Will Robots Be Allowed To Kill?
Humans are creating and beginning to deploy autonomous robotic weaponry for military use and as national protection. Recently the discussion of robotics has become an important debate with argument concerning the application of robot troops in warfare and whether there should be more understanding and international legal restrictions on their use in combat.
Robotic History
Of course the history of robotics goes back a long time and has its origins in the ancient cultures around the globe. Historic inventors and engineers in China, Egypt and Greece all attempted to build self-operating animal and human looking machines. Among the first verifiable automation is a humanoid drawn by Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) in around 1495.
Leonardo's notebooks, rediscovered in the 1950s, contain detailed drawings of a mechanical knight in armour which was able to sit up, wave its arms and move its head and jaw.
Now it is becoming increasingly common to use robots in war zones to do checks on battlefield threats and find lost items. However, now we are moving toward kill robotics without an agreed international agreement.
Potential Robotic Solution
However, death without military purpose happened during WW2, when about 57 million people were killed of which 38 million were civilians, and this was made-up of local non-military casualties, women, children and old aging personnel. These deaths were greater in number than military deaths and this murderous process still goes on in many parts of the world.
This is because the weapons used and the attacks methods such as the bombing of cities to take out production and industrial infrastructure. And these attack methods took little notice of who would be killed. Of course this was purposely done when the US used of atomic bombs during the 2nd WW and this caused massive civilian deaths.
Currently some of the discussion points cover the idea that killer robots could impede such tragedy as their sophisticated technology could identify and target better than human senses and execute assassination exactly how it is programmed.
Their sight is not limited by fog and their mobility is not restricted by physical limitations, in contrast to human pilots and soldiers.
The thoughts are that the advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) could improve robotics identification of the military enemy and they could be programmed to focus on the military enemy and not civilians.
Some military operations are still not employing armed robots yet drones are being used to kill on battlefields and for instance the Russians have used them in Syria. The US have used them but they are controlled by a distant ‘pilot’ controlling them from the US.
The debate is now addressing whether killer robots without immediate human control could potentially replace human soldiers during conflict and whether this would potentially reduce the number of civilian casualties.
The employment of robots in warfare could also have a significant effect and improve the psychological effects on combatants.
The new idea is that robotic algorithms could control attacks in accordance to internationally agreed Rules of Engagement.
Although the idea of robotic warfare sounds effective as it could potentially reduce a war’s effects on the civilian population, the main issue is still whether military robots should have the right to decide on whom to kill and whom to save, or should robotics still be controlled by military personnel.
You Might Also Read:
The Technology Of Human Robotics:
AI - Driven Warfare Using Robots:
