Chaim and Haddassah ran breathlessly through the forests near their home in the Carpathian Mountains. Unable to continue on, they huddled in the shadows of a fallen pine. Shaken, cold, and bleeding, they knew this was the end of their road together and looked at one another intently as the only sounds they heard was the sound of their breathing, their pounding hearts and the sicking “foot steps” of the beast that was coming their way. “Będę kochać cię na zawsze, mój aniele”, Chaim whispered to the shivering Haddasah as her eyes brimmed with tears. “Będę kochać cię mój książę” she replied as the metallic monster approached just yards away. Chaim tenderly kissed Haddassah’s forehead and held her close as long as he possibly could until they heard the beast’s metal claws grab hold of the tree. This was it. Months of running were now at an end and they had lost their quest to live. The end was here, and in a way it was a relief, because the horrors of the days which had preceded it were now at an end. No more horror. No more pain. No more death. No more fear. In a moment they would be in the arms of Yeshuah Hameshiach and all would be changed. And then it was there. As Chaim felt the steely grip of the monster’s strong claws grasp his waist and pull him away, he looked into Haddassah’s eyes one last time and heard her cry out “Wreszcie Bezpłatne” And then there was blackness, and then there was light, and then there was life evermore. He was home.
Sound like fiction? It is. But could it become reality? Perhaps.
Any reader who who watches the news will note the plethora of articles about the coming age of robots that have been in the popular press in recent days. Matt Drudge has alerted us to them many times; and such robotics, be they for domestic or for military purposes, are usually painted as being a good thing; and, in a lot of cases, that is right. Robotic hands that perform intricate surgery, for instance, may be of great benefit to humankind – helping to avoid accidents that have cost both financially and in terms of human life. But what about military machines that take a licking and keep on ticking (such as Boston Dynamics “LS3” workhorse.) Is that what we really want? After all, anything the “good guys” have, the “bad guys” are bound to follow up with (if they haven’t invented it first and defense cuts put us behind the curve as is increasingly becoming likely).
But artificial robotics in the form of mechanical monsters isn’t where things are stopping. DARPA, the military’s think tank, is actively supporting human augmentation in the form of external devices and some would say internal genetic manipulation to create a military force with capability beyond what we know as “human.” The last charge is no empty claim. DARPA has called for experimentation with human genetics and has noted the importance to military goals of being able to introduce new information into the human genome for military purposes.
Sound intriguing? or sound scary?
The wiser man gets the more dangerous he becomes. The more dangerous he becomes the closer we get to the day that the real Creator will pull him up by his bootstraps and show him who is boss. Any “good” technology can be used with nefarious intent. Without a Christian worldview guiding such experimentation, it can be guaranteed that at some point – it will be.
So – in terms of military – look for the day in the not so distant future that machines can track you down and get at you regardless where you are at (I have no information that says we are here yet, but with drone technology and advanced robotics I can’t imagine us being far from this mark) and human non-humans will have capabilities beyond that which any human being ever imagined. And they will all be controlled by a benevolent government with only good in mind. We hope. And, they hope.
Scary stuff folks. What does it all mean? Well…look for that in the next post.