There will be autonomous or at least semi-autonomous combat robots and there is no stopping it. For one thing, they've already been in use since the early 80's. Cruise missiles are autonomous killer robots. The only difference is that they don't come back when the job is done, but that's a trivial point. More importantly, having a human always in the loop makes current drones massively less effective weapons and giving a potential enemy such a huge opening for that advantage is unwise. You also really can't ban them because they're simply an assembly of extremely useful civilized tools.

That said, she does hit on a very important point though regarding the application of modern drones, which is that they're being used as terror weapons, which we should not be comfortable with. Having drones loiter day in and day out over civilian populated areas is an inexcusable act of cruelty.

Next up: We will draft Xbox Live players to command combat robots, without them even knowing it.

"I want to slap this guy. He goes on and on about robots being emotionless, but completely fails to mention that we have NO combat robots that are autonomous. "

But he DID mention that the Pentagon has four projects of fully autonomous weapons.

I want to slap this guy. He goes on and on about robots being emotionless, but completely fails to mention that we have NO combat robots that are autonomous.
And then with the slide show - He's showing exoskeletons and all that jazz and then busts out a picture from the Braingate project. Seriously? You're comparing a technology that allows a quadriplegic to have very limited use of a computer to that of humans interfacing with combat robots?

What really made me laugh was the side-by-side of the Star Wars AT-ST and the Japanese walker mech.

First of all, you're a douche. ZOMG! Not some piece of shit "mech" that simulates walking by gliding on wheels made by some guy in his garage out of sheet metal!

Secondly, he seems to willfully neglect that these machines are NO different than a predator drone, a M1A1 Abrams tank, or a 2004 Toyota Camry.

They all require an operator.

The veteran thing probably helps you get on the DARPA gravy train, which is no bad thing when it's for things that are actually useful. If the US government wants to throw a few hundred million dollars into developing bionic limbs, that's fine with me. It's just one step closer to my dream of having my brain implanted into a gigantic combat robot upon my death so that I can live on and fight superheros and such.

In reply to this comment by schmawy:
How on Earth is this pq'd with only one vote? My mouth was agape!

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6286-combat-robots-wow-crowds.html

I'll be back when I recharge.

Thanks for the link schmawy, I was a bit surprised that nobody liked it, but I could watch these little dudes throw each other around for hours!

How on Earth is this pq'd with only one vote? My mouth was agape!

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6286-combat-robots-wow-crowds.html

I'll be back when I recharge.

The reason they have those biohazard symbols all over is because they are "Team Biohazard" They built a pretty successful robot named Biohazard, that fought on the show BattleBots. Apparently biohazard has won more more competitions than any other combat robot.

Here is the link to their BattleBots profile-
http://www.battlebots.com/meet_the_robots3/meet_team_profile.asp?id=26

Their homepage is http://www.robotbooks.com

There is a section on their homepage that talks about this device for Elvis the cat.

http://www.robotbooks.com/team-biohazard.htm

The video clip was from a segment on battlebots and i believe has aired on other shows as well. I believe this is real.