Judgement Day is getting closer.
North Korean nuclear tests on the 10th of October. Automated military sentry robots. They even want to let the military robots run on an "electronic detection and control network."
As I've already kvetched about this in a previous post about Korean robots and an apocalyptic Judgment Day that is in the coming, hasn't anyone watched the frickin' Terminator?!?! Did they not feel humbled byt the scary liquid-heavy-metal-fuzzy-logic-robotronic-guy impersonating John Conner's mamma before kicking Ah-nold's cybernetic ass? What the hell are these people thinking?!?!?! Skynet?! Hello?!
Oh, and now Korea gets to set the precedents for that corporate board room scene in Robocop, coming soon on a darkly-lit alleyway near you:
Watch this clip on YouTube first!
Now, since the Korean defense industry and other military types are going to actually BUILD such a robot for military and "urban pacification" purposes, just imagine being the first unsuspecting Joe to discover a "glitch," dramatized at the end of this post. But first, my favorites from the above news report:
"The Intelligent Surveillance and Guard Robot is unique because it is the first of its kind to have surveillance, tracking, firing and voice recognition systems built into a single unit," the deputy minister said. Suppressive fire can be provided by the K-3 machine gun built on top of the robot."
Wow! "Suppressive fire?" Like in Aliens?
"Lee said besides the hundreds of robots that can be deployed along the 248km-long demilitarized zone, they may be placed along Korea's very long coast line and critical areas like air fields.
He said the robot with modifications could be used to guard civilian installations like airports, dams, power stations and pipelines.
Yoo Myung-ho, the principle research engineer at Samsung Techwin said the robot has both regular visual and infrared detection capability that can distinguish humans from cars or trees at 2 kilometers in the daytime and 1 kilometer at night. It can also detect moving objects out to 4 kilometers in the daytime and half that distance at night.
The engineer said the robot can challenge a person who comes within 10 meters and give warning if its detects an intruder."
Yeah! Hopefully it won't be a "challenge" such as "You have 20 seconds to comply!" followed by "suppressive fire" from the "K-3 machine gun built on top of the robot."
"Suppressive fire against intruders" and "voice-recognition systems." Oh, my!
Well, I just love the fact that my life may be left up to the decision of a robot (probably running a stripped-down version of Windoze, no less) that the designers are actually bragging about being able to "distinguish humans from cars or trees." Oooh, fancy that!
Obviously, technology is only as good as the humans who create it – which means "imperfect." And hey, since Korea's really learning a lot from its balls-to-the-walls, anything-goes-in-the-name-of science-and-development foibles of recent days (Hwang Woo Seok, anyone?) – I just hope they plan to stick all languages on board that thing, for when some non-Korean takes the wrong turn outside the back gate of a power plant or other sensitive installation, they may get the Ultimate Listening Comprehension Test™:
ROBOT: 무기를 버려라!
FOREIGN DUDE: Huh?
ROBOT: 이십초의 여유를 주겠다!
FOREIGN DUDE: Huh?!
ROBOT: 이제 십오초 남았다!
FOREIGN DUDE: Huh?
ROBOT: 넌 형법 백십삼조 구항을 어기고 있다!
FOREIGN DUDE: Huh?
ROBOT: 이제 오초 남았다!
FOREIGN DUDE: Huh?
ROBOT: 사, 삼, 이, 일...
FOREIGN DUDE: Huh?
ROBOT: 이제 물리적 힘을 가할 권리 를 갖는다!
FOREIGN DUDE: Oh, shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM!!!!
Brush up on that Korean, fellow foreign types.
Your life may one day depend on it.
(Review above YouTube clip for English translation.)
