Could drones make manual small arms obsolete?

[Peter_Morris]

Question: Could drones make manual small arms obsolete?

Answer: Yes. I saw it in a documentary.

Your Duty Is Clear (The Simpsons)

[msmith537]

@Lumpy

Make drones numerous and cheap enough and you could simply develop their autonomous programming by genetic algorithm; more or less, the ones that work and accomplish their goals get copied and modified until they’ve developed insect-like intelligence.

Nothing terrible could go wrong there!

[bob_2]

@thorny_locust

Wars are won by destroying, or threatening to destroy, what the other side does care about. So it seems likely that the role of humans would be as targets.

That will depend on the attitude of “the other side”. In the current Ukraine/Russia war, there is an apparent disparity. Ukraine is far more concerned about humans than the Russians. Russia targets cities in an effort to destroy morale, while Ukraine targets infrastructure like fuel supplies and rail lines.

This is a broad generalisation, of course, but surely Russia, even with its huge population, will run out of bodies before Ukraine (aided by the rest of Europe) runs out of drones.

[Lumpy]

@bob_2

@thorny_locust

Wars are won by destroying, or threatening to destroy, what the other side does care about.

Ukraine is far more concerned about humans than the Russians. Ukraine targets infrastructure like fuel supplies and rail lines.

IOW, targeting what Russia does care about.

[Lucas_Jackson]

@Chronos

The same purpose they’ve always served: As the targets.

I’m not saying I think guns will become obsolete but If you could send in drones, there wouldn’t be humans to shoot at.

[Chronos]

There will always be humans to shoot at. Wars aren’t about armies picking some battlefield somewhere and both sides sending their soldiers to those battlefields, except that now they’re sending drones instead. That’s sport, not war. War is about one side sending weapons to wherever the people are, and doing violence to them, and the other side trying to stop that. If the people aren’t on the field, then the enemy won’t target the field.