The Terminator Arrives Earlier than Expected

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the alarming development of Turkey's automatic shooting gun towers at the Syrian border, which are set to become operational soon. Participants express concerns about the implications of autonomous weaponry, drawing parallels to fictional scenarios depicted in the Terminator movies. The conversation highlights the ethical dilemmas surrounding the deployment of such technology, particularly in targeting civilians, and questions the global ability to regulate or block these advancements. Comparisons are made to existing systems like the Phalanx CIWS and Tomahawk cruise missiles, emphasizing the potential for autonomous systems to engage targets without human intervention.

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This discussion is beneficial for military strategists, policymakers, ethicists, and anyone involved in the development or regulation of autonomous weapon systems.

anorlunda
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http://www.yenisafak.com/en/news/tu...-shooting-gun-towers-at-syrian-border-2473487

That news is horrifying. I hope it's not true.

I never doubted that killing machines would arrive some day. Think of the Terminator movies. But I expected that it would not be in my lifetime. I was wrong. If that news article is true, they go into operation soon.

How long after this until the USA provides solar-powered autonomous drones with a photo database of the faces of all people on the POTUS kill list and sets them loose on the world?

Liberals promised that we would hold global debates over the ethics of such things before they were actually deployed. Wrong again.

Since the technology needed to do it is so commonplace, 200+ countries in the world can unilaterally decide to do it. Criminal sponsored terminators won't be far behind.

Is there any chance of blocking these things globally?
 
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How is this fundamentally different from a 40 year old CIWS system? The entire purpose of the system is to automatically engage and destroy any target it detects within certain parameters such as location, heading and speed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS

Tomahawk cruise missiles have also used photographs (of terrain, but still) for terminal guidance for 30 years:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TERCOM#DSMAC
 
russ_watters said:
How is this fundamentally different from

Turkey's guns target civilians. Innocent civilians in the opinion of many.

Tomahawk targets are programmed in by people. They do not decide autonomously to select targets and launch themselves.
 
They are called sentry guns, korea and israel had them for a long time now.
 
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anorlunda said:
Turkey's guns target civilians. Innocent civilians in the opinion of many. ...
There's no such "civilian" indication in your link. If this system is truly autonomous, it's going to track anything of reasonable size that moves, to include people and goats, very much like the effect of a minefield, without the risk of leaving unremoved mines years later.
 
anorlunda said:
On second thought, I guess that land mines are non-intelligent low-tech precedent.
Or Claymores
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/M18_Claymore_mine

But a recent thread https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/destined-to-build-a-super-ai-that-will-destroy-us.887729/ agonized over similar threats. It is the combination of automation and killing that is so alarming.
A time bomb is automated and lethal. They even occasionally turn on their more careless makers, like the fiction bots. If there's alarm, must come from some other feature or intention.
 
Oh well, I guess I overreacted because of revulsion.
 

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