I, Robot?

The times, they are a changin', and so is technology. A recent article on CNN discusses how robot technology may have the potential to change the future. The article is essentially an interview with someone from the CNN website and the professor of robotics and artificial intelligence at the University of Sheffield in the UK; Noel Sharkey. The interviewer from CNN asks pretty much asks every kind of question that someone would want to ask an individual who is knowledgeable of the latest robot technology.

According to Sharkey, "What's real about robots today is they're not intelligent. I quite often say they're not bright enough to be called stupid." This quote seems to thwart any kind of Asimov inspired conspiracies perpetuated by paranoid people. As the interview goes on, however, we find that there are some terrifying uses for these machines.

Sharkey openly discusses the fact that the military has been contacting him regarding the use of military robots.

"A military robot might go out," begins Sharkey, "and if it finds insurgents, it kills them, because there's a rule saying 'only kill them if it's an insurgent.'"

Sharkey exposes a flaw in this plan by describing an incident where a group of marines refused to kill an insurgent, out of respect, because they were carrying a coffin.

"You could program the robot that if they saw insurgents with a coffin," says Sharkey, "don't kill them. But then you're going to have every insurgent carrying a coffin. It's as simple as that. This thing about being able to discriminate. It requires common sense. And something robots don't have is common sense."

It may seem simultaneously frightening and exciting that robots are being considered for use as killing machines, but it doesn't stop there. There's a group out there called The Venus Project that plans on changing the world in a very drastic manner.

The Venus Project may sound unfamiliar to most, but many more people are familiar with a popular video created by supporters and members of The Venus Project's movement: Zeitgeist.

The above video is the sequel to Zeitgeist. Both Zeitgeist and its sequel take several conspiracy theories and lump them all up into one huge, awesome, monstrosity of a conspiracy theory. The film takes footage from other films like "Network" in an effort to rally supporters for The Venus Project.

So, for those of you who aren't familiar with The Venus Project, I'd recommend you read up on it. They have some interesting ideas, and some terrifying ideas. The interesting idea is that they want to get rid of the monetary system (and the above video shows a somewhat legitimate justification for this) and create a Utopian world where everyone lives in peace. The terrifying idea is that they want to utilize robots for coming up with political decisions. There was a PDF file available on the Zeitgeist website (which I'm currently having trouble locating) that was about 80 pages long, and it described the entire goal of The Venus Project. Once I started reading it, I thought it was revolutionary in some ways, but as I worked my way through it, I saw the plan fall apart. They actually think that, by programming a machine with the knowledge of Plato and Aristotle, it will be able to mathematically come up with good decisions for a democracy.

That sounds like a pretty terrifying notion, but even if The Venus Project's vision were to be fully realized, it would be very unlikely if it happened in our lifetimes, and it also would be pretty unlikely if it were to be exactly as the group's members had planned.

The idea of the military utilizing robotic killing machines, however, is pretty scary.