Robots up to no good on the moon. ::via JAXA::
It’s official -- robots will have a base of operations on the moon in which they will have the ability attack all of humankind. Japan is planning on sending a robot to the moon in 2015 to do scientific research and video recording. This seems innocent enough, but if everything goes according to plan that same robot will begin building a base on the moon for other robots by 2020. Giving robots a quiet place to plan their domination of Earth away from the prying eyes of humans is a terrible idea, and here are some reasons why. Some of them don’t even involve robots. Thats how serious this could become.1: The first robot on the moon will be autonomous.
This is probably what the moon will look like a few years after the robots arrive.According to Popular Science:The robots will be controlled from Earth, but they’ll also be imbued with their own kind of machine intelligence, making decisions on their own and operating with a high degree of autonomy.
So while there is supposed to be some level of human control, who knows what those crafty robots will be able to do while in an autonomous phase of the mission. They human factor for a mission like this will more than likely be relegated to sending simple commands to the robot such as which direction to move or how to analyze a rock sample. Ultimately more information will be needed on the amount of autonomy vs. human control the robot will have. My Spidey-sense tingles when I think about an autonomous robot building a base for other robots. The robot building this base will be far more advanced that current generation robots, so maybe it will be able to block human control and work completely on its own. Then what do we do? Send humans to make it stop? Launch missiles at the moon? These options would seem like an act of aggression to this newly “freed” robot, which leads me too…2: The robot will already have rockets with it.
Sure these rockets are meant to shoot sample back to Earth, but a robot with rockets is terrifying.3: Nuclear materials exist on the moon.
Helium-3, a rare isotope, is believed to exist in relatively large quantities on the moon. Helium-3 is only 0.0001% of all helium isotopes and only exists on Earth due to being the byproduct of tritium decay. Helium-3 can be used in nuclear fusion, which is cleaner and more efficient than nuclear fission as used today. The only problem is that truly efficient fusion via helium-3 could be decades away. Here is a video explaining some more details of helium-3 fusion reactions and its availability on the moon.
A project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has had a working helium-3 reactor for years. Using current technology the reaction is very inefficient for power generation, but could a robot use helium-3’s nuclear possibilities for the destruction of Earth when combined with the aforementioned missiles? We may not know until it is too late, but the existence of helium-3 could cause other problems…
4: Helium-3 on the moon will create tensions between powerful nations on Earth.
Could access to mining on the moon start a new world war?Who exactly “owns” the moon? Since going to the moon had been prohibitively expensive and technologically impairing for most nations until recently, the idea of ownership of the moon has never been a hot button issue. Should the Japanese robots on the moon discover a way to mine helium-3 in a cost effective matter that will all change. Besides power generation, helium-3 is used in cryogenics, oil discovery and nuclear weapon detection. Worldwide supplies of helium-3 are dangerously low, and cost effective alternatives do not yet exist. Other countries besides Japan are looking towards the moon for helium-3, including Russia, China and India. The United States originally had plans to build a mining base on the moon, but all moon based missions were scraped. However, with the many possibilities for helium-3 the US is probably looking back at moon missions as well -- even if only to mine it.Since most of the nations interested in mining the moon have plans to build bases on the moon between 2020-2030, how heated will competition for the moon’s resources become and will countries attempt to stake claims to portions of the moon? There are two United Nations treaties, the Outer Space Treaty and the Moon Treaty, which are meant to keep countries from claiming ownership of the moon and to only use the moon for peaceful purposes. The amount of money involved in setting up moon mining operations will be staggering, but the reward will be tremendous -- therefore following these treaties may not be seen as acting in a country’s best interests. An article from the Fordham Internation Law Journal explores the possible legal options for helium-3 mining on the moon by the US.5: Forget countries, the robots want all that sweet helium-3.
Welcome to the Super-Robot Human Haters Club.I cannot imagine autonomous robots caring much for meatbag treaties, so how would a colony full of human hating robots that are powered by fusion reactors react to some astronaut telling them to stop hogging all the resources? I bet that astronaut will not be heading back to Earth, or at least not in one piece. Add in the fact that robots are being developed specifically for mining the moon and robots will have little need for humans.So overall the possibilities for conflict over the moon, whether country vs country or man vs machine, seem to be very high.6: Other space robots have become smarter over time.
The other robots cheated off this guy in robo-school.Opportunity, one of NASA’s Mars rovers, received a software upgrade in January that allowed it to make its own decision about whether to further analyze rocks in newly explored areas. By this time the rover had been working for 7 years and the upgrade was seen as a way to make the rover’s research more efficient and scientifically useful. Should the future robots on the moon be seen as needing an upgrade, it could make them more autonomous in way not imagined or wanted. Surely the moon robots of the 2020’s and 2030’s will be far more advanced, and any upgrade pushing it farther out of human control could spell disaster. A project looking like a great success could suddenly become a massive disaster.7: Since there is $$$ to be had, evil corporations will surely be involved.
No robotics other than Darth Vader, but you get the idea.Think of some high profit industries a second: Energy, banking, insurance, pharmaceuticals, defense, tobacco, Wal-Mart. Most of the highest profit companies are also the most vilified. While some of the anger directed towards these companies could be due to jealousy, paranoia and more, many have contributed to their own negative reputations through spreading mistruths and outright lies about the true nature of their business. Ecological disasters, world spanning economic crises, physically harmful side effects that were hidden, labor abuses and the overall lowering of worldwide living standards have become well known for companies in these areas.Many of the most vilified sectors of business would inevitably become involved in moon exploration, robotics, and mining. The energy sector would love to get its hands on helium-3, partly to produce power on the cheap for increased profits, but also to prohibit governments access to relatively cheap sources of energy that could usurp their core business. The defense sector is currently building a vast array of robots for military and personal use, (your Roomba is made the same company that makes this). The insurance sector would be drooling at the ability to insure a high risk mission to build a moon base for megabucks. Hell, Wal-Mart would probably be the first retail store on the moon, even if it is just for robots.8: If robots on the moon are successful, it could push humans out of space exploration and science in general.
First the moon, then Earth!Assuming that these robot endeavors to the moon are a great success, and somehow competing nations and corporations are able to retain peace while not starting a war with the robots in the process, what will that mean for humans in the space program or science in general? The achievements of these robots could hasten the replacement of humans by robots in future science based projects and beyond. While it could seem smart to substitute humans with robots in high risk experiments such as moon colonies, it could create a scientific atmosphere that is completely dependent on robotics. Scientific accomplishments would be skewed towards robots, and robotics could overtake human sciences in the realm of funding and research.The focus of reaching the moon in the 1960’s hastened advances in science and engineering for the betterment of humankind, but with robots doing all the research future advances could completely ignore humans and instead focus on robots. While people on Earth would languish in mediocrity and a stagnant, slow research cycle, robotics would explode and advance very quickly at the expense of humanity. This would inevitably lead to the rise of the machines and the human race becoming enslaved or killed off.So will robots on the moon equal the end of humanity? Probably.
Robots up to no good on the moon. ::via JAXA::
It’s official -- robots will have a base of operations on the moon in which they will have the ability attack all of humankind. Japan is planning on sending a robot to the moon in 2015 to do scientific research and video recording. This seems innocent enough, but if everything goes according to plan that same robot will begin building a base on the moon for other robots by 2020. Giving robots a quiet place to plan their domination of Earth away from the prying eyes of humans is a terrible idea, and here are some reasons why. Some of them don’t even involve robots. Thats how serious this could become.
1: The first robot on the moon will be autonomous.
This is probably what the moon will look like a few years after the robots arrive.
According to Popular Science:
The robots will be controlled from Earth, but they’ll also be imbued with their own kind of machine intelligence, making decisions on their own and operating with a high degree of autonomy.
So while there is supposed to be some level of human control, who knows what those crafty robots will be able to do while in an autonomous phase of the mission. They human factor for a mission like this will more than likely be relegated to sending simple commands to the robot such as which direction to move or how to analyze a rock sample. Ultimately more information will be needed on the amount of autonomy vs. human control the robot will have. My Spidey-sense tingles when I think about an autonomous robot building a base for other robots. The robot building this base will be far more advanced that current generation robots, so maybe it will be able to block human control and work completely on its own. Then what do we do? Send humans to make it stop? Launch missiles at the moon? These options would seem like an act of aggression to this newly “freed” robot, which leads me too…
2: The robot will already have rockets with it.
Sure these rockets are meant to shoot sample back to Earth, but a robot with rockets is terrifying.
3: Nuclear materials exist on the moon.
Helium-3, a rare isotope, is believed to exist in relatively large quantities on the moon. Helium-3 is only 0.0001% of all helium isotopes and only exists on Earth due to being the byproduct of tritium decay. Helium-3 can be used in nuclear fusion, which is cleaner and more efficient than nuclear fission as used today. The only problem is that truly efficient fusion via helium-3 could be decades away. Here is a video explaining some more details of helium-3 fusion reactions and its availability on the moon.
A project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has had a working helium-3 reactor for years. Using current technology the reaction is very inefficient for power generation, but could a robot use helium-3’s nuclear possibilities for the destruction of Earth when combined with the aforementioned missiles? We may not know until it is too late, but the existence of helium-3 could cause other problems…
A project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has had a working helium-3 reactor for years. Using current technology the reaction is very inefficient for power generation, but could a robot use helium-3’s nuclear possibilities for the destruction of Earth when combined with the aforementioned missiles? We may not know until it is too late, but the existence of helium-3 could cause other problems…
4: Helium-3 on the moon will create tensions between powerful nations on Earth.
Could access to mining on the moon start a new world war?
Who exactly “owns” the moon? Since going to the moon had been prohibitively expensive and technologically impairing for most nations until recently, the idea of ownership of the moon has never been a hot button issue. Should the Japanese robots on the moon discover a way to mine helium-3 in a cost effective matter that will all change. Besides power generation, helium-3 is used in cryogenics, oil discovery and nuclear weapon detection. Worldwide supplies of helium-3 are dangerously low, and cost effective alternatives do not yet exist. Other countries besides Japan are looking towards the moon for helium-3, including Russia, China and India. The United States originally had plans to build a mining base on the moon, but all moon based missions were scraped. However, with the many possibilities for helium-3 the US is probably looking back at moon missions as well -- even if only to mine it.
Since most of the nations interested in mining the moon have plans to build bases on the moon between 2020-2030, how heated will competition for the moon’s resources become and will countries attempt to stake claims to portions of the moon? There are two United Nations treaties, the Outer Space Treaty and the Moon Treaty, which are meant to keep countries from claiming ownership of the moon and to only use the moon for peaceful purposes. The amount of money involved in setting up moon mining operations will be staggering, but the reward will be tremendous -- therefore following these treaties may not be seen as acting in a country’s best interests. An article from the Fordham Internation Law Journal explores the possible legal options for helium-3 mining on the moon by the US.
5: Forget countries, the robots want all that sweet helium-3.
Welcome to the Super-Robot Human Haters Club.
I cannot imagine autonomous robots caring much for meatbag treaties, so how would a colony full of human hating robots that are powered by fusion reactors react to some astronaut telling them to stop hogging all the resources? I bet that astronaut will not be heading back to Earth, or at least not in one piece. Add in the fact that robots are being developed specifically for mining the moon and robots will have little need for humans.
So overall the possibilities for conflict over the moon, whether country vs country or man vs machine, seem to be very high.
6: Other space robots have become smarter over time.
The other robots cheated off this guy in robo-school.
Opportunity, one of NASA’s Mars rovers, received a software upgrade in January that allowed it to make its own decision about whether to further analyze rocks in newly explored areas. By this time the rover had been working for 7 years and the upgrade was seen as a way to make the rover’s research more efficient and scientifically useful. Should the future robots on the moon be seen as needing an upgrade, it could make them more autonomous in way not imagined or wanted. Surely the moon robots of the 2020’s and 2030’s will be far more advanced, and any upgrade pushing it farther out of human control could spell disaster. A project looking like a great success could suddenly become a massive disaster.
7: Since there is $$$ to be had, evil corporations will surely be involved.
No robotics other than Darth Vader, but you get the idea.
Think of some high profit industries a second: Energy, banking, insurance, pharmaceuticals, defense, tobacco, Wal-Mart. Most of the highest profit companies are also the most vilified. While some of the anger directed towards these companies could be due to jealousy, paranoia and more, many have contributed to their own negative reputations through spreading mistruths and outright lies about the true nature of their business. Ecological disasters, world spanning economic crises, physically harmful side effects that were hidden, labor abuses and the overall lowering of worldwide living standards have become well known for companies in these areas.
Many of the most vilified sectors of business would inevitably become involved in moon exploration, robotics, and mining. The energy sector would love to get its hands on helium-3, partly to produce power on the cheap for increased profits, but also to prohibit governments access to relatively cheap sources of energy that could usurp their core business. The defense sector is currently building a vast array of robots for military and personal use, (your Roomba is made the same company that makes this). The insurance sector would be drooling at the ability to insure a high risk mission to build a moon base for megabucks. Hell, Wal-Mart would probably be the first retail store on the moon, even if it is just for robots.
8: If robots on the moon are successful, it could push humans out of space exploration and science in general.
First the moon, then Earth!
Assuming that these robot endeavors to the moon are a great success, and somehow competing nations and corporations are able to retain peace while not starting a war with the robots in the process, what will that mean for humans in the space program or science in general? The achievements of these robots could hasten the replacement of humans by robots in future science based projects and beyond. While it could seem smart to substitute humans with robots in high risk experiments such as moon colonies, it could create a scientific atmosphere that is completely dependent on robotics. Scientific accomplishments would be skewed towards robots, and robotics could overtake human sciences in the realm of funding and research.
The focus of reaching the moon in the 1960’s hastened advances in science and engineering for the betterment of humankind, but with robots doing all the research future advances could completely ignore humans and instead focus on robots. While people on Earth would languish in mediocrity and a stagnant, slow research cycle, robotics would explode and advance very quickly at the expense of humanity. This would inevitably lead to the rise of the machines and the human race becoming enslaved or killed off.
So will robots on the moon equal the end of humanity? Probably.
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