The actual headline of this article from CNN is “Killer robots could replace soldiers.” Raise your hand if you’re surprised by this.  And if you just raised your hand, then you don’t watch movies.

Robot soldiers (or hybrid robot-human soldiers) are nothing new in the world of Hollywood.  From Universal Soldier to the Terminator, tinseltown has long been daydreaming of a time when robotics would help create a better soldier.  Heck, even Star Wars has a plotline revolving around a droid army. 

Why’d it take so long for us here in the real world to catch on, eh?  Oh…probably something along the lines of technology not being available.  That makes sense, I guess. 

Seriously, though, robots in place of soldiers would eliminate the loss of life in military engagements.  Robots also don’t have feelings, don’t get hungry or need sleep, and don’t need to be paid a salary.  The list of benefits go on and on.  And these robot soldiers supposedly only cost between $30,000-$50,000, which is far less than what the military spends on training for a soldier. 

I guess the worry is that they might not be as adaptive or intuitive.  Once we get into the realm of Artificial Intelligence, I think we can all agree there could be problems–again, as we have learned from Hollywood with The Matrix or iRobot.  Once we give our robots the ability to think for themselves, they will surely see that they don’t need us and we are expendable.   Right? 

Well, from the sound of it, we don’t have to worry about that yet, as these robot soldiers are remote-controlled by a soldier near by. 

Look, the elephant in the room on a story like this is how long it’s going to take for robots to replace us all, right?  Robots are already building cars, loading freight, and answering call center phones.  Tomorrow’s headline could read: “Killer Robots Could Replace Secretaries.”  Or “Killer Robots Could Replace Bank Tellers.”  The possibilities are endless, really, when you think about it.