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Comment by madaxe_again | Hacker News Reader

Those are some optimistic assumptions. Perhaps the Robots will refuse to fight and will all hold hands and sing kum-bay-ya, eh?

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This was the premise of some sci-fi novel I read long ago: two countries at war switched to using robots, and as robo-armies became more interconnected and thus more intellectually powerful, they understood the pointlessness of destruction and refused to fight. IIRC they went to pick flowers on the battlefield instead of singing, though.

I thought it was one of Stanislaw Lem's novels, but can't find the name now; I might be wrong about that.

It was by Stanisław Lem; It’s called The First Sally; or The Trap of Gargantius

Yes, this one exactly - thanks!

Lem wrote some wonderfully whimsical stories; all the more surprising when you consider the times and place in which he wrote.

For another perspective on autonomous drones read Robert Sheckley's Watchbird.

Of course many humans understand war the same way, but are caught in a trap comprised of a mix of game theory and forces beyond their control.

Pretty certain pkd did this too - Robots keep reporting to humans they the surface is still radioactive, etc., human emerges from bunker, all is green, Soviet and American Robots living in peace together.

Edit: The Defenders, which became The Penultimate Truth.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Defenders_(short_story)

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