Pentagon Drafts Kids To Build Drones and Robots

MrSeb writes "In a world where warfare is fast becoming fielded by remote controlled and autonomous robots, innovation is the key to victory. The most technologically advanced superpower can see more, plan better, and attack from further away than its inferior adversaries. What better way to revolutionize the drone and robotics industry than use the brilliant minds of our children? That's what DARPA and the Defense Department's research and development arm thinks, anyway. The Manufacturing Experimentation and Outreach Initiative, part of the Adaptive Vehicle Make project, is slated to reach a thousand schools in and out of the country, roping in the brightest minds to develop robotics and advance technology in new and interesting ways. Funded by the Department of Defense, the program comes with a steep cost: The DoD wants unlimited rights to everything the students build. It sounds almost like something Orson Scott Card would dream up."

Portal 2

[Anonymous Coward]

Why does this bring to memory the "take your children to work day" in the game? "Here, kid, see this potato? That's boring, let's play with a grenade!"

Insufficiently radical thinking...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Why use the brilliant minds of our children to merely build drones and robots when we could use the brilliant minds of our children to control drones and robots?

As a bold step down our path toward becoming a computerized, transhuman dystopia, I suggest, nay, Demand, the following proposal be enacted:

All the nation's youth shall compete in brutally demanding cyber-athletics championships. Every year, the most superb competitors will be selected for the Ceremony of Transcendence. After a celebration of their excellence, their brain-meats shall be harvested and join the honored ranks of the Bottled Warriors, fully modular brain support and interface tanks suitable for high-density containerized installation for remote control of America's drone assets, or direct incorporation into locally controlled robotic weapons platforms.

There would be a minor downside, in that the battlefields of the future would start to sound like the hell-world of Xbox live, as LRAD units with the minds of 14 year old gamer kiddies scream "NOOBFAGGOTHACKER!" loud enough to turn a man into gooey paste; but our combination of mindblowing immaturity and stonehearted resolve would terrify our foes into submission...

Re:That's crappy

[shadowrat]

The problem comes when the kids grow up and decide to use this against their former masters

Yes, but when that happens, it's because those kids have to right the wrongs. they do noble things like find a new world for the hive queen to live on and learn the ways of the piggies, and redeem humanity. Though it's true, they are never quite as interesting as when they were kids.

Re:Human rights violation?

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember you can't have slaughter without laughter!

Re:The U.S. government is EXTREMELY corrupt.

[Anonymous Coward]

[sarcasm font on] Yes, but you really are failing to see the benefit here. These countries are blessed with an abundance of natural resources which the military rulers are pissing away by enslaving the people and buying guns from non-Democratic based countries. By intervening we are allowing our democratically based companies to help these poor people develop their natural resources and improve their lives. We only take our half of the revenue as fair compensation for helping to develop these countries and the lives of the people. We help these people develop their self esteem and independence as we educate them in how to properly serve in crony capitalism.

This is not corruption; this is enlightened self interest. [sarcasm font off]