Welcoming Our Robot Overlords

It appears that the British military, in conjunction with private industry, has begun building Skynet:

With the launch of a new communications satellite, the British military has completed a highly advanced network that will allow robotic military units to be controlled at long range. Sound vaguely familiar? They actually named the thing Skynet. When the T-1000s come knocking, keep an eye out for the “Made in UK” sticker.

Skynet 5 is the latest iteration of a global communications system deployed by the British Armed Forces. The final satellite in the system was launched this week, and will allow high-bandwidth telecommunications between British forces located anywhere in the world. In addition to voice communications, it will allow data transfer and the remote control of robot airplanes, one of which is called “The Reaper.”

Okay. Deep breaths. Somebody just needs to upload a copy of a tic-tac-toe game into the network and get it to play itself. Stat!

FILED UNDER: Military Affairs, Science & Technology,
Alex Knapp
About Alex Knapp
Alex Knapp is Associate Editor at Forbes for science and games. He was a longtime blogger elsewhere before joining the OTB team in June 2005 and contributed some 700 posts through January 2013. Follow him on Twitter @TheAlexKnapp.

Comments

  1. Dave Schuler says:

    Don’t worry, Alex. Only the Armed Response Unit will be allowed to be armed.

  2. Michael says:

    “Welcoming Our Robot Overlords”, like a pony.

    Can we stop pretending this is Fark now?

  3. Dodd says:

    How about a nice game of chess?

  4. Mike says:

    Greetings,

    Okay, this is not on topic, well kinda, as it is military related. Any one else remember the comments about the IA and their conduct in Basra? Looks like the good guys did win it after all. Despite the nattering naybobs of negativity – do we get a post on how well the IA is doing? Or are we just gonna ignore it like the AP and the rest of the main stream media?

    Regards,

  5. CRM says:

    Keep up