The U.S. military now has unmanned aerial vehicles and robots used to disarm explosives deployed in war zones. It has ambitious plans to develop more capable and more autonomous robotic vehicles in the next decade or two. We now have programmed vehicles patrolling the perimeters of some strategic facilities, armed with remotely operated weapons. I have heard people question the safety of the deployment of such machines.
The U.S. military and the U.S. space program have been world leaders in the development of such autonomous vehicles and the associated computerized systems for their control. If we consider how great the progress has been in this field in the last half century, one can only wonder what will be accomplished in the next 50 or 100 centuries.
Which makes me think about a good topic for a science fiction story. At some point in the future it seems likely that mankind will come up against a situation that makes the survival of the species extemely unlikely. So would our species seek to develop a robotic technology system that could survive the crisis and continue developing and seeking to disseminate knowledge in the universe? An interesting idea to explore in fiction?
Saturday, July 26, 2008
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