Combat Robots - The Future of Warfare?

When Reagan brought up the idea of a missile defense shield, people that I knew who were left-wing would say that it wasn't 100% so we shouldn't do it.  Their argument was emotional and had no basis in a factual understanding of warfare nor history.  To win a conflict, you need to end the battle with a coherent moral level and enough resources to keep fighting while having eliminated these in your opponent.  Nobody goes into conflict unless they think they can win. But it is the uncertainness of victory that restrains aggression.  With robotics, there will be levels of measures and counter measure that will necessitate the use of both humans and robots on the battlefield, but the exact mix and methods will only become clear as technology develops, and it will also depend on the perceptions and beliefs of the military commanders.  Napoleonic tactics were still being used during WW I causing great slaughter, when the American Civil War should have been the wake up call that a new approach was needed. The side that adapts and utilizes the technology most efficiently will be the victors in such encounters. 

PFC Graves, you should be  leery of people who say that things are 100% whatever.  Absolute values are unattainable according to entropy laws and statistical methodology.  there is no way that anything can have a 100 percent chance of happening because there is always an infinite amount of possibilities.  You can never create security or any machine that has a 0% margin of error, or a 100% success rate.  It is kind of like divide by zero... can't be done...

You're right, nothing is 100%, but that doesn't mean we should throw something out the window on the basis that it isn't 100% guaranteed to work.  The argument supports itself, since nothing can be 100%, we should accept that and move to get the best possible percentage we can attain.

well as an engineer, I know if I make a machine with exact tolerances it will lock the assembly up because the clearances are too tight... there has to be a margin of error

SPC Sheila Lewis Why do you think a robot wouldn't make a good battle buddy? It never gets tired. It never gets angry. It has no care for its own well-being.