Robots Killeing Humans

[Rick Dove]

Halting Problem Proves That Lethal Robots Cannot Correctly Decide To Kill Humans                             

    The halting problem is to determine whether an arbitrary computer program, once started, will ever finish running or whether it will continue forever. In 1936, Alan Turing famously showed that there is no general algorithm that can solve this problem. Now a group of computer scientists and ethicists have used the halting problem to tackle the question of how a weaponized robot could decide to kill a human. Their trick is to reformulate the problem in algorithmic terms by considering an evil computer programmer who writes a piece of software on which human lives depend.

The question is whether the software is entirely benign or whether it can ever operate in a way that ends up killing people. In general, a robot could never decide the answer to this question. As a result, autonomous robots should never be designed to kill or harm humans, say the authors, even though various lethal autonomous robots are already available. One curious corollary is that if the human brain is a Turing machine, then humans can never decide this issue either, a point that the authors deliberately steer well clear of.

-------------- Rick's Comment -----------------

Robots need a conscience - a separate internal agent program that watches and evaluates behavior.

Robots also need peer-peer- behavior monitoring

[Sam Harbaugh]

Someone (not Rick) said: "The question is whether the software is entirely benign or whether it can ever operate in a way that ends up killing people."

There is no question, software has killed many people.   How quickly we forget.
Therac-25
Patriot allows scud to hit barracks in Iraq, software patch arrives day after.
Soldiers call in smart bombs on their own position.
Automobile sudden acceleration.
<and on and  on>

In my opinion the writer (not Rick) is making up a false premise to (falsely) justify the remainder of the article.   I have often reviewed technical papers where the writer  starts with an unsubstantiated premise to justify his paper.  My review comment is simply "please supply reference".

Lived too long, seen too much!

sam

, even though various lethal autonomous robots are already available. One curious corollary is that if the human brain is a Turing machine, then humans can never decide this issue either, a point that the authors deliberately steer well clear of.

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