Only Twice Have Nations Banned a Weapon Before It Was Used; They May Do It Again

Lasrick writes: Seth Baum reports on international efforts to ban 'killer robots' before they are used. China, Israel, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States are apparently developing precursor technology. "Fully autonomous weapons are not unambiguously bad. They can reduce burdens on soldiers. Already, military robots are saving many service members' lives, for example by neutralizing improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan and Iraq. The more capabilities military robots have, the more they can keep soldiers from harm. They may also be able to complete missions that soldiers and non-autonomous weapons cannot." But Baum, who founded the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute, goes on to outline the potential downsides, and there are quite a few.

Comments

Re:The banned weapons

[ShanghaiBill]

Which sounds awesome on paper but is completely meaningless in the real world.

Expanding "dum dum" bullets are far worse than tumbling bullets. They is also a very effective deterrent: Captured soldiers carrying dum-dums are often summarily executed.