[a href="vny!://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090521/sc_livescience/realsoldierslovetheirrobotbrethren"]vny!://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090521/sc_livescience/realsoldierslovetheirrobotbrethren[/a]
Human warriors have long spoken of the bonds forged in combat and of becoming a "band of brothers." The fact that some of those fellow soldiers are made of metal has not discouraged [span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1242918088_0"]human feelings[/span] toward them. [/p] Thousands of robots now fight with humans on modern battlefields that resemble scenes from science fiction movies such as "[a href="vny!://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/livescience/sc_livescience/storytext/realsoldierslovetheirrobotbrethren/32095701/SIG=123etnll5/*vny!://www.livescience.com/technology/090520-terminator-fear.html"][span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1242918088_1"]Terminator Salvation[/span][/a]." But the real world poses a more complex situation than humans versus robots, and has added [a href="vny!://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/livescience/sc_livescience/storytext/realsoldierslovetheirrobotbrethren/32095701/SIG=128tbrtru/*vny!://www.livescience.com/technology/090519-robot-fear-countdown.html"][span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1242918088_2"]new twists[/span][/a] to the psychology of war. [/p] "One of the psychologically interesting things is that these systems aren't designed to promote intimacy, and yet we're seeing these bonds being built with them," said [span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1242918088_3"]Peter Singer[/span], a leading defense analyst at the [span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1242918088_4"]Brookings Institution[/span] and author of "Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the [span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1242918088_5"]21st Century[/span]" (Penguin Press HC, 2009). [/p] Singer highlights many accounts of human soldiers feeling strong affection for their robots - especially on the [span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1242918088_6"]Explosive Ordnance Disposal[/span] (EOD) teams where Packbots and Talon robots undertake the risk of disabling improvised explosives planted by [span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1242918088_7"]insurgents in Iraq[/span] and [span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1242918088_8"]Afghanistan[/span]. [/p] One EOD soldier brought in a robot for repairs with tears in his eyes and asked the repair shop if it could put "[span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1242918088_9"]Scooby-Doo[/span]" back together. Despite being assured that he would get a new robot, the soldier remained inconsolable. He only wanted Scooby-Doo.
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[/p]-----------------------------[/p]Interesting. This sounds more like the realities and viciousness of war or the "Wilson" syndrome seen in Cast Away, than 'bonding'.
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