The state of the art in robotics and artificial intelligence continues to advance at an accelerating clip, surprising experts and futurists. Increasingly complex and in telligent machines are changing the texture of human life as they are insinuated into more spheres of activity, from manufacturing to law enforcement to stock trading.
Military applications have historically been one of the greatest drivers of innovation. We can trace the history of warfighting and especially its recent history as a long arc of removing the warfighter more and more from harm’s way.
1 The so-called “drones” in America’s arsenal represent the latest in this progression, though, importantly, they still require a human to make the potentially lethal decision to engage a target.
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The Ethics of the Kill Decision: Should Humans Always be in the Loop?
February 7, 2021
The Newsletter
Blaine Ravert is a Political Science and Philosophy Major at Westminster College, in Fulton, MO.
Tobias T. Gibson is the John Langton Professor of Legal Studies and Political Science, and Security Studies Program Chair at Westminster College.
ACADEMIC INCUBATOR – One of the few stable factors in conflict throughout history has been humans deciding who to target, even as technology advanced and attacks became more mechanized. However, as technology advances at ever-increasing speed, the near future suggests the reality of fully-autonomous weapons and the possibility that this standard may no longer apply.