Israel has just unveiled its newest way of “defending itself” that would “reduce the risk to it’s forces [IDF].” It’s called the VIPeR, and no, despite the spelling, it’s not a warez team. It’s an autonomous hand-to-hand fighting machine, that has an onboard Uzi submachine gun and grenade storage. It’s supposed to be able to enter combat zones on its own, and engage enemy fighters. According to its manufacturer, Elbit Systems, it’ll be used to move “undeterred by stairs, rubble, dark alleys, caves or narrow tunnels.” It has an onboard camera that lets it aim, and a hell of a lot of ammo in case it misses.
That’s rather scary. A robot – that can fight, kill, & plant bombs – all indiscrimanetly of course. The last time we checked, AI wasn’t in production yet, so we highly doubt the “VIPeR” can tell the difference between civillian and “guerilla fighter.”
If it’s an indiscrimate killing machine, remotely deployed to “combat zones,” it’s going to kill all the wrong people. If you’ve ever been to Lebanon or Palestine, you’d realize just why this is such a ridiculous deception: there are no “combat zones,” just combatants amongst civillians. All of them are next-door-neighbors, fathers, brothers, children. They’re not fighting against an army, they’re fighting against armed citizens and rebels. There’s a big difference.
Israel obviously isn’t worried about humanitarianism (the Human Rights Organization has charged Israel with hundreds of counts of Crimes against Humanity repeatedly), and it’s obvious they don’t care if this thing kills a hundred children so long as they get the terrorist school teacher – they’ve made that obvious before.
The problem is, this kind of thing is only going to get more common as technology advances. While most of the human race has enough wits left about them to not release something like this in such scenarios, the Israeli Defense Dept. has already verified that after initial field tests, this will be used by the IDF Infantry forces.
A killing robot, a civillian-interspersed population, and a government that doesn’t care for consequences and has no one to be afraid of… Yep, we’re scared alright for the future of human civilization.
For some reason I thought this was a remote-controlled robot and that those controlling it were able to use it to see the potential targets. Is that not the case?
Well, none of the articles go into the technical details, but from the description of the robot, I’d assume both options are present. The whole definition of “robot” is that it does things for itself. Robots are autonomous beings. They are programmed to do something, not walked through it. But I do imagine it does have a manual override, like most other machines.
If it’s not a self-aiming total-destruction machine, it’s not much of an “innovation” then is it? It’s just a remote controlled car from Radio Shack that some sadist put a grenade launcher and a submachine gun on with a wi-fi camera. So I do believe it really is a self-deploying “soldier” that doesn’t need remote guidance to kill.
Of course, it’s always better to let machines fight machines, and not people to fight people 🙂 this is cool stuff, i hope in future there will be no more wars whit people in war zone.
Yeah, but the problem is, the other side doesn’t have machines to fight the machines with. So it’s people vs. machines :'(
Yeah… that’s pretty sad… 🙁 well, let’s hope they will capture one of them and explore it so they can make same one and than just play video games on battle ground! 🙂
😛
Whatever that means… 😀
This is distrubingly stupid. As you say, it seems like the Terminator II prophecy is nearing a reality because some people won’t bury their weapons. Maybe robots should instead be built to solve humanity’s problems (e.g. economic, environmental, social).
I’m sure that would be easier too!
Why are you picking on the most moral army in the world? While the other side uses children as shields, the Israeli army does its best to minimize casualties…
This remote controlled fighting robot will be able to go in where the terrorists are, and kill whoever fires at it… since it will be armored, it will be able to wait till it either recognizes the weapons or get shoot at by the enemy before it responds… and the camera will show that who those terrorists really are, and make it harder for them to fool CNN
Because it won’t wait to be shot at nor until it recognizes a weapon for multiple reasons. First, that’s just stupid – economically speaking.
All it takes is one hit and then this really expensive bathtub toy is toast. Hit it in the right spot with a high-calibre weapon (think grenade, rocket, gattling gun, etc.), and it’s gone. Israel won’t let that happen, because they value money over the lives Palestinians.
Second, face recognition technology doesn’t yet exist. The USA can’t even deploy cameras in major airports that auto-recognize known terrorists – and that’s indoors, in a controlled environment, with good-lighting, restricted access, and tons of room for bulky hardware.
And of course, there’s the final fact that Israel has never waited to check if someone is guilty before taking action, the countries entire 60-year history of violence and bloodshed attests to that.
It’s a remote controlled device. Humans will use it to finish off suicide bombers and other Palestinian terrorists. You’d want one too if your friends and family were being blown to pieces by ululating Islamofascist madmen.
It’s not a “remote-controlled” device, it’s a bloody robot. The whole frikkin point of a robot is to do something all on its bloody-fucking own.
Anyone can connect a gun to an RC car and point ‘n shoot – that’s not hard. What these Zionist bastards did was create a automated non-discriminative killing machine – pretty much the embodiment of the average IDF soldier.
Lesson 1: Never believe what you read, with out first doing your own research.
Lesson 2: This website; “the NeoSmart” files isn’t too smart as they failed lesson 1.
Lesson 3: Learn to expect erroneous information first and then do research for the facts.
For only one example visit the following link…
http://www.defencetalk.com/news/publish/army/VIPeR_Small_Portable_Reconnaissance_Robot110010878.php
Who wrote this? Can you review a piece of technology without giving us your half educated opinion about the IDF? This kind of technology is of special interest to me as it is to every nations armed forces. Have you ever heard of DARPA, F-face? Every war contractor on the face of the earth is playing with this stuff. This “writer” or “journalist” is using this stupid robot to get on a soap box and spout one line pieces of BS about Isreal. FU and Shalom you retart. Tom Cox
He listed WMD as one of the tags for this article… Sounds like someone really got into I-Robot.
Should anyone feel threatend by this type of technolgy you either in a dream or totaly
ignorant of the fact that living with constant terror costs lives.This robot is no
different to unmaned airiel survalence planes used Iraq and afganistan which both use
qualified pilots and are directed on required inteligence to conduct opperatoins without threatening our soldiers lives.
Isreali’s are terrorists. If they would just get out of Palestine, there would be no need for the violence. It’s because they want to take what is not there’s, by force, or any means neccessary that it is so violent there. Don’t blame the Palestinians for trying to protect their homeland from thieves.
It seems to me that the writer of this article is disturbingly biased towards to side of the terrorists in the Middle Eastern conflict. For one, vital facts are avoided. In this article it is ignored that the VIPeR, one of the most practical advances in robotics in history, is entirely remote controlled by the soldiers who choose to deploy them. In addtion, it is mentioned several times in this article persistently that Israel cares little for casualties on the part of their Arab opposition, but that is simply not true; last I checked Israel is the only nation choosing to send humanitarian aid to the opposing population post-conflict.
However, one simply cannot call this a “murder machine” lets not forget who we are fighting here. The War on Terror is one of vital necessity, and just as our opponents would stop at nothing to torture us, burn our flags, or bury our families with cowardly suicide strikes, we must be prepared to show the brunt of our force, while minimizing casualties on both sides. Therefore, I applaud Israel in this noble endeavor, for if anything, this is an act of selfless humanity, rather than a tool of unstoppable destruction.
My regards,
M.Bryant414
My dear friend “What”…
I think you are under some type of severe misconception regarding the recent Middle Eastern conflict. It would be my honor to clarify some facts for you to invoke a better overall understanding of the war.
You attempt to infer that Israel is trying to “take what’s not there”. Let me remind you that the purpose of this war, and the entire motivation behind Israel’s invasion of Palestine, is the constant bombardment of Southern Israel by terrorist groups in Palestine. The efforts of this noble mission is entirely that of defense, rather than to be “thieves”. Please reconsider before posting something not only dramatically slanderous, but even offensive to people viewing this article’s comments.
Be wary,
JJJAKA
MBryant, I find your comments absolutely ironic in light of Israel’s recent offensive in Gaza (Operation Cast Lead) which resulted in the massacre of 926 civilians, 437 of which were children.
Mahmoud Al-Qudsi:
The wiki you linked to pulled it’s data from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights(http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2008/36-2009.html).
Not exactly an un-biased source, and they counted 313 children. The PLO uses bloated numbers and human shields to try and gain sympathy and build resentment.
And then you come along and add another hundred or so children to those numbers.
Hamas hides in schools and dresses like women and you know it.
Mahmoud Al-Qudsi,
I happen to agree with above “Mossad Nerd”, as he explains the strong antagonization of Israel in detail. No matter how the numbers add up, Israel has persistently showed not only consistent displays of humanitarian kindness, but a strong wish for ending the conflict as soon as possible with minimal casualties on both sides. Can the same be said for the warlords in Palestine who launch Kassam missiles at Southern Israel’s civilian buildings?
But don’t we digress? This is practically irrelevant to this revolutionary creation in robotics. Pity that some posters above (ex: “Mark Evans”, “Computer Guru”, etc.) may not have a complete understanding of how robots actually function.
The VIPeR that this article refers to is a deployable, remote-controlled, device. Its every move is commanded by an actual soldier in the midst of battle via a screen and controller. Unlike previous statements, robots by definition are not necessarily autonomous (acting on their own with perhaps AI systems). Therefore, to call it a “murder machine” is not necessarily untrue, but simply biased towards the cause of terrorists. The thinkings that it will go on a rampage killing anything that moves though? That is completely unfounded. While I admit that it is very sophisticated, its not exactly built like that airplane in “Stealth”.
Sincerely,
M.Bryant
Yes, I have to say I agree completely with M.bryant414 and Mossad Nerd…
This article was completely biased, favors Islamic terrorists, and directs hate speeches at Israel because they are simply defending themselves. Somehow, that doesn’t sit too well with me…
Moreover, I haft to say, Mahmoud, you are completely wrong about the whole “its not a remote-controlled robot” thing, because it IS a remote-controlled robot. It still requires humans to manipulate its actions, and control what it does.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4216523.html
“VIPeR is remotely controlled via a harness and helmet-mounted display, with a human operator ultimately deciding whether to pull the trigger. According to its manufacturer, Elbit Systems, VIPeR will be deployed by Israel Defense Forces infantry after field testing.”
http://www.techfresh.net/viper-israeli-cyborg-army/
“In addition, the robot still requires the assistance of a human controller to perform.”
All that talk about “Israel obviously isn’t worried about humanitarianism”…
Its the Islamic terrorists that aren’t playing fair, NOT Israel! You were corrected on that comment at least 3 times already, too, but didn’t have the guts to admit you were proved wrong.
Just think for a minute…
Israel is a tiny county, literally SURROUNDED by enemies, who deny their very right of existence! Just take Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, for example, who wants to “WIPE ISRAEL OFF THE MAP” (in his own words too).
On October 30, 2005, he was quoted as saying the following:
Our dear Imam (referring to Ayatollah Khomeini) said that the occupying regime must be wiped off the map and this was a very wise statement. We cannot compromise over the issue of Palestine. Is it possible to create a new front in the heart of an old front. This would be a defeat and whoever accepts the legitimacy of this regime has in fact, signed the defeat of the Islamic world. Our dear Imam targeted the heart of the world oppressor in his struggle, meaning the occupying regime. I have no doubt that the new wave that has started in Palestine, and we witness it in the Islamic world too, will eliminate this disgraceful stain from the Islamic world.
Now, some (i.e. Juan Cole) would argue that the statement was better translated as:
The Imam said that this regime occupying Jerusalem (een rezhim-e eshghalgar-e qods) must [vanish from] the page of time (bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad).
But, either way, the point of the matter is he wants Israel to cease to exist (and he’s probably willing to try to make that happen).
So, yeah, I’d say this article is very inaccurate, and portrays Israel as some kind of “monster” who just goes around preying on Palestinians (which is totally FALSE) to say the least…
BTW, I’ve been to Jerusalem 5 times in my lifetime, so don’t write me off as someone who doesn’t know what he’s talking about when it comes to the Middle East…
“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father?s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Chosenite staus: revoked!