remain passive, permit that a human being be exposed to danger, except in contradiction with Law Zero. Second Law: A robot must follow the orders given to it by a human being, except if such orders enter into conflict with the First Law or Law Zero. © DR
Robotics involve all techniques allowing for the conception and creation of robots. This term was invented by writer Isaac Asimov in his book Runaround published in 1942. From the 70s onwards, robotics has made stupefying progress. And as progress accelerates with each new advancement, we won’t have to wait long to live fundamental modifications in our sociological domain. Explorations made by the rover Curiosity on Mars
has grown so much between the killer and its target that war has passed into the era of dehumanization. The pilot of a drone is no longer a pilot, he’s a player in a video game who kills without really knowing what he’s killing. However, the aforementioned soldier, comfortably sat in an air-conditioned container in the middle of New Mexico, drinking a sugary and fizzy drink, and firing missiles thousands of kilometers away on targets that he supposes are his enemy, continues to have a link with humanity. He can feel remorse. He can suspend his shot if he has a doubt; he can see the missile swerve a few seconds from impact. The link still exists.
autonomous manner. As for the SGR-A1, it entails a sentry robot developed by Samsung to monitor the border between South and North Korea. If this robot remains connected to an operator, it can also function with total autonomy, and thanks to its sensors, shoot on targets 2 kilometers away in the middle of the night or 4 kilometers away during the day. It is also completely possible to imagine that a computer program is cable of discerning a target somewhere in the world and making a drone take off to shoot it down, all of this occurring without human intervention in the chain of command.
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