LOOKING BACK: FLEETDRIVE ISSUE 6
FLEETDRIVE
albeit “Some 100 or so years away.
“But it is not robots rising up that we need worry
about today. It’s incompetence, not malevolence
that concerns me and my fellow scientists. We
will be giving autonomy, the ability to act and
make life or death decisions, to machines that
today are rather stupid, unable to distinguish
between combatant and civilian, to act
proportionally as required by IHL.”
But, the question begging is, where are we
headed right now? Our faces and focus are
buried in our devices, so how will we ever
recognise a cybernetic organism or autonomous
malicious drone if it gets that bad?
“The technology we work on is morally neutral, it
leads to good or bad outcomes, and we get to
choose which path we follow,” Walsh reassures.
“Unfortunately history suggests we often end up
following a less desirable path like the nuclear
arms race. But every now and again we come
together as a society and make a good decision
like the arms treaties on chemical and biological
weapons, blinding lasers, and cluster munitions.”
While these examples have not been full proof,
Walsh reinforces how much better off we all are.
That said, being better off is usually subjective,
especially when automation clashes with human
function.
“The worst case is not likely robots take over, but
many of us being made redundant – computers
replacing many jobs, the rich getting richer,” he
said. “Trump and Brexit are just the tip of an
approaching iceberg – we need to worry about
these issues today.”
Fortunately these kinds of concerns are already
being taken seriously by the UN, which Walsh
says is a good sign.
“The UN unanimously decided in December to
move to the next step towards a possible ban
[on autonomous weapons], forming a Group of
Governmental Experts to discuss the issue of
a possible ban formally,” he said. Although not
everybody is on board, or even in touch with the
issue.
Above: A Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) ‘Hunter Killer’ (left) vs
the US military’s actual ‘Predator’ drone (right). Both lethal, and autonomous.
ISSUE 20 2019 / WWW.AFMA.ORG.AU
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