How to Solve the Problem of People Weaponizing Robots
The solution is not technical. It’s human.
We knew that this day would come. Robots with weapons are here. We can find them on YouTube conducting target practice. Some very confused humans are modifying commercially available robots for war and violence.
Our science fiction fantasies in film and TV have plenty of this going on. Kids are being exposed to plots where robots are used as weapons. In our fantasy media, robots carry bombs, rifles, and missiles. And now the robot manufacturers are working double time to stop people from using them as weapons.
I really don’t know the answer to this one. It’s an ethical question. Using robots to harm humans takes human cruelty to an entirely new level. And though I have yet to see a technical solution to robots for war and violence, I believe that there might be a human solution to reduce or eliminate the incentives to repurpose robots for harm to humans.
When a person harms another, the assumption made by the person initiating violence is that harming someone else will solve a problem. There is a line of thinking, a long series of thoughts that precede an act of violence. There is a long history of experience that breeds violence. Implied in every act of violence is the belief that violence will solve a…
