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San Francisco police consider letting robots use ‘deadly force’

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31–40 of 90 posts

Re: San Francisco police consider letting robots use ‘deadly force’

#31

Imagine a terrorist cell, which has no leader, no members, no financiers but is able to attack anyway. A DAO hires gig workers to assemble a "product" in a property which it has rented, the product is then programed by the DAO to attack the city it resides in. The DAO having speculated on shares of competitors of companies within the city, moves ever onwards. Terrorism as a software glider gun. Its a major theme in m…

> a terrorist cell, which has no leader, no members, no financiers but is able to attack anyway.

This is called "stochastic terrorism". It has carried out at least two attacks in the United States in the past week. Doesn't require fancy technology, just very effective ideological poisoning.

Re: San Francisco police consider letting robots use ‘deadly force’

#32
post #26

There's a hypothesis that the social order of a society depends on the accessibility of the military tech. E.g. in Ancient Greece almost any free citizen could afford to buy the top weapon of the time (an iron or bronze sword) - hence it was very expensive for a dictator to hire a force that could deal with an armed crowd - and this is why they had a democracy. Or a free person in the 13 American colonies could affor…

[deleted]

Re: San Francisco police consider letting robots use ‘deadly force’

#33
post #26

There's a hypothesis that the social order of a society depends on the accessibility of the military tech. E.g. in Ancient Greece almost any free citizen could afford to buy the top weapon of the time (an iron or bronze sword) - hence it was very expensive for a dictator to hire a force that could deal with an armed crowd - and this is why they had a democracy. Or a free person in the 13 American colonies could affor…

> a free person in the 13 American colonies could afford a musket or a rifle

This view of history needs to account for the nonfree people and how, despite the ambient tech level, they were kept unfree for a century after independence.

Re: San Francisco police consider letting robots use ‘deadly force’

#34
post #21

i can see it now, in 2024 The Defcon MurderRobot Village will be wild when a 12 year old remotely strolls right through any security controls, takes it over, and sends it chasing after the spotted feds. when the most well funded and most sophisticated companies in the world are compromised on a fairly regular basis, who tf thinks this is a good idea? if the engineers who built this aren’t actively speaking out on wha…

I wanted to say "you can just make it cable controlled", but then I guess you can always hack into machine controlling it...

Re: San Francisco police consider letting robots use ‘deadly force’

#36
post #34
post #21

i can see it now, in 2024 The Defcon MurderRobot Village will be wild when a 12 year old remotely strolls right through any security controls, takes it over, and sends it chasing after the spotted feds. when the most well funded and most sophisticated companies in the world are compromised on a fairly regular basis, who tf thinks this is a good idea? if the engineers who built this aren’t actively speaking out on wha…

I wanted to say "you can just make it cable controlled", but then I guess you can always hack into machine controlling it...

The cable-controlled bomb disposal robot, sometimes armed with shotgun, was a common feature in Northern Ireland at least 30 years ago. In that situation it's a much simpler technology.

Re: San Francisco police consider letting robots use ‘deadly force’

#38
post #36
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wanted to say "you can just make it cable controlled", but then I guess you can always hack into machine controlling it...

The cable-controlled bomb disposal robot, sometimes armed with shotgun, was a common feature in Northern Ireland at least 30 years ago. In that situation it's a much simpler technology.

Huh, I never knew they sometimes had shotguns.

Re: San Francisco police consider letting robots use ‘deadly force’

#39
post #26

There's a hypothesis that the social order of a society depends on the accessibility of the military tech. E.g. in Ancient Greece almost any free citizen could afford to buy the top weapon of the time (an iron or bronze sword) - hence it was very expensive for a dictator to hire a force that could deal with an armed crowd - and this is why they had a democracy. Or a free person in the 13 American colonies could affor…

It's always been that the one with power controls those with less power. We've only got democracy because of unionization and education. And some good, old-fashioned Christian guilt feelings.

Now, that power needs to be distributed properly. If there were a super-villain with an overwhelming military power under direct personal control, (s)he would be able to dictate some terms, but not be able to control all the way down to individual behavior. That would require micromanaging at an impossible level. So, to completely subvert society, you need an army with a hierachy.

Re: San Francisco police consider letting robots use ‘deadly force’

#40

The robots’ controllers aren’t under any threat at any time.

Tell me you haven't even read the first paragraph without saying you haven't even read the first paragraph. It's about risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent , not for the officer controlling the robot.

That slope slips all the way to Hell.
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