One more thing to worry about

Not that we don't have guns in Massachusetts, but I live less in fear that I'll run into a psycho on a killing spree than do my friends in, say, Texas.

We are not, of course, exempt. This is, after all, the US of A - a gun-happy, blood-soaked culture. Recently, in Boston, a teenage girl and her younger brother were shot playing near their home. The boy's wounds were minor (it's all relative, of course); the girl's are quite grievous - she was shot through the head. Random shoot-em-up. 

And one of the worst school shootings we've ever endured was right next door: Sandy Hook, Connecticut.

But I don't carry the day-to-day existential dread about being mowed down that I would if I lived elsewhere. 

Still, as I said, this is America, so there's long been an omnipresent, low-grade fear factor out there.

And to add to that omnipresent fear factor, there's the specter of armed robots and drones, something that - quite frankly - I have never given much thought to. 

Not that it would be all that great to be able to stare the bad guy trying to kill you in the eye - which couldn't happen, of course, if they were perched on a roof picking folks off in a crazed fusillade - but me really no like the idea of AI-driven or remote-controlled killers.

And two members of our legislature want to save Massachusetts from these sorts of attacks with a law that would outlaw:

...the manufacture, sale, or operation of a robot or drone with an attached weapon. The bill would also ban the use of robots to threaten, harass, or physically restrain people. (Source: Boston Globe)

There are some exemptions: the military, defense contractors, police department bomb squads. Private companies could apply for waivers.

Legislation to ban anyone from weaponizing their robotics devices by attaching weapons to them was actually requested by robot developers, including local robotics darling Boston Dynamics (makers of Spot the Wonder Robot). MassRobotics, an industry trade association, and the ACLU also back the bill, which will be on the agenda later this year or in 2024. 

While Boston Dynamics and its rivals do not sell robots with attached weapons, videos have cropped up online displaying devices that have been modified with attached guns. Some are made to resemble Boston Dynamics’ Spot, a dog-like robot, with an attached automatic gun — modifications the company doesn’t permit on its devices.

As far as I'm aware, no one has been killed by a weaponized robot. Yet at least. But give it time. If there's a YouTube video showing an armed and dangerous Spot clone, you can best believe that some psycho will want to figure out how to turn their Roomba into a killing machine. 

Of course, if weaponized robots are outlawed, only outlaws will have weaponized robots. Still, states with stronger gun laws DO have proportionately fewer gun deaths than states with laws the mean it's open season on hunting humans. (The notion of hunting humans comes from one of our early mass killers, who in 1984, armed with an Uzi and a few other guns, murdered 21 folks in a California McDonald's. His wife later reported that, as her husband headed out the door, the couple had this exchange:

Honey, where're you going?'
'I'm going to hunt humans."

Oddly, his wife didn't bother to contact the authorities about this bizarre convo.)

Ethicists, not surprisingly, come down on the side of regulating the weaponization of robots. But there's some concern that allowing law enforcement to deploy an armed robots may be a bit problematic, given that so many AI systems have "algorithmic bias problems," e.g., there are well known problems with facial recognition software when it comes to people of color. 

Others go a step further with warnings about use of armed robots in military settings. Northeastern professor Denise Garcia notes that:

“The US is already the most violent country with the highest homicide rates in the developed world. Weaponizing robots and drones could make all worse.”

Hard to argue that one, but let's start out making it illegal for civilians to arm robots. I hate to think of that guy who in 1984 was going out to "hunt humans." What would he have been able to do if he hadn't even had to leave his home to do so.

Anyway, I hadn't given any thought to weaponized robots and drones, but, sheesh, do any of us really need one more thing to worry about?