Imagine a mine that could recognize "that's just a child/civilian/medic stepping on me, I'm going to save myself for an enemy soldier." Or a mine that could recognize "ah, CenCom just announced a ceasefire, I'm going to take a little nap." Or "the enemy soldier that just stepped on me is unarmed and frantically calling out that he's surrendered, I'll let this one go through. Not the barrier troops chasing him, though."
There's opportunities for good here.
Yes, those definitely sound like the sort of things military contractors consider.
Why waste a mine on the wrong target?
Why occupy a hospital?
Why encroach on others land?
Sorry... are you saying that's what Palestinians are doing?
I feel you’re being obtuse on purpose here, but no I’m saying that the other side of this conflict has been doing that.
Pretty sure you and @FlyingSquid are on the same side and making the same point but misunderstanding each other.
@FaceDeer okay so now that mines allegedly recognise these things they can be automatically deployed in cities.
Sure there's a 5% margin of error but that's an "acceptable" level of colateral according to their masters. And sure they are better at recognising some ethnicities than others but since those they discriminate against aren't a dominant part of the culture that peoduces them, nothing gets done about it.
And after 20 years when the tech is obsolete and they all start malfunctioning we're left with the same problems we have with current mines, only because the ban on mines was reversed the scale of the problem is much much worse than ever before.
Maybe it starts that way but once that's accepted as a thing the result will be increased usage of mines. Where before there were too many civilians to consider using mines, now the soldiers say "it's smart now, it won't blow up children" and put down more and more in more dangerous situations. And maybe those mines only have a 0.1% failure rate in tested situations but a 10% failure rate over the course of decades. Usage increases 10 fold and then you quickly end up with a lot more dead kids.
Plus it won't just be mines, it'll be automated turrets when previously there were none or even more drone strikes with less oversight required because the automated system is supposed to prevent unintended casualties.
Availability drives usage.
That sounds great... Why don't we line the streets with them? Every entryway could scan for hostiles. Maybe even use them against criminals
Imagine a mine that could recognize "that's just a child/civilian/medic stepping on me, I'm going to save myself for an enemy soldier." Or a mine that could recognize "ah, CenCom just announced a ceasefire, I'm going to take a little nap." Or "the enemy soldier that just stepped on me is unarmed and frantically calling out that he's surrendered, I'll let this one go through. Not the barrier troops chasing him, though."
There's opportunities for good here.
Yes, those definitely sound like the sort of things military contractors consider.
Why waste a mine on the wrong target?
Why occupy a hospital?
Why encroach on others land?
Sorry... are you saying that's what Palestinians are doing?
I feel you’re being obtuse on purpose here, but no I’m saying that the other side of this conflict has been doing that.
Pretty sure you and @FlyingSquid are on the same side and making the same point but misunderstanding each other.
@FaceDeer okay so now that mines allegedly recognise these things they can be automatically deployed in cities.
Sure there's a 5% margin of error but that's an "acceptable" level of colateral according to their masters. And sure they are better at recognising some ethnicities than others but since those they discriminate against aren't a dominant part of the culture that peoduces them, nothing gets done about it.
And after 20 years when the tech is obsolete and they all start malfunctioning we're left with the same problems we have with current mines, only because the ban on mines was reversed the scale of the problem is much much worse than ever before.
Maybe it starts that way but once that's accepted as a thing the result will be increased usage of mines. Where before there were too many civilians to consider using mines, now the soldiers say "it's smart now, it won't blow up children" and put down more and more in more dangerous situations. And maybe those mines only have a 0.1% failure rate in tested situations but a 10% failure rate over the course of decades. Usage increases 10 fold and then you quickly end up with a lot more dead kids.
Plus it won't just be mines, it'll be automated turrets when previously there were none or even more drone strikes with less oversight required because the automated system is supposed to prevent unintended casualties.
Availability drives usage.
That sounds great... Why don't we line the streets with them? Every entryway could scan for hostiles. Maybe even use them against criminals
What could possibly go wrong?