Much of my misspent youth was devoted to reading science fiction novels and short stories. When I donated my library to the special collection at East New Mexico State University it comprised 800+ volumes. Favorites of mine were Keith Laumer’s stories about self-aware robot tanks called Bolos.
Technology is beginning to catch up with sci fi, see Kyle Mizokami’s piece for Popular Mechanics about the successor to the M1 Abrams tank. According to him, a crew will be optional for the new design.
So ... how close are we to artificial intelligence (AI) with self-awareness? Ask your search engine as I just did and get pages of hits. How long till they are combined - the robot tank and self-awareness? Ask DARPA, but don’t expect an answer.
