The Looming Robot Menace, Part IV

So now the Army is pursuing research into creating tiny robots. Think of a swarm of insect sized robots that go into places you cannot, or do not want, to send a human. They would collect intel and send it back to human soldiers.

So now we are working on robots to control limbs, to drive autonomously, carry military gear off road, to act like George Bush, and now to swarm like insects and gather intelligence. Great.

I suppose I should point out that while my series of posts about robots are tongue-in-cheek, I also believe that there are some real concerns. Not that the robots will rebel and overthrow their human masters, but rather about how easy it seems to be to accept new technology uncritically. Just because something is new or cool, does not necessarily mean it is good. I'm no technophobe, but not a technophile either. Things like email and text messaging change the way we communicate. Some of that is positive and some is not, and if we simply uncritically accept the changes then it will be almost impossible to accentuate the positive aspects while minimizing the negative.