4 • 645 Ratings
🗓️ 28 October 2022
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
The killer robots are here and they’re not going away.
We’ve all seen footage of the cute robot dogs stumbling around with weapons strapped to their back, and loitering munitions (or so-called “suicide drones”) have become a fixture on the battlefield in Ukraine.
There’s a general fear in the air that the near future will be populated by semi-autonomous killing machines. But killer robots have been here a long time. Did you know one of the first aerial drones was deployed more than 100 years ago? Did you know cops have already used a robot to kill a suspect? Did you know the Netherlands has already deployed robots on the ground equipped with machine guns?
Kelsey Atherton knows, and he’s here to tell us all about it. Atherton is a military tech writer specializing in robots, nukes, and other terrible futures. He’s written for Motherboard before and his substack is Wars of Future Past.
Stories discussed in this episode:
Robot Dog Maker Boston Dynamics Pledges Not to Let Its Robots Kill You
Robot Dog With RPG Strapped to Its Back Demoed at Russian Arms Fair
Police Outsourcing Human Interaction With Homeless People to Boston Dynamics’ Robot Dog
The Netherlands Has Deployed NATO’s First Killer Robot Ground Vehicles
Robot Dog Not So Cute With Submachine Gun Strapped to Its Back
Hacker Finds Kill Switch for Submachine Gun–Wielding Robot Dog
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0:00.0 | Tannenes got the code it's going to launch |
0:07.6 | It's a unit system |
0:11.9 | I know this |
0:13.5 | It's how all the files of the whole park |
0:16.2 | It tells her everything |
0:18.5 | Sir he's uploading the virus |
0:20.4 | Eagle one the package is being delivered Hello It tells her everything. Sir, he's uploading the virus. |
0:23.1 | The Eagle One, the package is being delivered. |
0:25.9 | Hello out there on the internet. |
0:28.3 | I am Matthew Galt, and this is Cyber. |
0:32.0 | The killer robots are here, and they're not going away. |
0:34.6 | And we've all seen footage of the cute robot dogs stumbling around with weapons strapped to their back. |
0:36.9 | And there's a |
0:37.8 | general fear in the air right now that the near future will be populated by killer robots. |
0:43.4 | But here's the thing. |
0:45.0 | Killer robots have been here a long time. Did you know the first aerial drone was deployed |
0:49.6 | more than a hundred years ago? Did you know the cops have already used a robot to kill a suspect? |
0:54.9 | Did you know the Netherlands has already deployed robots on the ground equipped with machine guns? Kelsey Atherton |
1:00.5 | knows, and he's here to tell us all about it. Atherton is a military tech writer specializing in |
1:05.8 | robots, nukes, and other terrible futures. He's written just about everywhere, including |
1:10.1 | motherboard. His substack about everywhere, including motherboard. His |
1:11.2 | substack is Wars of Future Past. Do not follow him on Twitter. It will cause you psychic damage. Kelsey, |
... |
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