No, not the killer androids that shot up the human resistance in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. These are smartphones running Google's open-source Android operating system, the one with the friendly green robot mascot. He's had adventures in space already ... and now it looks like the US Army has plans for him, Short Circuit style.
Remember Land Warrior?
That was the name of the Army's tactical computer system, that it was going to give out to its infantry soldiers. The problem? Imagine lugging a laptop computer around in your backpack, plus an AC adapter and roughly five to seven pounds of peripherals. Now imagine trying to do this while wearing combat gear, over sixty pounds worth.
Maybe it was a space-age idea way back when. But as Captain Aaron Miller of the 4th Batallion, 9th Infantry Regiment noted in 2007, what's the point when a cellphone can do all this stuff anyway?
Smartphones for soldiers
Of course, the United States Army, ever a fan of hard-to-pronounce acronyms, doesn't call the Android gadgets it's ordering smartphones. Instead, as Spencer Ackerman of Wired's Danger Room writes, it's calling them NW EUDs, for "Nett Warrior End-User Device."
Of course, the troops will all know what they really are. And if some open-source technology from Australia's Serval Project gets involved, they could even use the gadgets as smartphones, using the phones themselves and air-dropped repeaters instead of a cellular tower. Tactical and security requirements will probably dictate that they do something way more complex (and expensive), but the Serval Project's been making waves lately, so it's worth mentioning.
Why not the iPhone?
That's a good question! One answer is that iPhones for soldiers would lock the Department of Defense into a contract with one company, instead of letting it price shop. Another might simply be that Apple's not interested; it designs shiny mass-market gadgets, not Panasonic Toughbook-style ruggedized smartphones.
What about Asimov's laws?
Those are the Three Laws of Robotics, written down way back in sci-fi's heyday by Isaac Asimov. In a nutshell, they say that no robot can ever harm humans. And while Android's not really a robot, there's got to be someone out there (besides me) who's unnerved that it's going to be used to kill people.
On the one hand, you could say that it's going to be used to save the lives of American soldiers. Using Army apps on their Android smartphones, they can mark off locations of IEDs or potential ambush points. And the greater precision that lends to their operations could help cut down on civilian casualties.
On the other hand, you could say that the United States' armed forces haven't been so good at avoiding civilian casualties in the last decade. And that any new -- and expensive -- toy you give them is mostly going to be a drain on taxpayer dollars, and an increase in the body count.
In the end, it doesn't matter
That's because the programming code to Android is open-source, meaning anyone can take it and do basically whatever they want with it. So even if Google didn't want its friendly green robot to gun down some Iraqi village, it doesn't have a say in things.
On the plus side, the DoD might contribute some code back to the Android project, plus ruggedized Android devices that can survive harsh conditions. Those might help save someone somewhere, at any rate.
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