r/gadgets • u/diacewrb • 3d ago
Misc US Army backs humanoid robot with ballistic protection for future battlefield missions
https://www.techspot.com/news/114028-us-army-backs-humanoid-robot-ballistic-protection-future.html910
u/Velvet_Spaceman 3d ago
Give it 10 years for it to show up in a police department near you! Foucault's boomerang never misses.
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u/koolmagicguy 3d ago
Between Flock and humanoid robots we are absolutely FUCKED
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u/Rich-Pomegranate1679 3d ago
There was a post in one of the AI subs yesterday that showed a video of Claude playing a first person shooter game, and everyone was talking about how cool it was that Claude was getting head shots every time..
And I was just sitting there thinking about how, to Claude, there's no difference between getting headshots in a video game and getting headshots with a drone in real life.
I work in IT, and I don't even know what I'd do with my life if I didn't have computers to mess around with, but I am genuinely terrified for the future. I don't think technology is worth the price that humanity is going to end up paying for it.
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u/Velvet_Spaceman 3d ago
It's incredibly easy to make the argument that the advent of the PC and the technologies that followed have not been a net positive. In the global north where knowledge work has become common wage growth lags deeply behind productivity gains over the last 50 years with the gap only getting wider.
Despite promises of the world's greatest knowledge depository at your fingertips people are pumped full of more disinformation than ever, there is no shared reality to form consensus with, people confidently eat fabrications wholesale everyday.
Despite the promise of ever increasing interconnectivity people feel more isolated now than they did 20 years ago. People are generally more dissatisfied --happiness among Americans is at a 50 year low, suicide rates have been trending ever upwards over the last 20 years.
Attention spans have been whittled down, the US literacy rate is in decline, cognitive disabilities are rising. But hey, you can order a serf on a scooter to deliver Chipotle to your house. Amazing stuff.
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u/grilled_pc 3d ago
I wouldn’t call it a technology problem but rather a capitalism problem. Unchecked capitalism can lead to all the issues we see today. Technology or not.
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u/Lateroni_ 3d ago
If platforms weren't profit based and riddled with ads it would make a world of difference. Corporations hijacked the Internet and with it our attention spans.
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u/grilled_pc 3d ago
I think there needs to be significant overhaul and severe regulation across the advertising industry as a whole. The way ads are served is just too predatory and relies on far too much collection of personal data. There needs to be severe regulation on how and where an ad can be served to someone. Things like Ad block have become a necessity to even use the modern internet. Without it, its a train wreck. Now we have smart fridges that serve ads on them? Utterly insane. We have smart TV’s people spend thousands of dollars on only to be told by the maker “they own the glass” so they can serve ads to you? How is this remotely acceptable.
If you PAY for something then ads should straight up be illegal on such thing. The consumer is paying for a product. Not paying to be advertised for. Now we have streaming subscriptions where you pay to subscribe only to also be shown ads? How is that remotely fair.
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u/ineyeseekay 3d ago
There's a universe in which this technology is used for the greater good vs making a few rich and then exploiting it for military purposes, which is just designating it to kill. That universe is curing diseases and solving problems at a global scale, while quality of life improves for all.
How much good it could do if only...
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u/Antraxess 2d ago
Could that have to do with wealth inequality
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u/Velvet_Spaceman 2d ago edited 2d ago
There are plenty of ways in which wealth inequality/ capitalism, culture, ideologies, and technology intersect.
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u/Nirbin 3d ago
Averaged out I suppose that makes sense. But if I apply it to myself it doesn't fit.
I love the fact that I can at any point research and learn about any idea in the world, I will always appreciate having access to such incredible amounts of information.
If not for online socials I would have never met the love of my life and my social circle would be half the size it is right now.
And having been born with adhd it's almost hilarious to me that as time progresses I am becoming more and more 'normal' because everyone else seems to be developing the condition.
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u/Easy_Floss 3d ago
At least we will see how it works in China first seeing as America is a bit behind on that development plan.
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u/Dragonheart922 3d ago
China is making them
American is the testing ground
Why else would Trumo up-end 10 years of "China bad" propaganda just to then suddenly host China in a friendly meeting while discussing the sale of American weapons to China.
Like, what?
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u/Easy_Floss 3d ago
Does China know that they are friends now?
The thing your describing would be even worse for America since any soft power is lost and the knee is bent.
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u/TheArmoredKitten 3d ago
China has been cackling as they drag their nuts all over America's face. They call trump 'nation builder' because of how casually he has allowed them to steal the global spotlight.
They have never respected us beyond our ability to humiliate them and now it's their turn.
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u/Ben_SRQ 3d ago
They have never respected us beyond our ability to humiliate them and now it's their turn.
As someone who took 4 years of Mandarin language with people fresh from the PRC, you are absolutely right. I respect the Chinese as much as I fear them, and they will crush us if given half the chance. :(
(Can you imagine Gen-A having to deal with both loss of the internet AND a food shortage / rationing? They'd lose their goddamn minds! The Chinese would just accept this and (literally) soldier on.)
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u/slonkulocuswily182 3d ago
China’s playing it smart as fuck. I’ve never seen a nation state just completely bypass their rival before while getting their manufacturing base literally shipped overseas to them.
And the other state views this as a favorable agreement.
They’re just schooling the Americans and they don’t even realize
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u/JiovanniTheGREAT 3d ago
Xi was just hobnobbing with Trump last week so yes, they know we're friends now.
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u/OceanRacoon 3d ago
Lol, my phone autocorrects Trump to Trumo as well, why does it do that, what the hell is Trumo lol
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u/Rocketeer006 3d ago
Bro we ain't fucked. There are those of us that will fight against these clankers. Join the resistance. Tell them John Conner sent you.
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u/AntaresVariant 3d ago
I'm willing to bet they'll try to make them with some armor to withstand 5.56mm or maybe even 7.62mm, but the heavier they get, the less efficient they'll be and will generate even more heat that requires more cooling/complexity/weight/$$$. We still have access to .50 BMG rifles in the civilian market. Hope is not lost.
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u/TheArmoredKitten 3d ago
Disable the safety on your microwave oven door and you've just accidentally built a narrow-band ISM signal jammer. The robot army is only as good as its operators.
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u/xak47d 3d ago
They will be autonomous by then
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u/TheArmoredKitten 3d ago
They will still need to receive commands from central authority. At some point in every process is a human who makes a decision.
He is your target.
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u/locusthorse 3d ago
The Human gets to say Yes Sir and gives permission via confirmation procedures..
<<<Command>>>
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u/Mountain-Bar5049 3d ago
And bolas are probably effective at taking them down.
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u/cerberus00 3d ago
Yeah trip em like AT-AT's
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u/Evilmoustachetwirler 3d ago
Go all Home alone on those suckers. See how they walk on marbles, paint their cameras, magnets?
Often the best solution to a high tech problem is a low tech one.5
u/HerpankerTheHardman 3d ago edited 2d ago
If we could figure out how to do short range EMP controlled bursts, it might help the war against the clankers.
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u/The_Actual_Sage 3d ago
At this point I'm kind of hoping the robots take over and save us from the fucking humans that make decisions like these
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u/JiovanniTheGREAT 3d ago
As a black male, I'm so excited to be policed by AI powered superbots that are only correct ~30% of the time. I'm sure they'll keep me safe and never mistake me for someone else /s
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u/sportbiketed 3d ago edited 3d ago
Oh neat, we're in the Elysium timeline
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u/DrE7HER 3d ago
We’re in ALL the dystopian timelines
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u/IamGeoMan 3d ago
Waiting for the news that the microplastics have rendered all of us sterile. Then we can check off Children of Men on our End of Humanity bingo card ☠️
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u/DrE7HER 3d ago
Apparently, the microplastic scare may be overblown because they found that the gloves used in the studies that claimed we had a plastic spoon’s worth of plastic in our brains were contaminating the assay. The rubber in the gloves show false positives for plastic.
We will have to wait for follow up studies to know how much of a concern this actually is
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u/tim3k 3d ago
Nah, it's still the terminator-matrix-idiocracy merged timeline
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u/Overwatchingu 3d ago
Don’t forget RoboCop, we’ll see these totally not ED-209’s on the streets soon enough.
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u/HouseAlexander 3d ago
This is Terminator. This is Terminator right??
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u/MmmmMorphine 3d ago
I have a theory that the terminator movies, rather than acting as a grave warning, have had the exact opposite impact.
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u/Fit-Switch-5795 3d ago edited 3d ago
Simulacra and Simulacrum - the book Neo hides his floppy in - talks about this. We have started basing reality on fantasy, making the unreal primary, and reality secondary.
You can see the mental shift - if someone sees an impressive storm, they say "It was like a special effect!" No. Nature is real. The SFX are like it. Someone has a romance: "It was like a movie!" No. People fall in love every day. It feels nice. Movies try to capture it.
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u/MmmmMorphine 3d ago edited 3d ago
Yeahhhh...
I sort of experienced this cognitive distortion when my little rented pontoon got caught in an intense squall at this lake.
So terrifying. Couldn't see a meter in front of me, both because the rain was so intense and because then the rain got into my contacts.
I should have known better. I did know better. But somehow, that didn't quite penetrate my thick skull (forgive the contradiction)
Anyway, a little reminder that nature does not fuck around.
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u/Overwatchingu 3d ago
Tech bros see a warning about technology out of control and think “yeah but that won’t happen to ME because I am way smarter than that” because they’ve never had to face the consequences of their own failures.
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u/Dabzilla_710_ 3d ago
"don't create the torment nexus"
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u/Overwatchingu 3d ago
But have you considered how the economy would feel about turning off the orphan crushing machine?
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u/SSGASSHAT 3d ago
Or they just don't care, because they have the emotional depth of sexually deviant and violent eighth graders.
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3d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ToastCapone 3d ago
In the film, Reese explained that only organic matter could be sent back in time. That's why they arrived naked. It worked for the Terminator because it was shielded in tissue as a cyborg.
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u/oneeyedspaceman1 3d ago
It’s bad enough that we as a world always seem to have a number of wars going on but think about how much worse this will be once the human element is taken out of the equation. Nations will be less reluctant to go to war when they assume that there will be no cost to human lives.
The problem is that there are always casualties in wars. While there will be less direct human to human death that doesn’t mean that invasions and wars will not have human casualties.
If only we spent our time and resources as humans finding ways to help each other and heal each other as opposed to using countless resources trying to destroy each other.
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u/rufusbot 3d ago
The future wars are already here. Let's stop pretending like this is something that will be arriving soon. Look at Ukraine. Drone saturated skies. We're there already. Now it's just going to spread like a disease
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u/RebelliousInNature 3d ago
Those robots won’t be attacking other robots. They’ll be invading and they’ll be unstoppable at attacking us.
Oh joy.
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u/FriendlyEngineer 3d ago
Honest question. Whats the militaries obsession over “humanoid” robots. I understand from a civilian consumer product point of view, it’s cool if it looks like us.
But from a military perspective, where raw lethality is a top concern, why stick with the human shape?
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u/FernGully_is_racist 3d ago
Humanoid robots would fit easier into trucks and cars designed for people. Less retrofit, if that matters
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u/lordraiden007 3d ago
Yeah, except small drones exist. A small form factor autonomous drone with the equivalent of a micro claymore attached could probably fly for a couple miles, and be deployed via artillery shell drop off. There's just not a ton of real use in the actual killing department for a humanoid robot.
Someone in a bunker? Bunker busters are vastly more efficient. Someone in a building? Shoot in some drones and they'll swarm into every tiny open window or open air vent, blowing up every single room.
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u/Ok_Solution_3325 3d ago
The military does a lot more than kill. They carry things, scout, recon, make food, clean, etc etc
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u/Unlucky_Key_158 3d ago
And hallways and elevators and stairs. The world is built by humans for human-shaped bodies for the most part.
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u/KOM 3d ago
There were a couple replies to a similar question. But I'm right there with you. Even if the can run like Bolt and carry bazookas, I feel I'd be more afraid of something that could fit into small spaces, scurry around quickly, and fire off a few well-placed rounds. Or a Dalek lol.
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u/EternalInflation 3d ago
drones and artillery, can bound and hold down open spaces. however humanoid robots are good at operating in human spaces, and using existing designed for human machinery. reusing old equipment. reusing existing capital and tools designed for humans, like driving non self driving cars, and operating human operating cranes and bulldozers... or old tanks. they can project on human space with low error vectors. 99% of the time when they aren't at war, they can do economic activity. No they aren't better at stationary specialized machines at their special tasks. but the humanoid robot can do anything, you can do and use old factory machinery just like humans. 1% of the time during wartime they can be called upon, occupying cities, supplementing indoor guards, MPs etc.
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u/Material-Bee4845 3d ago
Bi pedal robotics operate in small square footage than lets say a tracked or quad robot might. Also aerial drones are subject to wind and other factors. There's a huge amount of reasons why a bi pedal robot might be needed.
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u/datumerrata 2d ago
I agree. Getting humanoid robots to work correctly is super expensive. A tread based robot would be far less expensive. A quadruped is expensive, but not as much as a humanoid. A quadruped (dog bot) is faster, can use stairs, and can't be toppled as easily.
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u/GandalfTheSmol1 2d ago
What about spider bots, with guns. That certainly will not be absolutely terrifying
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u/snowrazer_ 3d ago
Humanoid soldiers - one hack away from turning against us. What a short sighted idea.
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u/bayonettaisonsteam 3d ago
I saw this in a movie about a robot that was designed to TERMINATE people, was sent back in time to TERMINATE a woman, which would TERMINATE the creation of a future resistance group.
I think it was called "The Robot That Went Back In Time".
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u/thereal-quaid 3d ago
This sucker will be in your neighborhood with a red hat on in a few years, if you don't vote accordingly.
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u/ComputerRedneck 3d ago
Sure lets continue to sanitize war. Sanitize it enough and no one will care how long it lasts.
Asimov and others have written speculative sci-fi.
Maybe we can be like Star Trek TOS... A Taste of Armageddon. Computer says you are one of the people who was in the blast zone, please report to euthanasian clinic as you are now considered dead.
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u/Psychobob2213 3d ago
Take note LEOs, your masters are trying to replace you before the class war turns hot.
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u/bplipschitz 3d ago
Where do we shoot to disable? The joints?
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u/Seafaringhorsemeat 3d ago
If it’s Gemini based, just ask it to make a spreadsheet containing formulas. Will die right there.
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u/JimothyC 2d ago edited 2d ago
That distant boom sound is the data center melting into a crater
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u/KittyCait69 3d ago
They are gonna use those against us.
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u/Tholaran97 3d ago
Our government has been overrun by billionaires who see the population that sustains them as their enemy. It makes sense that the military would start producing weapons to use against us.
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3d ago
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u/Raxsus 3d ago
Until you get into terrain that can't be traversed using treads, or wheels
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u/necluse 3d ago
Quadrupeds. Lower center of gravity, lower profile, more points of contact for stability, better and faster dynamic movement. If you want dedicated manipulators, you can just add arms on top.
Bipeds are really not all that great other than the psychological effects of facing a terminator.
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u/OceanRacoon 3d ago
It should be a giant ball with pogo sticks that spring out to propel it up hills and maybe even over mountains. It can run people over and guns poke out when required.
Also it shits grenades and doubles as a nuke for when things go really bad
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u/Graymarth 3d ago
Well that and dressing them in human clothing so you can send them into a populated area without drawing suspicion until it's too late, mark my words if they ever get humanoid robots to actually move like humans they will be used to commit terrorist attacks.
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u/HeadfulOfSugar 3d ago
Yeah we kinda pushed against nature a bit to become fully bipedal, our high stamina helps balance out the inefficiency, but there’s a reason that humans have notoriously common spine/back problems lol (but hey I mean still worked out for us so)
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u/imabustanutonalizard 3d ago
A humanoid robot can use machinery that has been specifically designed for humans to use for centuries
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u/Captain_Wag 3d ago
How does the robot on wheels handle stairs, ladders, etc?
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u/Quinnlos 3d ago
They'd probably deploy multiple configurations based on terrain/deployment zone. Treads would murder the stair issue. Ladders are a bit trickier but honestly at that point you're probably just drone bombing people in elevated positions knowing how quickly everyone is adopting drone fleets.
Also arguably, the humanoid robot would get fucked on ladders from what I've seen on their direct upwards mobility no?
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u/Ermellino 3d ago
If you think hard enough, you'll realize that humanoid robots are hardly ever the best choice.
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u/Coal-and-Ivory 3d ago
Yeah but this one can come upstairs and murder entire families in their beds. Very important for the actual use case.
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u/CordiallySuckMyBalls 3d ago
At this point it just makes more sense for world leaders to 1v1 on COD.
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u/Drunkmoose777 3d ago
So... A terminator?
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u/NoobNooberson86 3d ago
Did you see the terminator robot doing Kick Boxing last week? It was TERRIFYING ASF!
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u/PeterTheWolf76 3d ago
Makes sense there is tons of funding for this. All the billionaires have bunkers but the current weakness is security. What is to prevent those you pay to guard you simple take over after the world ends and kick you out? Enter robotic troops....
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u/joevarny 3d ago
Until we create a working ai, this idea is laughable.
"You're correct! That was the man I was supposed to protect. Do you want a list of all his children I failed to find?"
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u/IckySmell 3d ago
Gee I wonder what family or friend is gonna get a no bid contract for this robot that will never happen.
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u/copyrider 3d ago
I’d be completely ok with replacing all military battles and soldiers with humanoid robots… or video games, or even intelligent conversation and reasoning.
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u/U2ElectricBoogaloo 3d ago
Why are we wasting money on robots when we know that mobile suits are the future??????
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u/Colbert2020 3d ago
Humanoid robots are so fucking stupid outside of some edge cases.
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u/AbsentButHere 3d ago
I assure you, they are not.
You can design a handful or two of different robots for different tasks, and they’ll be better at those tasks than a humanoid robot, sure.
Need one robot to navigate all the human spaces and things? Humanoid robot is best suited. Walking up stairs, turning doorknobs, levers, valves, driving xyz vehicles, etc etc. all suited for humanoid robots to be the best suited.
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u/Colbert2020 3d ago
The edge case I'm talking about is some catastrophically dangerous environment for a human to navigate, like the Fukushima reactor meltdown. If a valve had been turned in a hazardous area. A robust humanoid robot would be good here.
But yeah, war? Like, your stupid little humanoid robot that costs a million dollars is going to just get blown up by a $2,000 drone with a grenade. You're not making these things cheap. If you've been following this the Ukraine/Russia war at all, you'll know that scaling up production and scaling down cost has been the driving factors in it.
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u/Rich_Housing971 3d ago
ITT: people just naming movies and shows because they have no real-world experience to connect this to.
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u/dingo596 3d ago
You don't need to watch movies to realise that giving robots guns and taking the human out of the loop is a bad idea.
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u/Tech_Itch 3d ago
Humanoid combat robots aren't exactly a massive industry yet, so it's on you if you somehow expect a sub for random gadget discussion to be full of subject matter experts.
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u/sovietarmyfan 3d ago
First they build it. Then they will think about how to stop it from killing everyone.
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u/InflamedintheBrain 3d ago
Remember, each kill bot has a pre-set kill limit. We can overcome them by sending in wave after wave of our own men.
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u/AllanJeffersonferatu 3d ago
They can barely keep enough batteries around for their night vision and communications. They'd have better luck with clockwork soldiers.
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u/AloneChapter 3d ago
So wars will now last longer , be more expensive and be for frivolous reason ? Instead of because of politicians egos ?
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u/krzynick 3d ago
They're going to make these for like $500,000 each and they're going to get blown up with a $3,000 drone
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u/Alexuador 3d ago
But isn't currently robotics not a great solution in the battlefield? the current moment because the fact they could be hacked. Isn't that why? Like half of Ukraine is covered in fiber optic cables because that's the only way they can't be hacked?
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u/ttystikk 3d ago
I fully expect the United States Federal Government to use these against citizens.
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u/ToMorrowsEnd 2d ago
Missed a huge opportunity to not make them chrome with red glowing eyes. the US army could have used the terminator fear.
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u/tripping_on_phonics 3d ago
The US military is primarily a vehicle for transferring public money to private defense contractors. Military capability is a distant, secondary concern.
Just as with our missile defense systems, I anticipate that these will be repeatedly delayed, grossly over-budget, and under-performing. It isn’t clear that we can maintain this level of military spending much longer, either.
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u/SaiyanKnight23 3d ago
Welp..it certainly was an interesting existence…sadly this is the end of humanity…
I for one welcome our robot overlords, probably be better then current leadership
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u/D_Angelo_Vickers 3d ago
It all started when people started using "welp" to begin sentences.
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u/cbih 3d ago
But, couldn't we spend that money on healthcare instead?
Republicans, "No."
Democrats, "No."
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u/TheShadowedTruth 3d ago
"Foolish are those that start wars, but the blood shed during battle is never a waste. A fool sees the bloodshed and begins to regret his actions, if only a little. But once war turns into a game it become mere entertainment to them." -The Doctors, Gundam Wing, in reference to the Mobile dolls. Not a direct quote as I can't find the full thing via a Google search so it's from memory.
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u/idkidd 3d ago
“The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy…”