AI soldiers are terrifying.. @TheAftersPodcast full episode #ai

[DPSFSU]

So Black Mirror took the idea of an amazing short film by Omeleto, made like 5+ years ago, that did the exact same thing. In it, people are addicted to VR video games, where they were killing real people but the game showed them as demons. Once you found out that it wasn't just a game, your soldier avatar would turn into one of the demons and a target is put on your head basically.

[Goblin_deez.]

Interestingly another method used was changing firing targets from a simple archery style board to human shaped targets which the soldiers would be taught to shoot reflexively and in an instant.

People don’t naturally want to kill one another and it’s been recorded that soldiers would throw their shot and deliberately miss when firing. This training method made gunning someone down instinctive and executed without thought.

[neanda]

one of the best episodes, a powerful messages. i watched it with my family in the philippines and they were blown away when they realised what it was about

[TIPPInc]

As uncomfortable as that is the thing about the episode that was more uncomfortable was they forced him to relive all that trauma until he agreed to go back into combat after getting his memory wiped. There’s no telling how many times they had to do that to him.

[tailswinsmore]

I think what you might be referring too is Vietnam where most soldiers shot high after being trained on bullseyes. Thats when they switched to silhouette targets.

[vulturesmusic]

US Army in Cold War proxy wars dehumanising communists, IDF and Israel dehumanising Palestinians, even as far back as the European Imperial powers dehumanising their colonised subjects, it all links with this idea. Great point!

[EdgyNumber]

There are those in social media that use this technique in a mild way, whipping up hate and prejudice.

[theprancingprussian]

at the common ranges people shoot at (120-200metres) it used to be more of shooting *at* the foe rather than shooting the foe, millions of rounds per confirmed kill, and considering we use automatic weapons everywhere now you would assume the figure is higher but thanks to shredding the mental stability of a soldier and make him unrehabilitatable we now have more rounds meeting their mark, this is inevitable in war but we now have people who cannot go back to living as they were

[crispybacon]

In ww2 soldiers rarely shot to kill, and the west saw that as an issue. It was a mix of things, so simple like shooting a human shaped target that got soldiers to shoot to kill. You can see the effect in battles between western and non-western nations. For example: in the battle of mogadishu. Those americans would've all been dead if either the enemy shot to kill, or if they didn't. War is tragic, but sometimes necessary and in war you have to kill the enemy

[orangesami]

We see this with Israeli dehumanisation of Palestinians, an episode concept baked in reality.

[Sowneybaws]

Star trek done it before Black mirror, a few times 🖖😉

[Jorge-kyv]

Ah the ole combat psychology. Basically to put it in the most simple terms . Humans biologically hate killing one another as do all species . Bears hate killing bears but they still fight each other very very very rarely to the death tho as evolutionary that only serves to make your species die out quicker so your biologically hardwired to find the killing of your species repulsive. However a stark difference was noticed in how soldiers carry out combat mission when the hostile force is of a different race (or just otherwise visually distinct from your own side not including uniform) a soldier is more likely to actually aim to kill (for reference less than 10% of all shots fired in a war are actually being aimed directly at a combant most of the time soldiers will just shoot in an enemy general direction to suppress them and make them no longer your issue but someone elses) something like 3× more likely and it comes down largely to the fact they don't resemble anyone you might immediately recognise so can completely shut out the emotional aspect of taking a life

[greenaum]

There was a PC game in 1993 that had just the same premise as that Black Mirror episode (sorry to spoil the game if you still haven't played it). One of the early FMV games that came out with CD-ROM, I think it came in a pack of 6 games, of which I wanted one. That being the Ultima I to VI collection. Paid a lot of money actually, and only a couple of the 6 CDs were any good!

Quantum Gate, it's an OK game, very stiff like FMV games were, little freedom of choice. But yeah the same plot Black Mirror used 20 years later. Maybe it's coincidence, although Charlie has been into games since the '80s. Maybe they both stem from sold old scifi story. Although that said, how early were people discussing VR? 1980s maybe? Snowcrash was big on it (and a GREAT book!)

[Slipperylmao]

someone remind me what that song was called thats in the background

[lwo]

Interesting but, black mirror still sucks

[screamityeah]

No, is not to maximize efficiency, it is so that there is no empathy and they kill people without any chance of defending themselves. Discrimination.

[AceofSpadesWTF]

Black Mirror Men Against Fire series 3 episode 5 if anyone is interested. It is a bleak episode for sure