/ News
UN Considers Banning Killer Robots
It's going to be standing room only at United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) in Geneva today. On the agenda: killer robots, or as the U.N. calls them "LETHAL AUTONOMOUS WEAPON SYSTEMS." It will be an informative meeting with lethal, autonomous weapon specialists. The goal will be for U.N. members to learn as much as possible about the potential threats ... and then ban them, at least temporarily.
CCW, and especially this meeting, exists to "ban or restrict the use of specific types of weapons that are considered to cause unnecessary or unjustifiable suffering to combatants or to affect civilians indiscriminately." Some of the types of weapons include explosive remnants of war, blinding lasers, mines, booby traps, and yes, autonomous robots.
The move to ban robot soldiers is not extremely surprising, as there are some major ethical and technical issues with having a massive piece of machinery operate either on its own or through a series of machines in a war zone. Noel Sharkey, a robotics professor at the University of Sheffield, is aiming to keep robots out of war completely. He told NBC News, “My biggest concern is that when every nation has this technology, we will start seeing the full automation of warfare.”
Sharkey is also worried about the inequality of war: though it already exists in terms of weapons, killer robot soldiers would take this inequality to the next level. “Some people propose that this technology will save our soldiers’ lives because we will send in machines to do our fighting for us,” he said. “But that only works if the other side does not have machines, because they will send them in to kill our soldiers.” This inequality could open the door to a new arms race, with every country aiming to build the biggest, baddest and most lethal robot as quickly as possible.
In the event of a robot arms race, we could be left with a variety of different, contradictory and competing systems. Sharkey reminds us that machines are not perfect, they can be unpredictable. With robotic competition, “Nobody knows really at all how these different systems will interact with each other,” he said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has also weighed in on the issue,noting the ethical problems with robot soldiers: "There was sense of deep discomfort with the idea of allowing machines to make life-and-death decisions on the battlefield with little or no human involvement.'”
While many are in support banning robots outright, Professor Ronald C. Arkin at Georgia Institute of Technology believes they could be used to reduce casualties if used correctly. Arkin is adamant that these systems do not have "free will or moral agency" (at least not yet) so they will be able to "potentially comply with international humanitarian law as well or better than human war fighters.” He believes that in order to allow robots in combat, they would have to be specifically programmed only for particular scenarios and to behave extremely strictly in these scenarios.
Experts agreed that while the U.N. works to figure out the details that will govern the use of potential robot soldiers, they should be banned.
Source: http://www.thewire.com/technology/2014/05/the-un-is-discussing-killer-robots-today/370073/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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