this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2024
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Summary

Ukraine’s 13th National Guard Brigade conducted its first all-robot assault, using ground and aerial drones to clear Russian positions in Kharkiv Oblast.

The operation involved surveillance, explosive, and gun-armed robots, demonstrating Ukraine’s advanced military robotics.

While robots excel in surveillance and attack, their limitations in holding ground, particularly against jamming and maintenance challenges, underscore the continued importance of human infantry.

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[–] EleventhHour -1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (5 children)

I very much like Ukraine and hope they win. I cheer them on for every victory I hear about.

But this robot soldier bullshit is something I really fucking hate.

Once you remove the human cost of war, you remove any motivation to stop war. I learned this as a kid from Star Trek S01E23 - A Taste of Armageddon

[–] FlyingSquid 8 points 7 hours ago

Firstly, Ukraine is fighting an invading force by a ruthless dictator and they're outgunned. Taking the moral high ground and refusing to use the latest technology is the worst possible idea.

Secondly, there was still a human cost. Just not on the Ukrainian side.

Thirdly, they absolutely have a motivation to stop: when Russia leaves.

Fourthly, you need to re-watch that episode because it was about the Cold War. The idea was two equal powers were fighting a war that wouldn't end and no one was the invading party because there was no invasion.

[–] FourPacketsOfPeanuts 8 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Once you remove the human cost of war

Economic cost is still a reason to end a war. Sure, it may go on longer, but are we talking about a situation where less people get killed?

[–] EleventhHour -5 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

It’s hard to talk about an economic cost when the war is being paid for by Europe in the United States.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

It is not fundamentally difficult to add and subtract numbers, regardless of where those numbers originate from. It may take longer and look more complicated with bigger numbers, but it's just as easy.

[–] EleventhHour -1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

Well, then, why don’t you produce the numbers that you used to reach your conclusion. Speaking authoritatively as you are, you obviously must have them at hand.

I’d like to see those data and come to my own conclusion.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

1+1=2

2-3=1

20+74+823=917

20-74-823=-877

I can't really display it in this format, so you'll just have to trust my anecdotal evidence, but it took me longer to add and subtract the larger strings than it did to do the smaller strings. However, the process I used to add and subtract the numbers was not any more or less difficult to do, it just took longer.

So this introduces the concept of time efficiency and calculability. As we can see, no matter how big or small the number gets the act of adding them and subtracting them does not become more or less difficult, it just takes more or less time. So really, we shouldn't talk about how difficult it is to calculate but rather how long it takes.

When we compare two numbers that are very small, there is often a large difference between them. Take for example 2 and 1. 2 is twice as large as 1; it's 100% larger. But when we compare 12 and 11, we see that 12 is only about 9% larger. Think of this as "total increase" for the next section.

Economies on a national scale are very complex and have millions of moving parts. Therefore, the time it will take to calculate them is extremely large. However, if we add a second economy to the calculation this "total increase" doesn't actually make it significantly more difficult to calculate since we're already high on the calculation complexity curve.

[–] caoimhinr 26 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

You'll be glad to hear tens of thousands of people have already died in this war then, including innocent men, women and children. Many were tortured and/or raped first. So the human cost is absolutely massive already. No amount of robots can undo it. Hope to have eased your fears a bit.

[–] jrs100000 12 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Im not really sure how you think this is going to work. Do you think people like Putin care how many provincial kids he sends to their death? Maybe his oligarch buddies lay awake at night pondering the terrible human cost of their actions, considering all the compromises they might be willing to make in order alleviate this terrible suffering? Maybe the people of Moscow are just a few hundred thousand more pointless deaths away from saying enough is enough, and dragging their leaders into the streets?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 hours ago

I hear your point loud and clear, even if some people don’t. Using anonymous killing machines also removes the danger to whomever controls the robots.

Veterans come home and talk about the horrors of war. Robots don’t.