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Fully autonomous drones have killed human soldiers for the first time

newscientist.com

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Re: Fully autonomous drones have killed human soldiers for the first time

#141

Post by FuckButtons »

pharos92 wrote: post #130

The world is really at a threshold where it's become openly obvious that technology is not working for the majority of humanity, but a small cabal.

I’m not sure how you construe “country implements desperate measures during time of existential crisis” with technology only working for a small cabal? If anything this shows that this particular technology is more egalitarian than its predecessors, since it’s cheap and being used effectively by a smaller country defending itself against the territorial ambitions of its imperialist neighbor.

Re: Fully autonomous drones have killed human soldiers for the first time

#142

Post by FuckButtons »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #132

The meta keeps evolving. I suppose the next step is to create drones designed to intercept each other. Then swarms of drones will battle it out in the sky fully autonomously.

They already have those, for several years if I’m not mistaken.

Re: Fully autonomous drones have killed human soldiers for the first time

#143

Post by dash2 »

inigyou wrote: post #39
sebastiennight wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They're fighting for their country's existence. I would use every weapon in my disposal; and I'm a pacifist who hates violence. I'm not sure it's accurate to define yourself as a pacifist if you believe safeguarding the concept of a nation-state is more important than human life, ethics, or the downstream effects of using "every weapon at your disposal". I don't think you realize the creativity and variety we human…

They're fighting for their own existence. Russia has killed, enslaved, and/or tortured most of the citizens of the regions it's already captured, and replaced them with ethnic Russians.

I think "killed, enslaved, and/or tortured most of the citizens of the regions it's already captured" is an exaggeration. That is not to deny Russian war crimes, which are clearly large-scale and horrendous. But I don't think the majority of people in those regions have been killed or enslaved.

I'm a big supporter of Ukraine and have donated to the war effort and hosted Ukrainian refugees.

Re: Fully autonomous drones have killed human soldiers for the first time

#144

Post by y-curious »

Arubis wrote: post #38
delichon wrote: post #31

This was back in 2026, before they released the Dredd series for civilian applications with onboard due processing and agents for prosecution, defense, judge, jury and executioner with millisecond response times, drastically reducing price per perpetrator.

Oof. "Price per perp" is so perfectly aligned with LinkedIn writing style I'm surprised I hadn't seen it already.

I do like the implied moral superiority. “Price per objectively bad guy or gal” or PPOBGOG is being workshopped now.

Re: Fully autonomous drones have killed human soldiers for the first time

#145

Post by y-curious »

alephnerd wrote: post #136
pharos92 wrote: post #130

The world is really at a threshold where it's become openly obvious that technology is not working for the majority of humanity, but a small cabal.

Or, Putin could have decided not to invade Ukraine. Most drone techs and engineers in Ukraine as well as Russia would prefer a civilian job instead of fighting a protracted war.

It’s fun and games when you have the bad guys invading. It’s not so clear cut when that same technology gets used for terrorism against civilians. Indiscriminate killing by a machine should not be clapped at

Re: Fully autonomous drones have killed human soldiers for the first time

#146

Post by sterlind »

joe_mamba wrote: post #104
namuol wrote: post #94

> “We just launch it and we know everything will be dead – everything that will be found there in this particular area will be dead,” says Kokhanovskyy. “There is no connection to the drone at all, you cannot see the video, nothing… Everything it sees will be killed.” This is a clear war crime. We don’t need to update any international laws, do we? This is by definition indiscriminate, like landmines or chemical weap…

>This is a clear war crime. Sure, but does the battlefield have any war crime police on site to enforce those laws? Because without enforcement and punishment, all laws written by man are just fake and meaningless pieces of paper. The only laws that are actually real and non-optional are the law of gravity and such. The war crime laws were invented as a legal theater for victorious powers to persecute the losers afte…

> The war crime laws were invented as a legal theater for victorious powers to persecute the losers after WW2 with a veneer of legality, for imperialist superpowers to bully the small third countries who refuse to play ball, not for something superpowers to actually abide by themselves

I recommend you watch Judgment at Nuremberg - the 1961 film, not the 2025 one (I've seen both.) the Nuremberg Trials were very much to punish the architects and perpetrators of the Holocaust for their atrocities. you can choose to be cynical, but consider: which "losers" were "persecuted?"

- the Doctors' Trial sentenced the doctors who murdered thousands of disabled Germany's own citizens in the Aktion T4 program.

- the Judges' Trial sentenced the Judges who enforced the Aryan racial purity laws, ordered the castration of "mental defectives" and sent falsely-accused Jews to their deaths.

- the Pohl Trial which sentenced the SS officers who ran the concentration camps and death camps.

sure, the US doesn't have perfectly clean hands, and the victor usually won't prosecute its own the way they prosecute the enemy, but I strongly disagree that the Hague was just an attempt to "persecute the losers." they were prosecuted, not persecuted, and they weren't prosecuted for "losing," they were prosecuted for their atrocities.

just because the Hague is unfair (some men never faced justice, since they were on "our" side) doesn't mean it was unjust (those who were convicted deserved it.)

Re: Fully autonomous drones have killed human soldiers for the first time

#147

Post by sterlind »

alephnerd wrote: post #138
matheusmoreira wrote: post #132

The meta keeps evolving. I suppose the next step is to create drones designed to intercept each other. Then swarms of drones will battle it out in the sky fully autonomously.

> The meta... I hate this kind of terminology with such fervent hatred as someone DefTech adjacent. It's just the sheer callousness of gamifying warfare. Edit: can't reply > How would you have me call it Tactics. It's emotionally neutral and sounds less like someone who follows warfare the same way someone follows competitive StarCraft 2 or DoTA.

how did you feel about Hegseth's "double tap" strike?

Re: Fully autonomous drones have killed human soldiers for the first time

#148

Post by alephnerd »

y-curious wrote: post #145
alephnerd wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, Putin could have decided not to invade Ukraine. Most drone techs and engineers in Ukraine as well as Russia would prefer a civilian job instead of fighting a protracted war.

It’s fun and games when you have the bad guys invading. It’s not so clear cut when that same technology gets used for terrorism against civilians. Indiscriminate killing by a machine should not be clapped at

It's absolutely not "fun and games" for most Ukrainians right now, and when you are in a situation where it is "kill or be killed" you innovate.

Re: Fully autonomous drones have killed human soldiers for the first time

#149

Post by machomaster »

doctorpangloss wrote: post #24
YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #21

A few thoughts. First, I advise a modicum of skepticism to be retained in the face of such news. Ukraine is, after all, in the middle of an existential crisis and must take every advantage it can, even if it's just scaring Russian invaders further (I bet both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers are already pretty scared of drones). Additionally: "“There is no connection to the drone at all, you cannot see the video, nothi…

> If Ukraine could deploy actual Terminator robots to the front line it would do it in a heartbeat. Completely false. They are beholden to their allies. Ukraine could also reach Moscow with missiles, why doesn't it? It could build a nuclear bomb in 6 months, if not 6 weeks, they have the capabilities, why doesn't it? It's not so simple.

> Ukraine could also reach Moscow with missiles, why doesn't it?

Ukraine doesn't have enough missiles to reach and hit important targets in Moscow.

Due to Moscow having the best defence, it doesn't make sense to try to hit it only for lulz, instead of hitting actually important target elsewhere, like oil refineries.

Otherwise, Ukraine has constantly been trying to hit targets in Moscow and around it, mostly with long-range drones, not missiles. Sometimes this has been successful. I mean, the dome of the Kremlin itself was hit a few years back.

Re: Fully autonomous drones have killed human soldiers for the first time

#150

Post by inigyou »

dash2 wrote: post #143
inigyou wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're fighting for their own existence. Russia has killed, enslaved, and/or tortured most of the citizens of the regions it's already captured, and replaced them with ethnic Russians.

I think "killed, enslaved, and/or tortured most of the citizens of the regions it's already captured" is an exaggeration. That is not to deny Russian war crimes, which are clearly large-scale and horrendous. But I don't think the majority of people in those regions have been killed or enslaved. I'm a big supporter of Ukraine and have donated to the war effort and hosted Ukrainian refugees.

What happen to Bucha and Mariupol? Why did they get wiped off the map? Was it a tsunami?
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