Are real-life Terminator robots possible?
By Asavin Wattanajantra in Editorial
Posted in Terminator, Wall:e, Pixar, robot on
It’s easy to think of a movie like Terminator Salvation as a complete fantasy. Surely it won’t be possible for robots to rise up and take over, enslaving humanity on the way?
However, P.W. Singer, author of new book Wired for War: The robotics revolution and conflict in the 21st century, came out with some interesting ideas and facts in an interview with Hplus magazine.
In terms of numbers, he said that a handful of drones before the Iraq invasion has now turned into 7,000. There were zero ummanned vehicles - now there are over 12,000. Unmanned planes and sea vehicles are also increasing.
There are now 43 countries working on military robotics. In an interview. Microsoft’s Bill Gates claimed that robotics will develop in the same way that computers 30 years ago.
That’s a pretty scary thought, considering what computers can do now.
Singer also named flying mobile phone towers, flying gas stations, insect-like bugs, and planes which don’t need piloting - they can carry out missions on their own as well as fly there and back.
But what about an actual Terminator reality? Singer recounts a story where a member of the military actually asks a scientist for something like the Terminator hunter killer drone, which kind of makes sense, even if its is a little scary.
If it works successfully for Skynet in the movie, why wouldn’t it in real-life? And if all that data we’re having to deal with is too much for humans - computers and AI could look through the data much more quickly and efficiently right?
- Hopefully it won’t have any digital fingers on any nuclear buttons in that case.
Software developer Bob Mottram believes that it is unlikely that Terminator style robots will rise up in the near future, simply because technology is still quite a way from being sustained without the help of humans.
However long-term - the late 21st century perhaps - if automation continued and we got lazier and lazier, he says in principle it might be possible for machinery to take over. In the Pixar film Wall-E you saw something like that with the fat humans unable to do anything about robot control because they just didn’t know how to move anymore.
Robotics expert Daniel H. Wilson says the super-intelligent robot is unlikely, but that he did expect to see humanoid robots fighting within the next several decades. Terminator-style robots tele-operated by humans which can negotiate human environments.
Or even humanoid policeman? Patrolling the streets helping law enforcement in their jobs? It might not be in my lifetime - but it will be a reality sooner or later.
Rated: 60% (2 votes)
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