Nobel laureate's campaign calls for pre-emptive ban on autonomous weapons. As our technology advances, it becomes more and more feasible to give more and more autonomy to our drones. A new campaign led by 1997 Nobel laureate Jody Williams calls for an international ban on the design of autonomous weaponized drones. [more inside]
posted by Sleeper on Apr 27, 2013 - 118 comments

A report was recently released suggesting a pre-emptive ban on fully autonomous weapons - robots that can pick and choose whom to fire on. If this sounds vaguely alarming to you, don't worry - the Department of Defense issued a directive indicating that fully automous robots may only decide to tase you.
posted by wolfdreams01 on Nov 27, 2012 - 94 comments

Robots at War: The New Battlefield. "It sounds like science fic­tion, but it is fact: On the battlefields of Iraq and Afghan­istan, robots are killing America’s ene­mies and sav­ing Ameri­can lives. But today’s Pack­Bots, Preda­tors, and Ravens are rela­tively prim­itive machines. The coming generation of 'war-bots' will be im­mensely more sophisti­cated, and their devel­op­ment raises troubling new questions about how and when we wage ­war." [Via]
posted by homunculus on Jan 25, 2009 - 65 comments

space war - a little animated clip by Christy Karacas.
posted by madamjujujive on Aug 18, 2007 - 26 comments

In the past, battlefields were loud. Death came in the form of a huge plane roaring overhead, in the boom of a cannon, in the whine of a bullet shooting through the air. In the near future, death might arrive quietly, in the form of an insect buzzing around your head . . .
posted by jason's_planet on Jan 24, 2007 - 26 comments

Miracles You’ll See In The Next Fifty Years (Feb, 1950)
Some more up-to-date predictions: science, invention, space travel, colonisation, immortality, water shortage, flooding, nanotech, techno-apocalypse, extinction, mental health, smart machines, robots, mind uploading, AI, Asia, economics, demographics, goverance, cities. What is your prediction?
posted by MetaMonkey on Oct 5, 2006 - 54 comments

BigDog! Check out this video (Windows Media) of the new packhorse for the infantry! "A nimble, four-legged robot is so surefooted it can recover its balance even after being given a hefty kick," A robotic beast of burden from the same guys that brought us weaponized bees and robotic rats. It's a cool concept for a robot, better than most I've seen.
posted by Balisong on Mar 3, 2006 - 39 comments

This disturbingly realistic video gives us a peek at the not-too-distant future when we will be able to send robots to fight our wars in third world countries. Remember, we already have unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicles that patrol skies and can attack target targets with Hellfire missiles.
posted by Davenhill on Mar 7, 2005 - 35 comments