But imagine what might have occurred had those soldiers been not human beings but robots, lacking in any sympathy or humanity, ready, willing, and able to reliably massacre anyone the authorities chose to be their targets.
This is the threat posed by the emerging technology known as “autonomous weapons.”
I did note this in regard to "tank man" at Tiananmen Square:
No doubt the Chinese have made more progress given that armed UGVs would have made this encounter end far more quickly and differently[.]
Of course, the rebellious civilians will have robots, too. And guns and IEDs. With less resistance to destroying robots than killing police and soldiers.
And can the tyrants count on the programmers or maintainers of or factory staff who make the robots being loyal?
And will the rest of the people accept the deaths of fellow citizens/subjects at the "hands" of robots?
Further, will foreign powers operating on responsibility to protect (R2P) be able to send in their own robots--even "little green robots" with no admitted ownership--to fight the tyrant's robots?
Robots are a danger to civilians. But I think it is way more complicated than remorseless terminator killing machines doing the bidding of absolute tyrants.
