I don’t think anybody who was at ETCON (and stayed for the entire keynote) this year has forgotten about iRobot and its military bots. Discussion has hit mefi, here’s a good point from Hidalgo:
I’m sorry, does our military need robots now? It seems like technology is making war easier to stomache for those who have it, and more deadly and (for lack of a better word) unfair to those who don’t.
The nature of war changes when there is a reasonable expectation on one side of being totally annihilated on the battlefield, and on the other side, the reasonable expectation that you won’t lose any soldiers on the battlefield.
What it changes into is a situation where the powerful side no longer has any fear of going to war, and the weak side no longer has any options but to pursue terrorism.