Sunday…..the serenity of four days is coming to an end and I must return to the world of insanity, better known as politics!
In the past I have written about the technology of robotics and AI….I have said that the many improvements and advancements could be leading us down the road to situations of I. Robot and the ever popular Terminator series, the villain of Skynet…..but I read one the othjer day that made me think of the Philip K. Dick story, Bladerunner.
in case you are not sure about the story…….four androids steal a off world shuttle and return to earth in search of their maker…..they are, for the most part, off world soldiers and assassins with a pleasure model thrown in for kicks (wink, wink)……very short synopsis and very literal…..but it seems that the idea of a robotic soldier is not so far fetched……
It is no surprise that the US government fund technological research to aid in the advancement of the war machine. Every government in the world does so, and scientific advances have undoubtedly led to lives being saved in the battlefield, as well as lost. But with computers predicted to equal the power of the human brain by the 2020s, is sufficient time being given to public debate about the ethics of technology in warfare? At what point will operational decisions be handed over to machines? Is the public in danger of finding themselves outflanked by the speed of scientific advance before they have properly considered the moral and ethical consequences of it? While we are joyfully browsing late ski deals, and deciding what the make of our next car will be, are there ethical issues that should perhaps be more at the forefront of our minds?
Robotics is one area of research the military are very interested in at present, with the US government investing over $4 billion in research into robotics, known by them as ‘autonomous systems’. The advantages of having a Terminator style warrior who will show no fear in the face of the enemy is a moving from sci-fi to reality. One only has to look at the BigDog robot created by Boston Dynamics to appreciate the potential. But the government aware of the ethical dimension to this scenario, and have consulted Colin Allen, scientific philosopher and robotics expert at Indiana University, to advise them on whether a robot soldier can be built that could be programmed not to violate the terms of the Geneva Convention. Many human combatants do just that of course, due to the extreme stress of the battlefield, which leads to a desire for retribution on the captured enemy, for example, and subsequent violation of international law. A computer scientist at Georgia Tech university, Ronald Arkin, who is currently working for the US military has recently concluded that robots are “more likely to perform ethically” than human beings in a warzone, simply because they are not governed by fear or emotion.
OKay, to me, we are moving in a dangerous direction….I see the need to lessen our combat losses, but we need to make sure that we, as humans, are always in control or the scenario of Bladerunner or I, Robot or even Terminator could e in our future…….