
How to Survive a Robot Apocalypse: Just Close the Door - chapulin
http://news.morningstar.com/all/dow-jones/us-markets/201711106851/how-to-survive-a-robot-apocalypse-just-close-the-door.aspx
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Jach
Relevant video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUOo8N9_iH0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUOo8N9_iH0)

Of course if we really get to a point where robot uprising / apocalypse is a
credible imminent threat, I'm sure most of the threatening robots will have
solved this particular obstacle by then...

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gooseus
I have very little fear of robots in the near future because my opinion is
that the best we'll be able to do is an imperfect copy of us and we're already
so laughably imperfect.

Even if someone programs robots specifically to take over the world
autonomously, they would need to either encode all the assumptions or else
train them perfectly for all situations.

Also they'd have to be able to adapt to all the environments humans can... you
make robots adapted to urban warefar environments, great we go to the
mountains and develop something to target that design and counterattack.

Obviously if AGI comes about, we could be in trouble, but I don't believe
that's around the corner and have doubts about it's feasibility on any
timeline.

I would go on, but now I'm cut short by life... would love to hear
counterpoints.

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tzs
> Even if someone programs robots specifically to take over the world
> autonomously, they would need to either encode all the assumptions or else
> train them perfectly for all situations.

Encoding just one assumption will cover a large fraction of situations: anyone
that the robot cannot positively identify as being (1) the Evil Overlord, or
(2) an employee in good standing of the Evil Overlord, or (3) someone the Evil
Overlord has granted an exception for, or (4) someone in a place that the Evil
Overlord has granted an exception for may be terminated.

We've got almost 8 billion people in the world now. Most things an Evil
Overlord would want to do once in charge, especially an Evil Overlord with
good robot technology, don't need anywhere near that many people, so losing 6
or 7 billion in exchange for keeping the robots simple and reliable during the
takeover would probably be acceptable to the Overlord.

If the Overlord does have plans that require more people, that can be taken
care of after the takeover. Presumably an Evil Overlord would not have any
qualms about a forced breeding program to shore up the population.

A lot of problems that we consider to be hard become a lot easier when you are
an Evil Overlord.

~~~
gooseus
Ok, but how do the robots do the terminating? How do they actually seek and
destroy? Do they understand all the different ways humans know how to cloak
themselves?

Do they kill everything living, or will they know how to distinguish humans
from other living beings reliably?

If even one Evil Overlord robot is captured and studied, how much can be
gleaned which will allow them to be exploited? If the Evil Overlord deploys
these robots and leaves even one exploit open then the entire swarm is
compromised and Evil Overlord is overthrown.

I can see it working if this is a sneak attack and they take a large
percentage in a short amount of time, but that would require a lot of build up
of technology by this Evil Overlord without being exposed... not impossible,
but still implausible in my book.

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Johnny555
That's good advice until opening doors becomes a priority and robots learn (or
are taught) how to open them. Or they are armed with 50 caliber guns that
aren't stopped by doors.

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bsder
Gary Larson has a point to make:

[https://fourthwaydotorg.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/midvale-...](https://fourthwaydotorg.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/midvale-
gifted.gif)

[http://1000awesomethings.com/wp-
content/uploads/2010/09/far-...](http://1000awesomethings.com/wp-
content/uploads/2010/09/far-side-midvale-school-for-the-gifted.jpg)

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jnwatson
If you want a lesson in humility, try to make a contraption to open a door
that has a regular round doorknob. In particular, opening a door that swings
toward the opener is a complicated dance of leverage and balance, not to
mention the fiddly bits to actually rotate the knob.

Interestingly, US ADA (disability act) requires commercial buildings to use
handle-style doorknobs. The robot uprising would have a lot easier time
getting through those.

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cperciva
Residential buildings in Vancouver require "lever" doorknobs too. When the
building code was amended to require that, there were lots of jokes about
velociraptors opening doors.

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michaelhoney
We are so, so early in robot development. Think of how far the Boston Dynamics
robots have come in the last few years. Think of the videos of the robots
slaying humans at rock-scissors-paper. Realise that immediately after a robot
gets as good as a human at anything, it can subsequently exceed that.

They're evolving a thousand times faster than us.

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dogma1138
They aren’t evolving we are making them better.

There are plenty of robots that already exceed humans at their specific tasks
my dishwasher is much better than me so is my washing machine.

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thibran
How To Survive A Robot Uprising:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G3RoBHMu-o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G3RoBHMu-o)

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sixothree
I envision a day in the near future where robots are used to break into houses
and make arrests. Texas has already done some "groundbreaking" law enforcement
with robots.

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AncoraImparo
I watched this happen the other day. Swat team arrived arrived at my friend's
apartment complex in Austin. Turns out there was an armed meth dealer holed up
next door. SWAT sent a robot in to scope the situation, find him, and then
knew where in the apartment he was, so as to work out the safest entry point
for the team. Was fascinating!

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xfactor973
If the robots could somehow experience pain I think that would be a good
motivator. It certainly keeps me from doing stupid stuff :-)

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bitwize
But if the robots experience pain, the Terminator won't be able to still go
relentlessly after Sarah Connor despite being half blown apart.

I think the answer they'll settle on is _selective_ pain -- pain receptors
that can be switched off.

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petre
Just detonate a nuke at high sltitude. That wold fry their circuits. The end.

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jwilk
This seems to be a non-paywalled copy of the article:

[http://news.morningstar.com/all/dow-jones/us-
markets/2017111...](http://news.morningstar.com/all/dow-jones/us-
markets/201711106851/how-to-survive-a-robot-apocalypse-just-close-the-
door.aspx)

~~~
dang
Changed from [https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-survive-a-robot-
apocalyp...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-survive-a-robot-apocalypse-
just-close-the-door-1510327719). Thanks!

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milansuk
Robots are like vampires. You have to invite them in.

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jwilk
The submission title ("Robots are brains are primitive") doesn't make sense.
Please use the original one.

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SheepSlapper
It reads like a robot wrote this submission title

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aaron695
Wouldn't you just design a self replicating nanobot that gives us all cancer?
Apocalypse complete.

