Improvements in the technology behind the predator drone are advancing at a rate faster than a half-naked Arnold Schwarzenegger fleeing extra-terrestrial assassins in an alien jungle. Two new books bring us up to date.
Writing for The New York Review of Books, Washington editor for Radio Free Europe Christian Caryl reviews two volumes on the state of the real-life predators darkening the skies over the Middle East, the Mexican-American border and other parts of the world.
The lingering question, which may be answered sooner than many of us suppose, is what levels of autonomy these mindless killers will achieve as technological advances enable them to shed their human operators, and what kind of global legal system should be designed to ensure the forces directing their missions do so with accountability. —ARK
The New York Review of Books:
In fact, as [author Peter] Singer shows, the ethical and legal implications of the new technology already go far beyond the relatively circumscribed issue of targeted killing. Military robots are on their way to developing considerable autonomy. As noted earlier, UAVs can already take off, land, and fly themselves without human intervention. Targeting is still the exclusive preserve of the human operator—but how long will this remain the case? As sensors become more powerful and diverse, the amount of data gathered by the machines is increasing exponentially, and soon the volume and velocity of information will far exceed the controller’s capacity to process it all in real time, meaning that more and more decision-making will be left to the robot.
A move is already underway toward systems that allow a single operator to handle multiple drones simultaneously, and this, too, will tend to push the technology toward greater autonomy. We are not far from the day when it will become manifest that our mechanical warriors are better at protecting the lives of our troops than any human soldier, and once that happens the pressure to let robots take the shot will be very hard to resist. Pentagon officials who have been interviewed on the subject predictably insist that the decision to kill will never be ceded to a machine. That is reassuring. Still, this is an easy thing to say at a point when robots are not yet in the position to take the initiative against the enemy on a battlefield. Soon, much sooner than most of us realize, they will be able to do just that.
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By Jim Yell, September 27, 2011 at 7:38 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Can we really think this will not be used against regular American’s practicing their legal objections to our Politicians and Military? Once the need to persuade people to kill or injury their fellow citizens, do you think these spineless, narcisstic politicians will stop at murder to maintain themselves?
We are paying for the chains and slave collars to indenture us all.
“Human beings on the payrolls of the CIA and DoD are assassinating “the enemy” right now with impunity and zero accountability, butchering whole families in the process.
No matter how “autonomous” the killing machines get, the dystopia they represent will have been brought to us by hollow, machine-like men who were never held to account by any semblance of a legal system.”
By gadfly, September 26, 2011 at 6:09 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Enough of using drones! What with their scary pinpoint accuracy. Let’s go back to WWII technology and the Norden bombsight with its quarter mile accuracy. Want to blow up a house with some bad guys in it? Drop ten tons of bombs over a square mile and hope for the best. Collateral damage? Life sucks, eh?
Today’s Predator was yesterday’s Greek fire cum catapult cum long bow cum blunderbuss cum rifle cum Gatling gun cum Howitzer yada yada yada.
Long distance killing has been going on for thousands of years. This is but a mere iteration. Get over it.
Just remember the “dystopia” they represent for some is just another step for the new “Golden Age of a Holy America” as the full spectrum dominance is progressing in a regressive fashion. This is the Separatist robot army of the Clone Wars merged with the Empire. It is for an Empire, not a Republic. But then the Republic must fall first. Our Republic is on the verge of that by forces inimical to our form of gov’t. (Like the Koch bros.)
How strange as they work to reduce our Human Rights as they give rights to autonomous and semi-autonomous killer machines. The irony of that!
Such robots will function as shock troops and force multipliers. Making it easy to field smaller amounts of living soldiers as they use many types to augment their forces. Even a weak AI (human brain with the calculating speed of a computer) would be enough of a break through. So far they are against giving them a self preservation function. But that could change. They will need to arm them with bombs too. Don’t want any to fall into the enemies hands do we?
Just imagine robots eating organic matter? So the animals of the oceans and forests will have to compete with killing and surveillance machines in a growing ugly future. Ugly for most everyone else, great for us. Maybe.
Wait till they find a way to generate High Energy Plasmoids like in the “Terminator” series. Then you will really see some fire works—-and give a new meaning to “scorched earth.” The enemy becomes el carbon.
Human beings on the payrolls of the CIA and DoD are assassinating “the enemy” right now with impunity and zero accountability, butchering whole families in the process.
No matter how “autonomous” the killing machines get, the dystopia they represent will have been brought to us by hollow, machine-like men who were never held to account by any semblance of a legal system.
By Doug, September 26, 2011 at 10:06 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
“Now technology is on the verge of supplanting the human soldier altogether”...great, more jobs being taken over by machines.
All I can say is that the potential for abuse of this technology is mind-boggling. It’s a brave new world.
Real American Boy: How Our Byzantine Immigration System and Failed Economy May Have Made a Terrorist
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By Jim Yell, September 27, 2011 at 7:38 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Can we really think this will not be used against regular American’s practicing their legal objections to our Politicians and Military? Once the need to persuade people to kill or injury their fellow citizens, do you think these spineless, narcisstic politicians will stop at murder to maintain themselves?
We are paying for the chains and slave collars to indenture us all.
Report thisBy SoTexGuy, September 27, 2011 at 4:24 am Link to this comment
The Crow said it just right.. here it is again..
“Human beings on the payrolls of the CIA and DoD are assassinating “the enemy” right now with impunity and zero accountability, butchering whole families in the process.
No matter how “autonomous” the killing machines get, the dystopia they represent will have been brought to us by hollow, machine-like men who were never held to account by any semblance of a legal system.”
Report thisBy gadfly, September 26, 2011 at 6:09 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Enough of using drones! What with their scary pinpoint accuracy. Let’s go back to WWII technology and the Norden bombsight with its quarter mile accuracy. Want to blow up a house with some bad guys in it? Drop ten tons of bombs over a square mile and hope for the best. Collateral damage? Life sucks, eh?
Today’s Predator was yesterday’s Greek fire cum catapult cum long bow cum blunderbuss cum rifle cum Gatling gun cum Howitzer yada yada yada.
Long distance killing has been going on for thousands of years. This is but a mere iteration. Get over it.
Report thisBy Night-Gaunt, September 26, 2011 at 4:43 pm Link to this comment
Just remember the “dystopia” they represent for some is just another step for the new “Golden Age of a Holy America” as the full spectrum dominance is progressing in a regressive fashion. This is the Separatist robot army of the Clone Wars merged with the Empire. It is for an Empire, not a Republic. But then the Republic must fall first. Our Republic is on the verge of that by forces inimical to our form of gov’t. (Like the Koch bros.)
How strange as they work to reduce our Human Rights as they give rights to autonomous and semi-autonomous killer machines. The irony of that!
Such robots will function as shock troops and force multipliers. Making it easy to field smaller amounts of living soldiers as they use many types to augment their forces. Even a weak AI (human brain with the calculating speed of a computer) would be enough of a break through. So far they are against giving them a self preservation function. But that could change. They will need to arm them with bombs too. Don’t want any to fall into the enemies hands do we?
Just imagine robots eating organic matter? So the animals of the oceans and forests will have to compete with killing and surveillance machines in a growing ugly future. Ugly for most everyone else, great for us. Maybe.
Wait till they find a way to generate High Energy Plasmoids like in the “Terminator” series. Then you will really see some fire works—-and give a new meaning to “scorched earth.” The enemy becomes el carbon.
Report thisBy thecrow, September 26, 2011 at 10:06 am Link to this comment
Human beings on the payrolls of the CIA and DoD are assassinating “the enemy” right now with impunity and zero accountability, butchering whole families in the process.
No matter how “autonomous” the killing machines get, the dystopia they represent will have been brought to us by hollow, machine-like men who were never held to account by any semblance of a legal system.
http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2010/09/22/send-in-the-drones/
Report thisBy Doug, September 26, 2011 at 10:06 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
“Now technology is on the verge of supplanting the human soldier altogether”...great, more jobs being taken over by machines.
Report thisAll I can say is that the potential for abuse of this technology is mind-boggling. It’s a brave new world.