I was playfully dismissed by a friend earlier when I explained that the new novel Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson.
By the end of 2007, a UN report found that there were 4.1 million robots around the world working in homes. That is, there were more robots than the entire population of Ireland. But the projection for growth is even more startling. In 2004 the number of robots was 2 million. By 2007 it had doubled. Looking forward we see the numbers expanding at even a higher rate. By 2010 groups see 55 million personal robots in the world. And this is the beginning...
South Korea announced that it wants to put a robot in every home by 2013.
One in ten auto workers is a robot. And Toyota has made known that it wants ALL of its workers to be robotic in the future.
No one has to look to far from the nightly news and you will see numerous reports of robotic attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq. It maybe one thing to robotize factories but putting robots into the military has far reaching ramifications. One of those things will be the divorcing of the impact of war from the warrior. Will conflict be easier because it? Or will war be less bloody for the evolution of mechanical? The increasing reliance of robots by the US military in the Long War and, I am certain, in future wars.
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