Robot Wars

Over the past decade, the US military has shifted the way it fights its wars, deploying more unmanned systems in the battlefield than ever before.

Today there are more than 7,000 drones and 12,000 ground robots in use by all branches of the military.

These systems mean less American deaths and also less political risk for the US when it takes acts of lethal force – often outside of official war zones.

When most people picture robots science fiction comes to mind be it literature or film. Interaction through imagination rather than reality today however has this film demonstrates robots are being used not only to fight our wars but to intrude upon are privacy as law enforcement agencies use them for the purpose they say of insuring security.  Having read the Foundation series of books by Issac Asimov my imagination conjures up the idea of the three laws of robotics.

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

    

Opposite that is the Terminator movies where machines have taken control of the world because they were thinking machines able to learn. Thus concluding humans where threats to their existence starting a nuclear war in an effort to exterminate the people of earth.  

While neither of these scenarios exist except for now in our imaginations the fact that science is inexorably moving towards these possibilities especially in the areas of war and security should cause us to pause and ask the question. Just how far is to far?  And how will advances in war making create a better peace?