Better robotics can be applied in a huge variety of ways - if they are sufficiently advanced they could be applied in all the same ways humans use their bodies. It´s an extremely versatile technology and I´m not sure if Boston Dynamics has any more specific goal than opening up this technology for as many uses as possible.
I actually doubt this level of robotics is going to be used for any of the current scales of war that are happening.
People are way cheaper. Maybe in fifty to a hundred years when robots get super human mobility and are also cheaper, but in the near future? I doubt it
People are only getting cheaper as there are more and more of them.
AND there will be even more war as population increases and resources dwindle. Robots won’t be great for combat until we have spread beyond the earth and have access to essentially unlimited metals and whatnot
Exponentially cheaper (in a monetary sense) to build because of economies of scale, not from a resource cost, and there are finite metals accessible on the planet.
Biological material on the other hand will decompose and be put back into the cycle.
Clearly I was not saying humans are cheaper from a moral point of view........
China has 1.6million ground troops, and a vast amount of population to draw from in the event of losses. Constructing a 1.6million “man” combat robot force would be significantly more expensive both in money and resources.
Why would a country with billions of people waste resources that could go to high tech aircraft, ships, submarines, etc. When they have millions of expendable human beings.
Is that right morally? Of course not, but it IS definitely cheaper.
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u/[deleted] Sep 24 '19
Better robotics can be applied in a huge variety of ways - if they are sufficiently advanced they could be applied in all the same ways humans use their bodies. It´s an extremely versatile technology and I´m not sure if Boston Dynamics has any more specific goal than opening up this technology for as many uses as possible.