Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!hao!cires!nbires!ut-ngp!utastro!bill From: bill@utastro.UUCP Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Will Robots destroy the world? Message-ID: <435@utastro.UUCP> Date: Sun, 3-Jul-83 01:23:11 EDT Article-I.D.: utastro.435 Posted: Sun Jul 3 01:23:11 1983 Date-Received: Wed, 29-Jun-83 06:03:56 EDT References: houti.317 Lines: 37 ***** A new (and fun) topic! What will be the effects of robotics and advanced automation upon society? What problems will be created? Should "political solutions" be found for them, or will they solve themselves? ... What are the effects? If there are problems, how are they solved? What would be the differences between the results, problems, and solutions in, say Russia (totalitarian), China (communist), France (socialist), the US (mixed economy), and a hypothetical laissez-faire capitalist country. Will un-industrialized nations be affected? What will be the long range effects in each case? ***** I have left out most of this article because it is really asking another question. However, we are already faced with a rather serious problem, with robots already "in place". I am speaking of the robots that control nuclear weapons. Yes, "ours" are under positive control of humans, so they say, and we can hope that the same is true of Soviet weapons. However, events seem to be propelling the world towards a "launch on warning" principle, which will have very little human interaction. Is this what we want? How can it be prevented? How can we ensure that the robots we already have in place don't destroy us by our own lack of wisdom in respect of them? I bring this up because it is a serious problem that we still have time to do something about. Bill Jefferys Astronomy Dept University of Texas Austin TX 78712