SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “HJL”. Today’s question of the day is about AI and murder. Who do you charge when an AI robot commits murder?
Emergency Suture
Reader M.H. sent in this interesting tidbit of information: “Don’t have any 4-0 prolene or gut sutures handy? A temporary suture can be made of unflavored dental floss. Make sure you use an unopened roll as it is sterile.”
Protests in France
The French are not happy. Riot police ended up having to fire tear gas into a protest of 30,000 Frenchmen. In true anarchist fashion, the protesters hurled objects at police and set stuff on fire while waving an array of flags and ramming metal barriers into police. Police, in kind, are using water cannons and other riot gear in response. The reason? Apparently, the french feel that they are paying too much at the gas pump and are protesting French President Emmanuel Macron over the rising Fuel prices. Two people have been killed so far including a 62-year-old woman who was run over by a driver who panicked when their car was surrounded by demonstrators. A recent poll suggests that up to 73% of Frenchmen are in support of the protests.
AI and Murder
Who is held responsible when an AI robot malfunctions and kills a human? HBO is airing a documentary on this very subject. Apparently, a Volkswagen factory in Germany had an assembly robot malfunction and it smashed a 21-year-old auto plant worker against a wall, crushing his chest and killing him. These robots were able to move and operate independently with some level of AI involved. Isaac Asimov supposedly solved this dilemma with the three immutable robotic laws, but current AI technology is nowhere near advanced enough for something like that. (I’m not sure the laws were as foolproof as the stories claim either.) But who gets charged in a murder case like this one?
Men have been killed in industrial accidents since the beginning of industry, but at best, you can only hold the owner, designer, builder, or installer of a machine responsible if they did something wrong. Having a near-sentient machine suggests that things are about to get complicated. Thanks to G.P. for the link.
Recovering From Fire
Reader G.G. sent in this article about people recovering from the recent California fires. Some have just pulled up roots and moved on, but others are returning to the mess to clean it up and start again. Residents are erecting temporary structures to protect themselves and their equipment from the weather as they start the process of rebuilding. One resident describes how lonely it is in the burned out remains of his home. The only visitors he had was when his home was suddenly surrounded by two dozen armed police officers. Apparently, he was about 120 feet from where President Trump was assessing the damage of the Skyway Villa Mobile Home Park.
Gun Confiscation
Reader T.Z. sent in this article on why the congressmen who wanted to nuke Omaha will never get a chance to do that. Why would the congressman go there? The article states that it’s because the progressive left just doesn’t understand the debate. While they repeatedly spawn social media memes with lots of advanced military hardware pointed at U.S. citizens, all of the memes and jokes boil down to the concept that there will be no resistance due to fear. Like most memes, they take an incredibly complex situation and over-simplify it. Is the 2nd Amendment obsolete because the federal government is too overwhelmingly powerful? It seems that the leftist progressives haven’t taken a look at history.
Unless you physically wipe out all of the population, you can’t squash a rebellion. The article suggests that the U.S. has spent upwards of 6 trillion dollars fighting relatively few insurgents in the middle east and they haven’t stopped them yet.
Socialism and Precious Metals
Reader H.L. sent in this article with an interesting perspective on how socialism may trigger the third and greatest precious metal bull market. The article takes pains to define what they mean by socialism which is not the traditional definition. Modern socialism is more about income redistribution and “tax the rich” ideals than it is about the control of the means of production by the government. In the past two great PM bull markets, the triggers seem to be spending increases, escalating government deficits and currency creation along with rising interest and inflation. We are seeing that same pattern now. Will the resulting PM market be the same?
Survival Realty
Survival Realty has two new listings that reader may be interested in. There is a 10 acre, off grid homestead near Sandpoint Idaho for only $140k and a Tonasket, Washington property with three concrete geodesic dome homes.
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Please send your news tips to HJL. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form.) These are often especially relevant, because they come from folks who watch news that is important to them. Due to their diligence and focus, we benefit from fresh “on target” news. We often “get the scoop” on news that is most likely ignored (or reported late) by mainstream American news outlets. Thanks!
Gun Confiscation:
Download a copy of the anti-gunner’s manual “PREVENTING GUN VIOLENCE THROUGH EFFECTIVE MESSAGING” pdf
“PREVENTING GUN VIOLENCE THROUGH EFFECTIVE MESSAGING” 80 pages instructing how to sidestep issues and drawbacks, history and facts. How to vilify the NRA, claiming gun owners themselves want gun bans, and how to delicately exploit tragedies.
It goes into detail, and shows their talking points to stack the media narrative deck and control the debate.
http://www.friedmanhandguntraining.com/word/gun-violencemessaging-guide-pdf-1.pdf
Forwarded by BDC
Know Thine Enemy…
You cannot debate with gun grabbers. They will not be convinced. The best we can do is to use a delaying action- fight against their passing new laws while stocking up for the coming battle. There are several possible conclusions to the question of gun confiscation.
1) the government abandons its position and stops regulating the private ownership of guns. This would require a civil war first to install a new government without the liberals/communists/globalists. They will have their own government in their own country, separate from ours. NOTE- REQUIRES A CIVIL WAR.
2) The government tries gun confiscation, and suffers a hundred thousand defeats on the doorsteps of American homes. Thousands will die on both sides, but the government realizes after a few weeks that they do not have enough soldiers and dirty cops to confiscate our guns. They also tire of ambushes of and attacks on government installations and workers. NOTE_ REQUIRES THOUSANDS OF DEATHS, INCLUDING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT FAMILY MEMBERS KILLED IN THEIR HOMES. Remember Waco and Ruby Ridge ?
3) The American people are allowed a referendum to vote on the question of keeping or disposing of the Second Amendment. In our current situation, Communist (why sugar-coat it ?) judges and politicians would never allow such a display of democracy, even if they are very experienced at voter fraud and election rigging. REQUIRES ELIMINATION OF JUDGES AND POLITICIANS.
4) The globalists/communists/socialists succeed in crushing all opposition and install a Chinese-style totally oppressive government, complete with CNN news piped into your home 24/7 (no volume controls for you), social credit scores determining the amount of privileges you are allowed by the government, and total control of your life from cradle to grave. Dissenters will be disposed of in death camps.
No matter what the future brings, I suggest that you follow my example- STOCK UP ON AMMO NOW !
On Suture—
There is a big difference between Prolene and Gut.
Sutures are classified as absorbable or non-absorbable. Under non-absorbable, there are natural materials like silk or steel (yes you can make suture from steel) AND synthetic materials like prolene, nylon, PTFE. Under absorbable, natural materials like gut, and synthetic like PDS or vicryl.
Dental floss is often made of several nylon strands–more like a rope. Another type of dental floss is a single strand of teflon (polytetrafluoroetylene or PTFE).
IF—–and I mean IF, I had to use non-traditional suture materials on external surfaces, use a monofilament line such as a nylon. It would have to be cleaned in alcohol prior to being used. It has slick surface and less likely to introduce contamination to the wound. The tying characteristics of nylon stinks–think fishing line. You could also use PTFE, but it tends to be bigger in size (dental floss) than the non-medical suture. It is smooth and easy to tie, but it likes to untie as well because it is so slick.
Then you can use polyester and silk thread. This is where you are stepping out there. Who knows what other things are in the thread that can cause tissue reaction. Furthermore, these are multiple stranded threads which increases the risk of infection and tissue reaction.
To top this off, you have to attached the thread and needle. One of the huge jumps forward for surgery was the ability for manufacturing to “swag” a thread—that means insert a thread into a hollow part of the needle and crimp the needle so the thread doesn’t fall out. Without a swaged needle, you will have to use a needle with an eye.
So….there is more to this than using dental floss.
Why do you refer to upset socialists as “anarchist”? These people don’t want to end the state oppression. They want the state to pay for their gas on top of everything else.
Somehow I don’t think breaking things, burning things, and/or destroying things counts as just upset. Often, they are hurting those who don’t have anything to do with the actual problem. When someone throws a rock through the front shop window of a business owner, how is that targeting Macron?
You know, I can understand things like a dumptruck dumping a load of manure on the lawn of the government building or something like that, but general mayhem is just anarchy.
RE: AI and murder. What you’re describing isn’t anywhere in the ballpark with murder. No showing of intent. If someone rigged the AI to kill, that would be analogous to cutting brake lines, that could be murder. If someone was negligent in design/build/install of the equipment, that might rise to the level of manslaughter or at least wrongful death, depending on what could be proved. If somebody just gets killed by equipment in an industrial setting, that’s just a safety investigation unless somebody could show tampering or “luring” the worker into a lethal area or some such.
That’s not anarchy. Anarchy is the absence of a state. You are describing what I would describe as vandalism or chaos. I just think you probably have many readers who would consider themselves to be completely opposed to a state aka anarchy. None of whom would condone destroying others property as acceptable. Semantics, I know, but there is a huge wave of people seeing the state as what it is. The state is the problem. Anarchy just the end of collective terrorism. Thanks for what you do! God bless!
Isaac Asimov supposedly solved this dilemma with the three immutable robotic laws, but current AI technology is nowhere near advanced enough for something like that. (I’m not sure the laws were as foolproof as the stories claim either.) But who gets charged in a murder case like this one?
If you’ve read ALL of the Robot stories, you’ll find that the defined 3 laws are a pale shadow trying to describe different colors to someone who can’t see/perceive colors.
AND in the Foundation and Robot sequel stories Asimov wrote you’ll find that Robots analyzed the 3 laws and on their own developed a Zero’th Law.
The laws are Hierarchical the smaller the number the higher the precedence:
Zero’th Law – A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
First Law – A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Second Law – A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Third Law – A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws
The Zero’th law means a robot may injure or allow a Human come to harm IF doing so prevents Humanity from coming to harm.
A VERY VERY interesting slope.
The last 12 years of my employment was at an auto assembly plant. The robots are all caged. The only people working inside the cage while the robots have power to them are maintenance folks. Even then, there is a teach pendant in the maintenance workers hands. The robot is supposed to be under the control of the maintenance personnel when that person is inside the cage. Though it is not mentioned, the worker was likely someplace where he or she was not supposed to be. I have seen robots do things they are not supposed to do, but that really does not happen during maintenance procedures.
On the purported “anarchists”: These folks aren’t anarchists, they want big massive overbearing government, as long as they are in charge. Works for these folks and BLM and AntiFA. They aren’t anarchists they are totalitarian socialists.
On the Kommiefornia congress critter (I think his name is Stalwell) that thinks nuking his fellow Americans is just a Jim Dandy idea. Sounds to me like maybe he needs psychological help. He seems to believe mass murder is such a great idea he smiles about it. If you or I suggested anything like he has, we’d be put in a straight jacket and locked away in a mental institution. I highly recommend it in his case.
My local radio station had reported the riots in france over a rise in fuel tax and estimated the crowds were over 80,000. Socialism hard at work!
Artificial Intelligence- isn’t that what democrats and other communists have been using instead of real intelligence since 1917 ?
OK, seriously what is this so-called artificial intelligence ? As I understand it, it is the capacity to ‘learn’ on the job. In other words, it is the introduction into its programming of a certain sloppiness or randomness allowing it to ignore its basic programming under certain circumstances. To me, that implies carelessness or a lack of control on the art of the programmers/end users of the robot, or to be more precise, the MACHINE. Therefore, the solution is either to limit the actions that the machine is allowed to ‘choose’, or to put in an alert system to warn humans before potentially dangerous actions can be taken when it deviates from its original programming. This is not complicated, if programmers and end users only use common sense.
Sometimes, there are too many outside variables for any machine to consider, such as piloting an automobile in traffic safely, for a machine to be left in total control. If machines ARE given autonomous control of automobiles, aircraft, or other devices, terrible consequences can occur. Or as we have seen, even in a factory. The one possible exception is a mechanical soldier, which can be sent into a dangerous environment where a premature exhibition of lethality may or may not prevent its mission from being accomplished, depending on the circumstances. But in any other situation that I can think of, such as a factory, a bit of reprogramming to introduce necessary safeguards should be mandatory. Anything less is unacceptable.
Ditto what Charles K said. Lock Out-Tag Out. That was a negligent industrial accident, not a robotic murder.
RE: the French, disgusting. Muslims invade your country, rape your women, and nary a whisper, but too much for gasoline? Sacré Blue!!!
The gun debate starts and ends with this sentence….
“When the United States was a Christian nation, upholding God’s will, and the students taught the Holy Bible in the public schools–we never had gun control nor the problems with guns. When we Christians allowed the LEFTist creed enter the public schools and allowing the LEFT to sue the Holy Bible and Christians out of public schools — we have mass murders!”
End of the gun debate – throw the LEFT doctrine and the LEFTwingers out of the country so we can have no gun laws and no problems with guns again.
After all the GUNS will be used again, soon, in a AmericanRevolutionary plight to throw the LEFT doctrine off of American soil.
The answer to 1984 is 1776.
AI – I was listening to a local radio talkback show some week’s ago and the host was relating the story of a airline pilot who bought a Tesla roadster for a hefty sum, now , not many people know in NZ the roads are very, very windy roads with of course very many hairpin bends, worse is the road camber, which makes building roads tricky with the many earthquakes that are prone in NZ, the pilot related how he was driving his new Tesla in the south island and was trying the auto pilot feature, there came a section of road with a blind corner ahead, he saw a bunch of cyclists to his left ( other side of the road driving remember ! ) and to his horror a big fuel tanker hauling 40,000 litres coming from the opposite direction to him, remember the car is on auto pilot, and the car “saw ” both the truck and human cyclists at the same time, so guess what ? the car started to auto correct to careen into the cyclists, he in the nick of time, turned off the auto pilot function and manualy steered the car,without hitting the cyclists or truck, what was the car doing ?, it’s sensors and on board computers had calculated that injuring or killing the cyclists was lesser of the two evils to the car occupant being killed or injured by the 40 ton truck, the car is programmed to protect the cars occupants, the programming is tasked accordingly, I predict more of these accidents will occur. Its one feature that people overlook, had he been asleep or not paying attention, then a tragedy would have occured and who would have been to blame ?.
Confluence of two stories,a report of a surgical robot killing the patient in the UK(IA and sutures). The surgeon who was to supervise had skipped the training and the oversight team had “gone for coffee”. Neglient homicide?