Moonbox

That made me laugh!

but that works both ways. Sometimes an actual pilot is more concerned with saving his own skin than saving yours. I completely understand what you're saying, but my point is that a UAV/UCAV can push the performance envelope beyond that of a manned fighter and they are MORE likely I think to risk the aircraft to save lives or accomplish an objective. Human safety standards are a detriment when it comes to performance dynamics. The basic problem here is there are a lot of manoeuvers an unmanned craft can perform at high speeds that would be impossible for a human. I'm no expert on this sort of thing obviously but I do know that in a dogfight altitude is one of the keys to success and an aircraft that can climb faster and with more agility than its counterpart is going to have a huge advantage. That's really not a good comparison here. Nobody is debating the speed vs agility. Agility has proven it can more than compensate for lower speed in alot of cases. An unmanned craft, however, can accomplish both better than its human piloted counterpart. No question there. The F-35 from what I understand is intended to be in service until 2040. I don't see things changing right away. The only thing I'm debating is that unmanned craft will eventually be able to vastly outperform manned air vehicles. I don't want it to happen and I'm terrified about an AI controlled weapon. I don't like the idea of taking the 'personal touch' out of war either. I agree with ALMOST everything you're saying.

Smartass

and why is that might you ask?

Yeah I meant to respond to this sooner. It's kind of hard to give a solid figure but if you've only been back in Canada for a few years and the past 20-30 years were spent outside of Canada, it's probably safe to say that you're far removed from what we'd typically call Canadian. It's kind of hard for a lot of people to believe that a potential leader really has his interests vested in Canada when he's not lived here in forever. If he'd been here for say 5-10 years before running for the leadership maybe it would be more believable, but the fact that he was parachuted into the position shortly after returning kind of indicates why he came back in the first place.

Mapleleafweb is, however, probably not the best sample for this sort of poll. The fact that we're interested enough in politics to actually talk about it while at work/in our spare time suggests that we're not typical of the stupid/ignorant/apathetic electorate.

but you have to weigh the benefits vs the risks. Eventually maybe your son will be knee-deep in muck waiting for air support only to have a friendly manned fighter shot down by a remotely piloted UAV that doesn't have to worry about G forces when making high speed climbs. Given the limitations of the human body, it's really only a matter of time before it simply cannot compete with an unmanned counterpart. I understand what you're saying completely but the grim reality is that man was not meant to fly upwards at Mach 2.

Fair enough but the point remains. In politics, like I've said 1000 times here, sometimes pragmatism must trump ideals, else your voice will never be heard. Like you point out, however, you can't claim the moral high-ground if you're also going to play game. You're also an idiot if you don't play the game. Quite the conundrum

This was after he said that the NDP will get in dirty if they have a chance to push forward their agenda. The coalition would have proven to every Canadian out there that it could actually get things done and influence policy. The Liberals intelligently saw it as a red tory nightmare waiting to happen and they distanced themselves from the idea, but that doesn't change the fact that the NDP would have probably secured cabinet positions and policy concessions from the Liberals.

We know that's how far your political thinking goes in your blind support for the Liberals, but does that mean that other people shouldn't use their brains and be objective?

I agree with all that but it's a bit different when we're talking about aircraft and automation. It's probably NOT cheaper to train a pilot to fly a fighter jet than it is to automate it.

That's a pretty good point. Sorry if I misunderstood.

What are you talking about? That doesn't even make sense. The NDP hasn't supported the conservatives as far as I know. It was the Bloc for awhile and since then it has been the Liberals. Don't mistake bringing voting against the Liberals as support for the Conservatives. You don't have to support either.

The Star isn't biased left or right. The Star is biased in favour of the Liberal Party. When it comes to a Liberal bias, it's probably the HEAVIEST and most widely acknowledged hack Liberal newspaper in Canada. The support is almost unflinching. They were pretty much the only major newspaper in Canada that endorsed Dion last election. Do you even read it? It's as joke. It's worse than the CBC.

I think it would be a very dangerous thing to take any more personalization out of war. We're already killing people with simple button pushes. Taking it one step further and completely automating it would be so much worse. Ignoring the fact that there would likely be a lot of accidents, you really remove the sense of consequence from war if you don't have you own people on the front lines hurting and getting hurt. It would almost be like a board game.

From what I've read it's money the government spends that doesn't need to be fundraised for the purpose of INFORMING the electorate about what the government has been doing and important initiatives. Instead, it's been hijacked and used as highly partisan pre-election advertising.

Argus is there proven statistics for European productivity vs our own? Just wondering....

I really don't believe it will ever be fully automated. The very concept itself is frightening to me but maybe I've watched Terminator a few too many times...

Can I take that as a firm Madmax nomination?

In the grand scheme of things though, this is small potatoes and once again will not affect an election in the least. If only the electorate knew anything about this stuff or cared. If only a politician were to sincerely want to end the mess.

Look into who was really pulling the strings in the American economy after 2001. Hint: It wasn't Bush.

It's getting better finally, but we're still getting ripped.

Myata unless you have anything to indicate to us that Hamas is even WILLING to talk and acknowledge Israel's right to exist, give up now because it everything you're saying is moot if you can't. To continue the argument is just making yourself look less and less reasonable.

Very good explanation BC

Pure speculation. I have no doubt that we will soon be able to fully automate attack drones. I simply question how far along the AI is going to have to be before they can truly and completely erase the need for human pilots whether within the planes or remote controlled. The judgement capabilities of the AI is also something I question.