DARPA project reveals one person can control dozens of robots
spectrum.ieee.org115 points by bookofjoe 4 months ago
115 points by bookofjoe 4 months ago
> U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), experts show that humans can single-handedly and effectively manage a heterogenous swarm of more than 100 autonomous ground and aerial vehicles, while feeling overwhelmed only for brief periods of time
This will surprise nobody who has watched professional Starcraft players.
> feeling overwhelmed only for brief periods of time
There is something deeply, darkly comedic (depressing?) about the qualitative language here. Primarily the way it simultaneously intersects with modern discourse around wellness, anxiety, and mental health in such a banal manner at the same time as the latent/implicit violence of action (given that the obvious subtext is operating semi-autonomous killing machines).
Agreed- they write as if being overwhelmed 3% of the time is a victory. A good system would have people feeling overwhelmed 0% of the time.
>A good system would have people feeling overwhelmed 0% of the time.
There are benefits to being pushed past your limits from time to time. Also, there's just no such thing as 0. When you're designing limits you don't say "this never happens", you're saying "this event happens less than this rate for this cohort".
I'd agree that it is worth pushing your limits during training, but the best-case scenario during actual conflict is to be as close to 0% overwhelmed as you can be.
How does that follow?
That would mean leaving some performance on the table the rest of the time.
It doesn't seem clear at all whether one outweighs the other.
Overwhelming an enemy involves getting inside their OODA loop. I can't see a real life-or-death scenario, outside of training, where you'd want your enemy to successfully get inside your OODA loop and disrupt your flow and rhythm, even for 0.1% of the time.
You of course don't want to become comfortable and complacent, risking losing focus, but there must be better ways of avoiding that other than being occasionally overwhelmed.
It doesn’t matter how many scenarios you enumerate, because the possibility space is infinite.
I don’t see how that could lead to a credible proof, even on the balance of probabilities.
You’re suggesting there are real deadly combat scenarios where it is beneficial to have your OODA loop compromised. Ok maybe you’re right, given the infinite possibilities.
But until you can present at least one such example scenario, no individual would be willing to take such a risk when their own life is at stake. Real combatants might value the motivating threat of being overwhelmed, but do not actually wish to be overwhelmed (i.e. have their OODA loop compromised).
In deadly combat, no one is looking to theorize. No one quibbles about their inability to prove the negative. They just want to live to see the next day.