Never Give Robots Guns

Never give robots guns. Guns are for killing. Robots can’t make analogue decisions and those are the only ones that should ever control the taking of the life of another person. Robots make quantised decisions, not analogue ones. The quanta reflect the programming, and the programming arises from the approximation  and modelling of a human view.

When a technologist embodies their or their employer’s view of what’s fair into a technology, any potential for the exercise of discretion is turned from a scale to a step and humanity is quantised. That quantisation of discretion always serves the interest of the person forcing the issue.

Calls for better robots that make better judgement calls are misguided and pointless. A robot that can successfully make life-or-death decisions is a piece of bad science fiction. Any technology that attempts to perform human judgement quantises discretion and inherently dehumanises culture. That technology should never have a weapon.

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Background reading

[Microsoft]: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/194338-here-come-the-autonomous-robot-security-guards-what-could-possibly-go-wrong
[Halting]: https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/halting-problem-proves-that-a-lethal-robot-cannot-correctly-decide-whether-to-kill-a-human-7c014623c13f
[3-Laws]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics
[Goedel]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems
[Motherboard]: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/how-the-pentagons-skynet-would-automate-war
[DoD]: http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=123651
[DoD-Paper]: http://ctnsp.dodlive.mil/files/2014/09/DTP1061.pdf
[Moratorium]: http://phys.org/news/2013-05-moratorium-killer-robots.html


[Onion]: http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-law-enforcement-robot-can-wield-excessive-forc,36220/

Blue Lights

Child me lit up for blue lights, wanted to ride them,
saw the freedom to break rules and drive fast.
Missed that they’re arrest lights – police and cardiac;
find fear; lose liberty; run away with life.

I don’t want to ride the blue lights any more.
Blue is for skies and ribbons, for eyes and summer dresses.
The blue lights drain colour from our faces;
presage loss; predict shorter life; pin sadness in each flash.

I don’t want to ride the blue lights any more
and I don’t want you to either.

 

April 9, 2017