Examining the Ethical Implications of Robots in War

Schneier points out an interesting (and long, 117-pages) paper on the ethical implications of robots in war [PDF]. "This report has provided the motivation, philosophy, formalisms, representational requirements, architectural design criteria, recommendations, and test scenarios to design and construct an autonomous robotic system architecture capable of the ethical use of lethal force. These first steps toward that goal are very preliminary and subject to major revision, but at the very least they can be viewed as the beginnings of an ethical robotic warfighter. The primary goal remains to enforce the International Laws of War in the battlefield in a manner that is believed achievable, by creating a class of robots that not only conform to International Law but outperform human soldiers in their ethical capacity."

Comments

Re:Why bother going to war in the first place anym

[meringuoid]

However, when Iraq refuses to cooperate, or the Arabs in Israel refuse to cooperate,

The Arabs in Israel? I thought it was the Arabs outside Israel who were the problem. Hamas causing bother in the Occupied Territories and all that. The Arabs in Israel itself, I haven't heard that they're such a big problem.

Unless of course you have an unusually broad definition of what constitutes Israel?

Design goal

[greginnj]

outperform human soldiers in their ethical capacity

Given what we've already seen in Iraq, this is setting the bar rather low, isn't it?