Where is Benjamin Franklin when you need to talk to him? - UPDATE

I wrote this in 2017. Now this article from Wapo gives more substance to my alarm:

The U.S. says humans will always be in control of AI weapons. But the age of autonomous war is already here.

The Pentagon says a ban on AI weapons isn’t necessary. But missiles, guns and drones that think for themselves are already killing people in combat, and have been for years.\

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote. - Benjamin Franklin 

Congress is not at all interested in what the American people want. And they have no plans to give us anything we want. That becomes more obvious by the day and the event. 

And the government (yours and mine) is working on robot soldiers to kill a lot of us when:

Scott Olsen - Getty Images

1. climate change produces riots because of famine and liack of potable water everywhere or 
2. there is an "American Spring." Mass civil rights demonstrations and food riots are so messy. 

Governments are planning to kill you and me only if necessary, of course. And they have the machines to do us now in great numbers. Right now. And they are working on improving them. And they have secret courts.

So stop with the "lizard people" and "they coming to take our guns, RickyBoy" conspiracy theories and wake up. Just because you are paranoid does not mean no one is following you. Wake the fuck up, World. We all have a big problem. A problem not amenable to retaliatory force. And we cannot solve it if we do not help each other.


UPDATE: Nobody read this much. Most folks probably dismissed my concern because they think I am a crackpot.

I am a crackpot. So the only argument I can extend is continuing to provide information. Talk me down. I am scared.

Progress on developing armed robot soldiers is continuing. As this article from WIRED asserts. I do not know what Franklin's concept of "well-armed" could be when we are confronted with such golems.

Killer Robots With Automatic Rifles Could Be on the Battlefield in 5 Years

• BY ALLEN MCDUFFEE
 

“They’re not just tools, but members of the squad. That’s the goal,” Lt. Col. Willie Smith, chief of Unmanned Ground Vehicles at Fort Benning told Computerworld. “A robot becoming a member of the squad, we see that as a matter of training.”

Darpa Robotics Challenge

UPDATE 2: 

Military Researchers Develop Corpse-Eating Robots

• BY JOHN SCOTT LEWINSKI  
 

From the file marked “Evidently, many scientists have never seen even one scary sci-fi movie”: The Defense Department is funding research into battlefield robots that power themselves by eating human corpses. What could possibly go wrong?

UPDATE 3:
If the Atlantic is writing about robots, robot weaponry and other golems, I guess I am not crazy paranoid after all.

If the Robots Kill Us, It's Because It's Their Job

Don't kill us, guys.

PATRICK TUCKER

UPDATE 4:
Is this a mosquito? 

No. It's an insect spy drone for urban areas, already in production, funded by the US Government. It can be remotely controlled and is equipped with a camera and a microphone. It can land on you, and it may have the potential to take a DNA sample or leave RFID tracking nanotechnology on your skin. It can fly through an open window, or it can attach to your clothing until you take it in your home. 

Read more At http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/insectdrone.asp#pQ6D2qlAHs9yrW0o.99

Arianna is a Big Dumb Banana

UPDATE:
I wrote the article below in October 2010. All hail the Goddess Karma. Things are not looking good at HuffPo.

While there’s no way to confirm hard numbers, it seems thousands of users if not more, are leaving the Huffington Post (also known as HuffPost) and its previously robust community because of the newly introduced comment system. By Zachary Stieber, Epoch Times | December 15, 2013

I despise censors and censorship. Free speech is a basic human right safeguarded by the Constitution of the USA. I have always been impressed by the Constitution.

The Huffingon Post censorship is capricious and rude. Discussion is controlled to a fare-thee-well. A post may appear, then disappear, then reappear again or never be published at all. Those who would like a thorough discussion of egregious HuffPo censorship should go to this site:

http://reddogbear.blogspot.com/2010/05/free-speech.html

The Huffington Post employs a robot to censor public discussion. Management claims the CensorBot can even detect sarcasm. A partnership has been formed to sell the CensorBot technology to others. I have since writing this learned IT is called "content analysis."

I am going to discuss one discrete part of the censorship that troubles me. HuffPo's account of the censorship on the site purports to be benign and limited. We shall see.

I created a test entitled HuffPo Consumer Community Moderation and Censorship Test. I operated the test on their own social network discussion pages. I alerted their Moderators to what I was doing, or tried to.This test was conducted during the flaming controversy about Dr. Laura using The N Word. The results were fascinating to me, at least.

Test #1
I posted a quotation from James Baldwin in the thread about race and language. The quote comes from the introduction to The Fire Next Time, a seminal book about race relations in America. In the Introduction, James Baldwin is explaining why he wrote the book dedicated to his beloved nephew.

This sentence is one of the most well known introductory sentences in American literature. There is no better indictment of using The N Word than this sentence. James Baldwin does not make it through the CensorBot. The problem? In the quote James Baldwin uses a word the CensorBot does not like. How can you have a reasonable discussion when things you post that are relevant and poignant are censored? Here is the quote:

"You can only be destroyed by believing that you really are what the white world calls a 'nigger.' I tell you this because I love you, and please don't you ever forget it."

In Arianna's World, James Baldwin is not allowed to say that about race and racist language because The CensorBot does not like it. Say what?

Test #2
I posted two songs from Hair. For those who don't know the musical, it was a work of art that was a direct response to the civil rights struggle and racism. I will post the two songs below.

Black Boys is one part of a two part piece. Black women sing about how beautiful white men are, and then white women sing about how beautiful black men are. A trio of white women sing and dance:

Black boys are delicious
Chocolate flavored love
Licorice lips like candy
Keep my cocoa handy
I have such a sweet tooth
When it comes to love
Once I tried a diet
Of quiet, rest, no sweets
But I went nearly crazy
And I went clearly crazy
Because I really craved for
My chocolate flavored treats
Black boys are nutritious
Black boys fill me up
Black boys are so damn yummy
They satisfy my tummy
I have such a sweet tooth
When it comes to love
Black black black black
Black black black black
Black boys

First, the song was censored by the Bot, which I think marked it as needing human intervention. A human then decided that it was not racist and the song reappeared.

The second song was Colored Spade. There is no song that indicts white racism in America that is more scathing. Sometimes humans will pass on something the CensorBot does not like and posts can appear, disappear and reappear in HuffPo Land. This song was censored completely and never appeared at all. Go to the link to hear the song:

I'm a
Colored A nigger
A black nigger
A jungle bunny
Jigaboo coon
Pickaninny mau mau
Uncle Tom
Aunt Jemima
Little Black Sambo
Cotton pickin'
Swamp guinea
Junk man
Shoeshine boy
Elevator operator
Table cleaner at Horn & Hardart
Slave voodoo
Zombie
Ubangi lipped
Flat nose
Tap dancin'
Resident of Harlem
And president of
The United States of Love
I said President of
The United States of Love
(and for dinner at the White House you're going to feed him:)
Watermelon
Hominy grits
An' shortnin' bread
Alligator ribs
Some pig tails
Some black eyed peas
Some chili
Some collard greens
And if you don't watch out
This boogie man will get you
Booooooooo!
So you say.

Evidently, in HuffPo Land, it is okay to fuck black men but you should not let them tell how it feels to be the fuckee. One more test to go.

Test #3
I posted this poem, author unknown but believed by some to be a child. The poem is taught in Black Studies courses in college. The poem is a wry and potent indictment of racism IMO. It was censored entirely by HuffPo:

When I was born, I was black.
When I grew up, I was black.
When I get hot, I am black.
When I get cold, I am black.
When I am sick, I am black.
When I die, I am black.
When you were born, You were pink.
When you grew up, You were white.
When you get hot, You go red.
When you get cold, You go blue.
When you are sick, You go purple.
When you die, You go green.
AND YET YOU CALL ME COLORED?
- by an Anonymous pupil of King Edward VI School, Birmingham, UK.

Conclusion
If you go to the Huffington Post to discuss politics and culture because of Ariannna Huffington's media reputation as a progressive populist, you will be defrauded. No such discussion can take place.

I know image creation and misrepresentation-not-quite-illegal is the behavior du jour of the Effete Elite in America these days; I do not have to like it. Or take it. God bless the InterNet. Where else are you going to go to complain?