Editor’s Picks Can We Trust Robots? Would You Trust a Robot Surgeon to Operate on You? Can You Program Ethics Into a Self-Driving Car? Czech writer Karel Čapek’s 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), which famously introduced the word robot to the world, begins with synthetic humans—the robots from the title—toiling in factories to produce low-cost goods. It ends with those same robots killing off the human race. Thus was born an enduring plot line in science fiction: robots spiraling out of control and turning into unstoppable killing machines. Twentieth-century literature and film would go on to bring us many more examples of robots wreaking havoc on the world, with Hollywood notably turning the theme into blockbuster franchises like The Matrix, Transformers, and The Terminator. Lately, fears of fiction turning to fact have been stoked by a confluence of developments, including important advances in artificial intelligence and robotics, along with the widespread use of combat drones and ground robots in Iraq and Afghanistan. The world’s most powerful militaries are now developing ever more intelligent weapons, with varying degrees of autonomy and lethality. The vast majority will, in the near term, be remotely controlled by human operators, who will be “in the loop”… Read full this story
- The Umbrella Academy Recap: Live, Die, Repeat
- High school students build robotic wheelchair for boy who can’t walk
- Xian, China, beyond its ancient terra-cotta warriors
- Taliban leader Omar 'lived next to US Afghan base'
- When a boyfriend dies, does the grief mean less?
- Still no cause of death as boy, 8, who died in border patrol custody laid to rest in Guatemala, relative says
- Boy, 8, who died in border patrol custody laid to rest in Guatemala, relative says
- DR MICHAEL MOSLEY: Want to know how long you'll live?
- My 2-year-old almost died after popcorn infected his lung
- Father refuses to choose which conjoined twin lives
Do We Want Robot Warriors to Decide Who Lives or Dies? have 311 words, post on qa.spectrum.ieee.org at May 31, 2016. This is cached page on Goose Art. If you want remove this page, please contact us.