Oh nothing really just wanted to share

Historical...

'Killer robots' that don't need humans to operate have entered the battlefield (msn.com)

 

The title says "don't need humans to operate". - They need humans to blow up.
Give it a decade or two and robots will be making these...And most things.

 

I've always thought i'd write a killer scifi story...One that looks deeper into the technologies we will invent (much sooner than most scfi writers think) - Too much SciFi these days and in the past have woefully underestimated the technological time line (original Star Trek using paper and pens for example). Very little SciFi has incorporated AI into the story (i can understand it smashing many plots - so i can understand conveniently leaving it out) but you cant leave it out.
I remember in one SciFi the characters calling their on board computer (AI) "Mother" - I believe this will be an accurate relationship description in the years to come.

 

Yes, I've heard the scream of the newly gonorrhea infected when they try to take their early morning standing head call. I've never had that disease myself so I can't speak to the pain levels, but from those that have had it the pissing fire sensation is like a 9 out of ten.
We did have an older Vietnam War Corpsman in my first infantry company that was batshit crazy or as the Vietnamese say Dinky Dao . He'd give us unauthorized prophylactic penicillin injections prior to some liberty ports.

 

MSN

 

MSN
Putin deploys combat dolphins to take on Ukrainian commandos in Black Sea

 

Still doesn't look "purpose built" - These are adaptations - Wait till the rocket dog comes full circle...

 

Interesting that Boeing and McDonell Douglas have adopted Lockheed’s twin tails…
As an (I hope) interesting side note, Lockheed like the redundancy of two engines…Here the 15 and 18 are twin engines (plus the 22) yet the 35 has a single engine. My guess is it was an AirForce requirement so they gave them a single engined 22…Something to ponder.
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Spitfire MK1 and Spitfire MK24
First and last production models.

World War Aviation

 

The reality is that much of the new robotic and AI technology has the Achilles heel that they require significant human interaction to operate, maintain, repair and/or program. Military employment requires the equipment operate in harsh environments with wide temperature extremes. Equipment requires extensive maintenance and repair to remain operational. Human interaction is required where AI is not considered competent to make certain decisions. It is also required as a backup where situations may crop up that the AI cannot resolve a solution. As AI matures the human interaction in decision making may become less, but the human requirement for maintenance and repair of electrical, digital and mechanical systems will remain if not increase.
Case in point. The recent F-35 pilot ejection and crash in Charleston. While most details have not been released to the public as of yet, speculation by those familiar with the system and leaks from within the military suggests that a lightning strike may have temporarily knocked out the electronics. The F-35 has a completely digital instrument display, no physical gauges. The F-35's were flying through a thunderstorm and conditions were such that the two pilots did not have visual sight of one another. If the F-35 were struck by lightning the display would have zeroed until it could re-boot. The pilot would not have access to any flight information, i.e. altitude, attitude, speed, etc. With no visual references and last known altitude around 2000 feet, the pilot would have been disoriented and he had insufficient altitude to wait out a reboot of systems if he were descending, if they would reboot. So he punched out, as is what protocol would dictate.

Here is an article (17 Aug 2020) where the US Air Force has had to procure lightning rods to protect its F-35A Lightning II's. It is buying and deploying the PLP-38-MOB lightning rod system that the Marine Corps adopted for it's F-35B's back in 2018. Lightning strikes can ignite fuel vapor in the aircraft's tanks and fuel lines and cause them to explode, if inert gasses are not introduced to prevent the vapor. The aircraft has an Onboard Inert Gas Generation System (OBIGGS) that is designed to prevent this condition, unfortunately it is unreliable and doesn't work on most of the aircraft. The composite skin does not provide passive protection against strikes as the metal skin of conventional aircraft does, so additional measures are required to mitigate the risk. The aircraft's software and electronics is also vulnerable to damage if the aircraft is struck.
Lightning Rods Protect F-35 Lightnings From Lightning At Exercise Northern Lightning

I actually have a friend, Smitty, that was on the cutting edge of AI development in the US military and worked with DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and then some of the huge defense contractors. He was my ODA XO (Operation Detachment Alpha-Executive Officer) as a second lieutenant when I met him. He was transferred to Germany and served as a company XO and company commander in an armored unit as 1st Lieutenant and Captain (at the time SF was not a long term career field for officers, if you planned on a career you had to have command time in conventional units). He had a degree in physics and the US Army sent him back to school (University of Tennessee (Knoxville) to get his doctorate and work on an AI research program there when he was a senior captain. I went to college with his wife and she worked with my wife after graduation. After his time at UT, his entire career until he retired as a colonel, except for a stint teaching physics at the USMA West Point, as spent on AI projects or working with defense contractors with or through DARPA. After retirement he went to work for some of the big defense contractors and finally ran his own defense contracting company until he retired the second time last year. He and his wife bought a small farm about 35 minutes from me and we talk/text almost daily, have dinner or lunch and drinks regularly and occasionally have get togethers at his farm.
Most of the text talking is in a group I set up with my older son (USMC Iraq and Africa veteran) now works as a senior manager and coordinator for nuclear power plant security, Smitty, some MARSOC and Recon Marine friends of mine. Another member, Chuck, is former corporal of mine that became an Army LRRP after he got out of the Marine Corps. When the US Army transitioned the LRRP's into LRS-D (Long Range Surveillance-Detachments) he transitioned there. The LRS-D mission is "conduct high value target and small kill team operations deep in hostile territory." He did that in Iraq for a tour then extended for a second tour to work with an SF group as an advisor to the Kurd's during OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom). His big specialty is as a sniper and he has worked with and trained snipers from most NATO and partner countries, especially Scandinavian countries. He got out of the US Army after Iraq (he's Dinky Dao now, too many, too close) and missed the combat, so went back into the Marine Corps Reserve's with 4th Recon Battalion, then transferred to 3d Force Reconnaissance Co. where he's deployed to OEF, Africa and a number of other places. Chuck's brother, also a member of the text group, is a former USMC officer, EA-6B Prowler pilot and works now for a defense contractor at AEDC, Arnold Air Force Base in Tullahoma, TN about an hour up I-24 on the way to Nashville from my house.
Arnold Engineering Development Complex - Wikipedia

We discuss current military topics all the time, AI included, so I manage to stay pretty current.