isen.blog

The other David Isenberg (the military analyst, currently at the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo) has written a good review of a scary piece of non-fiction. The book is _Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century_ by Peter Singer.

Remote-controlled and autonomous vehicles are already playing major roles. Today there are 22 different kinds of ground systems in use in Iraq alone, not to mention airborne drones like the Predator, which is responsible for controversial attacks in Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan, and,

"it's bigger brother, Global Hawk, which can stay in the [air] for up to 35 hours and reach an altitude of 65,000 feet."

How about,

". . . the Spartan Scout, a 30 foot robotic speedboat, packing a .50-caliber machine gun."

Those are deployed today. Tomorrow is even scarier. Isenberg writes,

So what happens when other countries which are even more advanced in electronics and robotics, like Japan, start investing in military robotics?

As Singer notes the US is not the only player in this. And, as an early adopter, the US may well be surpassed by other countries which piggyback off US developments.

[Countries? What about small groups hacking roombas, quad-copters, etc.? We gonna outlaw model airplanes? -- DSI]

Because so much of robotic development is based on open source information [download source code for one project here -- DSI] their increased use may well hasten the global redistribution of power; not exactly the result that those hoping the use of military robots will allow continued US military hegemony.

And how does the US military field enough scientifically and technologically adept personnel, when it has trouble attracting sufficient high school graduates, which was the case until the recent recession eased its recruiting problems.

He says that author Singer believes that Murphy's Law,

"Anything that can go wrong, will - at the worst possible moment,"

also applies to robots.

In other words,

. . . to quote the tag line from one sci-fi movie classic (The Fly, 1986) . . . "Be afraid . . . Be very afraid."

But, Isenberg says we must face what we fear if we are to deal with it. He quotes Singer:

"We embrace war but don't like to look to its future, including now one of the most fundamental changes ever in war."

Technorati Tags: Robotics, War