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Microsoft wins $21.9B contract with U.S. Army to supply AR headsets

reuters.com

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Re: Microsoft wins $21.9B contract with U.S. Army to supply AR headsets

#71

Post by chrisseaton »

blunte wrote: post #18

I don't look like a hippie, but I totally subscribe to the idea of "make love, not war". I imagine what the possibilities would be if we funded general non-military projects with the kind of money that goes into the military. Trillions have been spent on wars or war preparation, and of course the net result is worsening for humanity. What if instead that money were spend on helping humanity? Do we really need a confl…

How well does your idea work in practice if we look at examples from history?

Before the Second World War Lloyd George tried to make love not war with Germany. How did that end up?

Sometimes the bad people are just absolutely intent on fucking you up no matter what and you need to be able to defend yourself.

Re: Microsoft wins $21.9B contract with U.S. Army to supply AR headsets

#72

Post by megaman821 »

blunte wrote: post #30
frisco wrote: post #13

On the plus side, this means we are much more likely now to get actually awesome prosumer/consumer-grade AR systems with many of the current issues worked out in the next N years. It's starting to get to a point where, though it's still kind of lame, you can see how it would be awesome, but still needs $B of R&D so... I'll take it.

Sure, but the process of getting there will either directly physically harm some humans or just otherwise be highly financially inefficient (in the case of developing wartime technologies which have no wartime purpose).

These aren't bombs. A heads-up-display has more chance keeping infantry safe and reducing the chances of misidentifying an innocent bystander as an enemy combatant.

Re: Microsoft wins $21.9B contract with U.S. Army to supply AR headsets

#73

Post by nordsieck »

anon_tor_12345 wrote: post #12
paxys wrote: post #4

People on the ground never have use for such tech. These deals are all political and the actual equipment arrives by the truckloads and sits unboxed. When people rant about ridiculous military budgets and spending it isn't about cutting soldiers' salaries but shit like this.

There's a very obvious analogy here that proves you wrong: nvgs

> There's a very obvious analogy here that proves you wrong: nvgs

Another example is red dot / holographic gun sights.

As an aside, while I agree with you broadly on NVGs, my experience with PVS-7's is that they're basically not much better than naked eyesight (I hope the more modern NVGs are better). The thing that makes NVGs really good is either IR lights or IR lasers.

Re: Microsoft wins $21.9B contract with U.S. Army to supply AR headsets

#74

Post by nahuel0x »

judge2020 wrote: post #44
ghostwreck wrote: post #27

This makes me think of some of the battles that play out in Daemon and Freedom [1]. They're able to visualize all other parties in the area mapped by drones in real-time. They fight with massive AI swarms and are able to control the AI bots with hand gestures as they see them on the field, all while cruising around on modified motorcycles. We're in for a wild future. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_(novel_se…

More fairly popular pop culture that this might mirror is the Black Mirror episode Men Against Fire where the AR implants are being used to trick their soldiers into thinking regular humans are some mutant creature to make it easier to pull the trigger and kill them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_Against_Fire

Similar to this great short "Uncanny Valley": https://vimeo.com/147365861

Re: Microsoft wins $21.9B contract with U.S. Army to supply AR headsets

#75

Post by verdverm »

paxys wrote: post #25
ausbah wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

good for R&D I suppose

Private, patented R&D which benefits a single trillion-dollar corporation funded by public dollars. Too common in this country sadly.

You might consider the awesome open-source software MSFT is developing for this device, the Mixed Reality Toolkit, which many benefit from. There are ancillary benefits. MRTK also works for non-MSFT products and with Unity

Re: Microsoft wins $21.9B contract with U.S. Army to supply AR headsets

#76

Post by HNewsInfosec »

high_priest wrote: post #31
blunte wrote: post #18

I don't look like a hippie, but I totally subscribe to the idea of "make love, not war". I imagine what the possibilities would be if we funded general non-military projects with the kind of money that goes into the military. Trillions have been spent on wars or war preparation, and of course the net result is worsening for humanity. What if instead that money were spend on helping humanity? Do we really need a confl…

Life is one big war. Just because you live in a pleasant neighbourhood, doesn't mean there are no malevolent people in the world...

Only because you live in a pleasant neighbourhood, doesn't mean you are not living in the neighbourhood that is causing tremendous suffering to the rest of the world.

Re: Microsoft wins $21.9B contract with U.S. Army to supply AR headsets

#77

Post by xd »

blunte wrote: post #38
high_priest wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Life is one big war. Just because you live in a pleasant neighbourhood, doesn't mean there are no malevolent people in the world...

I believe that many malevolent people, or at least their followers, would be much less malevolent or active if they had their basic needs met plus a little bit of cushion to enjoy life. To be more specific, many of the worst people have lived through some truly horrible childhoods (often experiencing war and poverty as a child). Stop the cycle of war and poverty, and then see how naturally malevolent people are. We h…

"their basic needs met plus a little bit of cushion to enjoy life"

Who's responsibility is it to meet these needs?

Re: Microsoft wins $21.9B contract with U.S. Army to supply AR headsets

#78

Post by someonehere »

blunte wrote: post #18

I don't look like a hippie, but I totally subscribe to the idea of "make love, not war". I imagine what the possibilities would be if we funded general non-military projects with the kind of money that goes into the military. Trillions have been spent on wars or war preparation, and of course the net result is worsening for humanity. What if instead that money were spend on helping humanity? Do we really need a confl…

If China had the same attitude, yes. The military is in a constant race with China to get a leg up on them. It goes back and forth.

Re: Microsoft wins $21.9B contract with U.S. Army to supply AR headsets

#79

Post by datavirtue »

blunte wrote: post #18

I don't look like a hippie, but I totally subscribe to the idea of "make love, not war". I imagine what the possibilities would be if we funded general non-military projects with the kind of money that goes into the military. Trillions have been spent on wars or war preparation, and of course the net result is worsening for humanity. What if instead that money were spend on helping humanity? Do we really need a confl…

"I imagine what the possibilities would be if we funded general non-military projects with the kind of money that goes into the military."

Amen.

China is. They are building a new silk road that they will control.

What's our answer? A bomb?

Re: Microsoft wins $21.9B contract with U.S. Army to supply AR headsets

#80

Post by rtx »

blunte wrote: post #38
high_priest wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Life is one big war. Just because you live in a pleasant neighbourhood, doesn't mean there are no malevolent people in the world...

I believe that many malevolent people, or at least their followers, would be much less malevolent or active if they had their basic needs met plus a little bit of cushion to enjoy life. To be more specific, many of the worst people have lived through some truly horrible childhoods (often experiencing war and poverty as a child). Stop the cycle of war and poverty, and then see how naturally malevolent people are. We h…

This is half true, today religion is the primary driver of conflict.
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