Followup News Items

  • The Underwear Bomber’s American born religious instructer, Islamic scholar Yasir Qadhi, has a few things to say about the illegitimacy of democracy and any other law except that of Sharia.  Watch the videos in which young western men stare wistfully into their master’s eyes.  Truly frightening, and all the more reason to rub the Obama pixy dust out of our eyes.
  • The Pentagon is attempting to develop “synthetic organisms,” in a brave new effort to spawn a breed of super-soldiers.  We are on the edge of a whole new era of bio-bots, cyborgs and trans-human engineering.  I have discussed the impact of new technology relative to the values of chivalry before.  What could go wrong?:

Of course, Darpa’s got to prevent the super-species from being swayed to do enemy work — so they’ll encode loyalty right into DNA, by developing genetically programmed locks to create “tamper proof” cells. Plus, the synthetic organism will be traceable, using some kind of DNA manipulation, “similar to a serial number on a handgun.” And if that doesn’t work, don’t worry. In case Darpa’s plan somehow goes horribly awry, they’re also tossing in a last-resort, genetically-coded kill switch:

Develop strategies to create a synthetic organism “self-destruct” option to be implemented upon nefarious removal of organism.

The End of Chivalry

The report said: “To whom would we assign blame – and punishment – for improper conduct and unauthorised harms caused by an autonomous robot (whether by error or intentional): the designers, robot manufacturer, procurement officer, robot controller/supervisor, field commander, president of the United States… or the robot itself?”

“intentional” “improper conduct” of a robot?  Close the doors and go home.  Please.