DOD to use COD4 players as soldiers in robot army?
Washington D.C.
Seymour Shleppermoteur
BASH Senior Robot Army Correspondent
A Department of Defense worker, who would not reveal his identity today, revealed to BASH that the United State's large and growing robotic army will not only go into action early next year, but that unaware gamers would be at their controls.
In this bizarre, but extremely plausible scenario, the DOD's one-million and half military grade assault robots would be grouped into battalions and flown into world trouble spots. Once on the ground they would be charged up and armed by human military robot-minders and linked to a massively-multi-node battlefield telecommunications network (BTN). Data links to North America would be established and motile control transferred over to human "tele-soldiers", one per robot, sitting in front of a computer screen. The tele-soldiers would then command the robots using only simple keyboard clicks and a mouse.
This concept is not new and the United States Robotic Assault Force (USRAF) has been in place for some time. While the robotic technology has proven robust, the problem has been to find a million and a half human beings willing and able to command the robots. The robosoldier is not fitted with Artificial Intelligence and requires human input for it to move, shoot, dig foxholes and so on. And the only people capable of performing well in virtual military maneuvers are already busy...playing first person shooter video games.
The breakthrough apparently has been found through work being conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). To address the lack of skilled people guiding the robosoldiers, DARPA is recommending that gamers be recruited as telesoldiers. But, these players will not be told that the consequence of their virtual actions will have real-world implications.
As yet unidentified game manufacturer's will modify their games so that when players log into multiplayer mode, they will automatically be logged into the BTN system and allow seamless control by a player over a lethal robosoldier.
Game scenarios will constantly be kept up to date with real-world events and will be made to match battlefield objectives. Robot sensors will convey battlespace information back to the player, who will unknowingly guide his "player" into that space in an attempt to score what he thinks are points. The on-screen images the player sees will still appear to be all part of the game and the player will not be aware of the reality of his actions.
Apparently, DARPA and the DOD were reluctant to implement this plan but both Korea and India are forcing their hand (india's robot army). Our source in the DOD went on to say that in addition this was a natural evolution given that we have been under the control of robopoliticians for years.
