Robots & Economic Independence

[OldWiseGuy]

We can call them 'women'

I think we have them now. You can get them sent in a discreet wrapper.

 

[Ophiolite]

And how can you ensure that you can control these robots? I'm reminded of the story about a robot programmed to make paperclips, which copied itself all over the world to use all the resources it could find to make more paperclips, then when humans tried to shut it down, it killed them all because they were in the way of its task to make paperclips, and it eventually converted all of the mass of the entire solar system into paperclips.

But I bet some of them still went missing!

 

[Petros2015]

Might be worth watching this again before proceeding down this route...

 

[Bob Crowley]

The SF writer Philip K. Dick wrote a short story more or less on this topic. I suppose the story and Dwight Eisenhower's comment that everything was geared to support the military industrial complex occurred around the same time. Dick might have based the story on Eisenhower's comment for all I know.

Military–industrial complex - Wikipedia

President of the United States (and five-star general during World War II) Dwight D. Eisenhower used the term in his Farewell Address to the Nation on January 17, 1961:

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction...

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence—economic, political, even spiritual—is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together. [emphasis added]

In the story, the equivalent of a predator drone was circling in the sky looking for a target. It spotted one, which scuttled into an opening in the side of a mountain. The drone fired a missile which flew inside the door just before it closed, and destroyed the military industrial production complex inside the mountain.

The drone flew away, mission accomplished. But unknown to the drone or those who controlled it, the explosion had liberated thousands of microscopic mechanical spores which landed on the surrounding countryside. They activated, and gradually began to assimilate the minerals, silicon, oxygen and whatever else was available in the surrounding soil.

Each spore was creating a new military-industrial production complex.