We all know where this is gonna end…
I’ve low-key started to think the only reason we haven’t seen autonomous hunter-killer drones yet is that nobody’s willing to break the seal, and I’m scared for what happens when somebody finally does.
My dear stranger, those already exist, and have been used in war to terminate key individuals.
We are living the dream.
Point me towards systems that don’t have a human in the loop, particularly any that utilize fully-autonomous swarms, and I’ll agree. Scary as the former are, there’s a world of difference between a handful of FPV suicide drones, and a cloud of HL2-Manhack-esque things operating on face-recogniton-guided autopilot.
They are definitely super willing to break the seal, just nobody has built a good target ID system yet that won’t fire on civilians.
If you just need everyone in a 10 mile radius dead, you could send in the hunter bots, or you could just shell the area with heavy artillery from three countries away. We already have that problem solved. Once we have a reliable target ID system I guarantee you’ll start seeing unmanned equipment in war.
In the latest video about this by veritasium, he asked the researcher about ethics concern. the researcher insist that they dont care as humanity can decide for itself.
Meanwhile:
The new report also details the extent of MIT’s partnerships with Israeli military contractors like Elbit Systems, which supplies 85 percent of Israel’s killer drones, and Maersk, one of the world’s largest shipping companies, that has sent millions of pounds of military goods to Israel since the start of the war on Gaza. The Israeli military also sponsored several of the MIT projects with funds provided by the U.S. Defense Department.
https://theintercept.com/2025/01/16/mit-israel-military-funding-research-gaza/
That researcher is a real life Dr. Hoenikker. Vonnegut is probably shrugging in his grave
I’d rather just have bees.
I’d rather not have robot bees. I’ve seen hated in the nation (black mirror episode).
The MIT engineers agree. They said something to the effect of “If you could make a robotic bee, it wouldn’t replace bees. It would be a terrible idea to try to use them for pollination… Just put that same amount of finding into conservation and researching bees, you would have a much better result.”
The new technology could increase crop yields dramatically without harming the environment.
That’s a surprisingly benign use case, I was expecting far worse.
They think there will be more profit in it, especially since bees can’t be repurposed as weapons.
bees can’t be repurposed as weapons.
Capitalism will find a way.
https://cherwell.org/2024/10/18/oxford-scientists-microchip-bees-with-smallest-radar-ever/
