By 2020, reports Mysterious Universe, American airspace will be thrumming with some 30,000 surveillance drones (more accurately known as UAVs—Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). Perhaps augmenting this ghost squadron, the US Army projects that by 2030 as much as 25% of troops will be switched out for “combat robots.” Despite that 2014 marks 30 years since the premiere of director James Cameron’s The Terminator, it’s doubtful this fact will have many Americans chuckling at the irony. Especially when they learn that the Department of Defense is putting up $2 million in the Cyber Grand Challenge for any developer who can put together a global defense system similar to that of Skynet—Cameron’s visionary creation which begat the movie series’ “human extermination” theme. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (the same—while known as ARPA—that gave us the Internet) isn’t buying into the United Nation’s proposed ban on combat robots and autonomous control systems.
“Any weapon of war is terrible,” said UN Rep for Disarmament Angela Kane, “and if you can launch this without human intervention, I think it’s even worse…I think it should be outlawed.” John Connor…you out there?
