The Rise Of The Machines Continues

IT’S NOT THAT LONG ago that I wrote a piece on the latest trend towards handing over everything to the machines (you laugh now, but stick around, it’s coming!) and in that instance it was the UK military in the frame with their latest unmanned hunter killer robots.  Eh no – this is not a piss take, it’s actually happening.

Today it’s the turn of the yanks in the endless quest towards outsourcing everything a soldier could do to a machine instead. I refer of course to the so-called “Master Plan” from the US Navy to develop and deploy a fleet of unmanned surface vessels (USVs) to help win the global war on yawn, boring, etc; you get the idea. This master plan – no really, that’s what they call the document – was published back in July 23rd this year and includes multiple types of surface robotic and heavilly armed vessels.

Don’t you just feel safer all ready?

Still, not to be outdone by those water-lovers the US land lubbers (aka the Pentagon) has been developing tiny insect like robots as well, and as recently as yesterday there have been reports of seeing these little buggers in the wild, as printed by the Washington Post. These insect drones can be used for recon work, for spying on people, they can be used to help guide some nice big fat missiles to a target, hell they could even be used to kill someone directly, and now they are out and about in the population and streets of the USA.

Still clinging to that illusion of safety?

There used to be a time we were all woried about the Russian commie pinko bastards taking over the world. Then it was the turn of the Chinese. Then it was the aliens with their fiendish rectal probes, and now it’s the machines.

I guess some things never change, but really – do we have to help speed up the rise of the machines to world domination by handing it to them on a plate?