Harp (Damson Idris), a dispassionate drone pilot, is ordered to the war zone as punishment after his cold calculation led to the deaths of two Marines. troops, with the assistance of robotic soldiers called Gumps, serve as peacekeepers against the region’s ruthless criminal warlord Viktor Koval (Pilou Asbaek). The film’s redundant intertitles - several characters repeat the same information later - explain the outbreak of a civil war taking place in the year 2036 in Eastern Europe. Reach him article originally appeared on director Mikael Hafstrom’s “Outside the Wire,” the latest Netflix combat film set in an exotic location, offers empty-calorie action in a less than fulfilling, Cold War-inspired robotic revolt narrative.
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We should be ever mindful, however, of just how far we are willing to go.īob O’Donnell is the founder and chief analyst of Technalysis Research LLC, a technology consulting and market research firm that provides strategic consulting and market research services to the technology industry and professional financial community. As we move forward with robotics-driven technological advances and transition from science fiction to reality, the possibilities are indeed endless. Removing people from dangerous conditions, helping extend our ability to further explore both our world and our universe, letting people focus on the things that really matter to them, instead of things they have to do. Of course, there is also the potential for some incredibly positive developments. We won’t really be able to recognize them for some time, but it does feel like we’re on the cusp. Though admittedly a bit irrational, there’s no shaking the fear that we’re rapidly approaching a point in the evolution of technology - driven by this inevitable blending of robotics and software-driven machine learning - where some really big societal-impacting trends could start to develop.
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However, we’ve also seen how that movie ends - not well.
The irony is that to achieve the kind of Asimovian robotic benevolence that our most positive views of the technology bring to mind -whether that be robotic surgery, butler-like personal assistant services or other dramatically beneficial capabilities - the machines are going to have to get smarter and more capable. That’s where things can (and likely will) start to get both really exciting and really scary. We’re rapidly approaching a point in the evolution of technology where some really big societal-impacting trends could start to develop.īut the real challenge will come when we start to combine robotics with artificial intelligence and deep learning. Eventually, though, we’ll likely start to turn a more critical eye to these capabilities, and only those that can offer some kind of lasting value will succeed. Just as with other new technologies, it may not even matter if it’s the best or most efficient way of achieving a particular task - the novelty will be considered a value unto itself.
In fact, initially, there is likely to be a “cool” factor of having something done by a robot. No need to worry about robotic delivery carts causing much more damage than scaring a few pets, after all. At a simplistic level, it’s easy to say - and likely true - that we can accept these basic capabilities for what they are: Minor conveniences. Now that we’re starting to see some more interesting new advances in robotics-driven services - such as food and package delivery and, eventually, autonomous cars - the question becomes how will those loaded expectations impact our view and acceptance of these new offerings. Much more than with any other technology, it’s very difficult to approach robotics objectively. Whether through the pioneering science-fiction novels of Isaac Asimov, the giddy futurism of “The Jetsons” cartoons, the hellish destruction of the “Terminator” movies or countless other examples, we all come to the concept of robotics with preconceived notions.
We have all been exposed to so many types of robotic visions in our various forms of entertainment for so long that it’s hard to imagine not being at least somewhat affected. Still, when most people think about robots in any form, I’m guessing that visions of dystopian robot futures silently lurk in the back of their mind - whether they want to admit it or not. Whether it’s automatically sweeping our floors or rapidly piecing together elements on an assembly line, the robots of today are laser focused on the practical. Instead, they’re primarily focused on freeing our lives and our businesses of the drudgery of mundane tasks. Of course, the practical reality of today’s robots is far from either of these extremes. When most people think about robots in any form, I’m guessing that visions of dystopian robot futures silently lurk in the back of their mind - we can’t help it, really.