back to article Wunderkind starts robot-buster weapons firm

Famed dotcom 1.0 teen millionaire Ben Way has started a company specialising in anti-robot weaponry. Way foresees lucrative business opportunities in suppressing the inevitable rogue killbots and machine rebellions to be expected in coming years. The new company, WAR Defence (Weapons Against Robots) was launched this week. " …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    "Within 15 years...

    ...robots will be commonplace in the home". Yeah. And how many times have we heard this one?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kkcHr6wN4E

    Yeees.

  2. Stone Fox

    I for one

    would like to be the first to welcome our murderous robotic overlords.

  3. Frank
    Happy

    Robot Sniffers

    "....robot sniffers..."

    It's time to start training the alsations, as per Terminator. (They're much cheaper and easer to make that all this high tech stuff. They will also bring back a thrown stick)

  4. Richard
    Thumb Down

    Colour me sceptical

    ...cos this guy sounds like a nut.

  5. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Black Helicopters

    Will the robot in the home

    be able to park my flying car?

  6. YumDogfood

    Patlabor

    Yes, we want to see giant robots fighting, not some EMP device.

  7. Jason Clery

    Bots

    I already have a robot in my home. Its a floor cleaner and wonderful, wonderful device. Its AI and sensors could be better though, but its still a wonderful device.

    Beating bots is easy, buy "How to survive a robot uprising".

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    This bloke needs to set up a joint venture with

    Kevin Warwick.

    Or maybe that should be "needs to go into battle with Kevin Warwick".

    Where is Captain Cyborg these days anyway?

  9. Ash
    Boffin

    We don't need no stinking robot protection!

    Kirk to Android: "Mudd always lies. He never tells the truth."

    Mudd: I'm lying right now."

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How hard can it be?

    What are they going to do differently? The current wave of military robots look quite fragile, they're not going to stand up to an RPG, and probably not an armour piercing bullet either. If the tracks/wheels get damaged all you've got is an immobile gun platform that could probably be dispatched by someone running up behind and whacking it a few times with a sledgehammer. There's a limit to how much armour you can strap onto them as well, and if they build robotic tanks (BOLO!) then just use standard AT ordnance.

    Maybe they'll invent an EMP bomb...

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    The thin end of the wedge...

    Before long OCP will be along with a hostile takeover. Robots specifically designed for urban pacification will become the norm and then we're in trouble.

    We're all doomed...........

  12. Mike Groombridge

    re: patlabor

    i was thinking more bubblegum crash there's just something about 4 women in cybernetic battle armor

    guys definitely been watching tomuch anime though but to be be fair i can see a market for it i mean if the USA has robot killing machines some one else probable will so i can the USA wanting to defend they men with these things

  13. amanfromMars Silver badge

    Robo Sapiens? :-) Romeopathic Binary*

    "WAR Defence is the world's first defence company specifically targeted at protecting us against the current and emerging threats posed by robotics and is said to be already in talks with several Government defence agencies."

    NIRobotIQs would dispute that too bold a claim. But wouldn't bother with a dispute. Governments which need defending from threats must surley be bad Governments/Gangs.

    * You may like to Ponder and Consider Love's Hack CodeXXXX ..... with Cracking Drivers.

    A little bit of what you Really Fancy Often Brings and Offers Immunity with Transparency of Delights Providing Monitored Impunity.

    Which is a Wisdom well Known in Vice Work ...... A Labour of Passion .

  14. tony72
    Flame

    Great

    We periodically need to remind ourselves what kind of twats created, and burst the dotcom 1.0 bubble. All shiny(ish) idea to hoover up the VC* cash, and no workable business plan. So nice of this guy to pop up with this kind of rubbish, I'm almost feeling some nostalgia for the 90's.

    *Venture Capitalist, not Vulture Central, need I say

  15. Jerome
    Boffin

    Perfect

    Upon trying to view their web site I saw only this message: -

    "FAIL (the browser should render some flash content, not this)."

    I couldn't have put it better myself guys. FAIL indeed.

  16. Anonymous Bastard

    Call for Tom Selleck

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088024/

  17. Robotexpert

    Open Letter to Lewis Page

    C'mon Lewis get your facts straight here. I don't mind all the stuff about media professor arm waving - that comes with the territory and it is fair game. But you have been writing about my efforts for long enough to know that I do not give support to war effort of any kind.

    You quote me correctly: "This is the first real response that I have seen to the predicted rise in the use of autonomous military robots," said the arm-waving prof, quoted by Way. "It testifies to the dangerous slippery slope that we seem to be inevitably sliding down.

    "Ben Way has certainly picked up on the magnitude of the impending threat ... I really hope that it does not come down to the use of these devices."

    These quotes should be taken at face value - I mean only what I say there. The following paragraph of yours is hardly my style now is it?

    "Speaking of Way's WAR Defence effort, the media'n'AI prof said that the planned virus plagues, pulse bombs and robot sniffers would surely come in handy when the machine praetorians of tomorrow's corrupt human polities inevitably turn on their jaded fleshy overlords."

    Let me be clear that I have no fear of robot overlords taking over the world - that is fantasy. My fear is that the humans controlling the robots may not fully understand the consequences of their actions.

    best wishes,

    noel sharkey

  18. Karim Bourouba

    So what if...

    All this new anti-terminator gubbins gets hacked? We they create something to protect us from that also?

  19. amanfromMars Silver badge
    Alien

    Sunny Networks ..... CaliPhormation ..... Big Brother Californication

    "Let me be clear that I have no fear of robot overlords taking over the world - that is fantasy. My fear is that the humans controlling the robots may not fully understand the consequences of their actions."

    An irrational fear which could be made perfectly rational whenever humans controlling the robots fully understand the consequences of their action.

    It would be as well of IT to assume that such consequences/collateral damage as may be imagined has been considered and may even be condoned and supported. Although as a future event, likely only in cases of a series of catalysing sub events, to which the System and ITs Networks would be alerted to to prevent/not carry, such pessimism is unworthy of Support.

    You may discover that RobotIQs dDelivers More Freedoms and Better Conditions than you have obviously previously never Imagined Possible to be so Depressingly Dull in Outlook.

  20. Phil
    Black Helicopters

    Lewis has gone

    It's obvious from the sceptical tone of this article that Lewis Page has been subverted by the Dark Side, and this is a piece of propaganda by the Robot Overlords (TM).

  21. Lewis Page (Written by Reg staff)

    Fantasy vs fantasy

    Open Comment to Prof Sharkey

    If you have no fear of out-of-control robots attacking humans, why endorse Ben Way's ostensible attempts (comical though they are) to build weapons specifically intended for dealing with such situations? If Ben Way and his silliness aren't your style, you shouldn't be drumming up business for him in his press releases - or didn't he ask you?

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Tony72

    Too damn right, looks as though the little tyke has discovered the crystalline nasal masculine bovine excreta generation habit so beloved of the original dot bomb crowd

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just so web bubble blame

    is correctly apportioned - Lehman and Merrill Lynch were big players there, and here comes there comeupence.

    If he is using his own money - all power to him. It will go robotics and sooo much faster then people are expecting.

    Everday things get smaller, and more advanced. Sure, robots are here already, they are the food mixers, vacuum clearners, automated factories, but it is set to get more and more pervasive.

    This current clear out is setting the stage for a new economy, production has to be done in the country of sale, and specialisation of a country has been shown to be a failure. All the banks have moved to Suisse as center of operations, fuck the square mile.

    What the UK people are good at, well Scots and English, is innovation, shame the yanks, canadians and australian have taken a fair chunk of those people, but that is the only way out now for the UK; clever ideas made into reality.

    And hey he might be onto something here, my bet is it will be a spin off he will find along the road for this idea, that will make the cash.

  24. Murray-Mint
    Coat

    @Robotexpert

    How would you rate the current US military UAVs on Style, Control, Damage and Aggression?

  25. Andy Bright
    Black Helicopters

    Is really a surprise..

    ..that no one can find Ben Way? He obviously knew too much.

  26. Chris G

    Storm-AX1 plus

    Fast bike/car+ gatso+middle finger.

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    The only weapon we'll ever need...

    ... the humble staircase. That's yer robot rebellion stumped right there, that is.

  28. Chris G

    Stairway to hell.

    @ AC . When in say the centre of Salisbury Plains being pursued by a horde of blood thirsty kilbots, where exactly would you produce your handy bot defeating staircase from?

    Personally, a large calibre slug thrower would be my preference ( no not the slimy things that eat lettuce,I mean soft nosed, semi jacketed lead slugs.)

  29. Robotexpert

    reply to lewis' reply

    You make a good point. Ben's press team did indeed ask my permission to use my quote. It does not mean that I endorse his products - naive as that may sound - I am taking every opportunity to raise public awareness of the issues. I am seeing more and more moves towards autonomous weaponry every day.

    You also correctly point out a confusion that I introduced in my open letter about the word control. Let me try to clarify. When I say that I have no fear of robot overlords, I don't mean that I am not worried about "robots out of control". There are two different senses of control here. One is the direct remote control of robots and the other , which I intended, is control in the sense of being responsible for which robots are developed and deciding how the robots will be used.

    All machines under our control can go out of control - they do not have to be smart to do so. I mean that they will not in themselves have any intent to do us harm - they are just machines whether autonomous or remote controlled.

    The point that I keep banging on about and will keep banging on about until everyone is sick of it is that the planned development of autonomous weapons does not take into account the fact that none of the available methods of sensing equip a robot to distinguish between combatants and innocent civilians.

    And Lewis, even though you do not appear agree with me, I am always glad to see you writing about it and providing the opportunity for a wider discussion.

    May I point you and your other readers to the Armed Unmanned Systems Forum of AUVSI for further reading on the topic. http://www.unsysinst.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=89&sid=348e8c8baed97bae9f70451e90293223

  30. amanfromMars Silver badge

    Sweet Seduction is a Powerful Weapon with No Known Valid Effective Defence

    "The only weapon we'll ever need...... the humble staircase. That's yer robot rebellion stumped right there, that is." ... By Anonymous Coward Posted Wednesday 17th September 2008 22:50 GMT

    Ye Olde Stalwart, Room at the Top, Ploy, AC And there's Depth in Unknown Defence there too, with Wild Card Rogue Action Possible ...... for those Bolts out of the Blue which Level the Field to IntelAIgent Advantage.

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