Gingersnap
10-06-2010, 12:58 PM
Fruitcake profs demand strict curbs on killer robots
Noel Sharkeys of the world, unite!
By Lewis Page • Get more from this author
Posted in Science, 4th October 2010 15:13 GMT
Blighty's most famous automatamageddon media-Cassandra, Professor Noel Sharkey, has allied with like-minded profs around the world to issue yet another warning of the coming rise of killer robots.
Noel Sharkey portrait. Credit: University of Sheffield, Noel Sharkey pages, 'Engagement with the Public'
You thought the robots were scary.
Sharkey, who is professor of AI, Robotics and Public Engagement at Sheffield uni, has warned for at least the past ten years of the terrible dangers attendant on war robots. He has famously flagged up the likely prospect of a little girl being "zapped" by metal stormtroopers "because she points her ice cream at a robot to share", given it as his opinion that robotic terrorism is imminent, and endorsed bogus robot-busting weaponry companies.
Sharkey's credentials include an Equity card, a doctorate in experimental psychology, an honorary doctorate of science plus fellowships in such august bodies as the British Computer Society and - according to his website - the "Asociation of Psychologyical Science".
Despite all this, nobody serious has paid Sharkey and his robofear concerns any attention. He has decided to rectify this by setting up the International Committee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC), which has just held its "first major international event" in Berlin.
Joining Sharkey on the ICRAC committee is the photogenic Dr Robert Sparrow of Monash university in Australia, who is an expert in many fields - for instance the right to male pregnancy.
The two men are aided by Jürgen Altmann, "physicist and peace researcher" at the Technische Universität of Dortmund, and "philosopher and film maker" Peter Asaro of the Department of Media Studies and Film at the New School. Asaro is perhaps most famous for the documentary Love Machine, which looks at the potential future development of an eponymous robot "capable of engaging not only in sex with a human, but other elements of love and relationships as well".
Thus reinforced by heavyweight, seriously credible international experts, Sharkey considers that at last the issue of runaway killer robots may get some mainstream attention. Following the Berlin get-together, Sharkey released a statement in which he says:
"I am delighted with the meeting. At last the international conversation is beginning on how we should control armed robots. Although there was not a consensus of opinion on all of the issues, there was agreement that state actors need to take steps to prevent the indiscriminate use of armed robots.
Is he crazy or is he so far ahead of so-called "normal" people that it would blow their tiny minds? :cool:
IT Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/04/noel_sharkey_international/)
Noel Sharkeys of the world, unite!
By Lewis Page • Get more from this author
Posted in Science, 4th October 2010 15:13 GMT
Blighty's most famous automatamageddon media-Cassandra, Professor Noel Sharkey, has allied with like-minded profs around the world to issue yet another warning of the coming rise of killer robots.
Noel Sharkey portrait. Credit: University of Sheffield, Noel Sharkey pages, 'Engagement with the Public'
You thought the robots were scary.
Sharkey, who is professor of AI, Robotics and Public Engagement at Sheffield uni, has warned for at least the past ten years of the terrible dangers attendant on war robots. He has famously flagged up the likely prospect of a little girl being "zapped" by metal stormtroopers "because she points her ice cream at a robot to share", given it as his opinion that robotic terrorism is imminent, and endorsed bogus robot-busting weaponry companies.
Sharkey's credentials include an Equity card, a doctorate in experimental psychology, an honorary doctorate of science plus fellowships in such august bodies as the British Computer Society and - according to his website - the "Asociation of Psychologyical Science".
Despite all this, nobody serious has paid Sharkey and his robofear concerns any attention. He has decided to rectify this by setting up the International Committee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC), which has just held its "first major international event" in Berlin.
Joining Sharkey on the ICRAC committee is the photogenic Dr Robert Sparrow of Monash university in Australia, who is an expert in many fields - for instance the right to male pregnancy.
The two men are aided by Jürgen Altmann, "physicist and peace researcher" at the Technische Universität of Dortmund, and "philosopher and film maker" Peter Asaro of the Department of Media Studies and Film at the New School. Asaro is perhaps most famous for the documentary Love Machine, which looks at the potential future development of an eponymous robot "capable of engaging not only in sex with a human, but other elements of love and relationships as well".
Thus reinforced by heavyweight, seriously credible international experts, Sharkey considers that at last the issue of runaway killer robots may get some mainstream attention. Following the Berlin get-together, Sharkey released a statement in which he says:
"I am delighted with the meeting. At last the international conversation is beginning on how we should control armed robots. Although there was not a consensus of opinion on all of the issues, there was agreement that state actors need to take steps to prevent the indiscriminate use of armed robots.
Is he crazy or is he so far ahead of so-called "normal" people that it would blow their tiny minds? :cool:
IT Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/04/noel_sharkey_international/)