THE TIME HAS COME TO AN END

You assume the Russians even bothered with trenches for there infantry

It also knows crazy

The Yanks already have that

Yeah it's nobody's idea of a good time.

Make it a drivable Battle Cat, in a hundred years or so.

That has an absolutely horrific consequence for power. You dont need the masses to retain your military anymore

I’ve always thought this was an interesting concept. It’s not difficult to imagine a future where wars are waged with tech, either remotely controlled or AI “bots”, and the idea of human soldiers would be antiquated as bringing a knight on a horse to a modern battlefield. They would just be shredded like insects. So much would change and it’s difficult to foresee how it would all play out but warfare would be much more covert and technology driven.

Yeah I think the time of people on the battle field (except as victims) has a time limit. In fact I think the end might be closer than most imagine. The first time we see a battle somewhere with regular forces vs a combined arms, semi-autonomous force, the slaughter will have militaries around the world scrambling like mad to transition.

These days a computer can scan a battlefield across multiple spectra, identify targets, and engage them, all before a human would blink. One of the least believable but incredibly common sci-fi tropes is people winning against highly developed machines. There is just no way if the weaponry available to each is otherwise equal.

Heh, imagine if Jurassic World were real...

You forget MAD. All weapons pale in comparison to nukes.

Why would you think that? They have 'delicate' components because it doesn't make sense and is not safe to do research on something like an autonomous tank with deadly weapons. They also are focusing on actually getting a baseline robot working before a robotic war machine. You dont start with the robotic war machine first. You can take what you learn on small scales and apply it to larger robots that can carry armor, or just retrofit a tank to be autonomous.

Okay sure yea. Millions of years. I’d like to think humans will entirely become obsolete.

A couple of decades I promise a well trained soldier will still have a place on the battlefield. I’m sure there are tons of things this tech already surpasses human soldiers now. But the job you perform as an infantryman is inherently chaotic. It is one of the most chaotic situations you can find yourself in. Computer programs rely on reliable patterns and generalized input. And yes I acknowledge the whole point of AGI is to expand that exact “bandwidth” of acceptable input when a machine performs problem solving/decision making. But EVEN then we start to step into some other issues like mobility. The human body can do A LOT. Swim. Dive. Jump out a plane. Climb rubble. Crawl. All sorts of things. Battlefield’s are not flat terrain. Yes. Tanks are treaded. This robot is treaded. There will be applications. But when it comes down to it someone’s gotta clear that building, trench, tunnel, or bunker, it’ll be booby trapped to all hell and full of obstacles along the way. The human’s body + will power is unstoppable, while machines can be tricked/cheesed. You also have to consider that a fully autonomous/robotic military brings new problems. Modern military’s are slowly learning the importance of EW/electronic warfare. Something as simple as bringing your cell phone on deployment and opening it without being on airplane mode will give away your position + anyone with you to pretty much anyone. These machines in the original post are not autonomous. They are manned remotely. This means they are producing a massive electronic signal that the enemy can use to pinpoint their movement. With all the missile/artillery/fixed wing/rotary wing assets available to the world (even isis has helicopters and missiles) a location is all you need. Point being: given how precise weapons have become: stay undetected is easily the most important umbrella skill an infantryman can have. Don’t start a fire, even if you’re cold, don’t leave ANY trash behind when camping out and moving around in country, sleep and stash equipment outside of aerial/satellite/drone observation under tarps or trees etc. Autonomous or unmanned robot soldiers will certainly not be able to hide their position more effectively than a human for a long long time. And as we discussed once you’re position is known the enemy has a buffet of options to choose how they are going to blow you the guck up with ease and precision.

I will say though, I think kill drones will be used and highly effective. When we need to clear out a city that is hot with minimal civilians. A situation like Fallujah where we airdropped pamphlets saying we were going to storm the city and to GTFO if you were a civilian. We do that shit. We send in thousands of weaponized drones (think of a Suicide drone that flies) to just go in and kill anything that moves. That would be much more effective than attempting to shell a city (never works to completion, the human spirit is unrelenting and people will just hide in the rubble like roaches -> this is were methodical kill drones could be useful)

In short. AI “soldiers” unlikely in our lifetime to supersede normal troops. AI kill bots definitely have a seat at the table though. Given that they are employed in situations with lax ROE’s (basically none). I imagine killer drone swarm tech is probably already in R&D/early production.

Edit: I rambled on a lot

I have not read that book by Gibson, him and Stephenson always seem to have similar thoughts though. It is funny in both of their essay books they have an essay about their experiences with the other one.