Humans have dominated the fields of war since recorded history, and there are no signs of all conflicts grinding to a halt anytime in the near future. The only logical limit to the fine strategic nuances of war seems to be the creative mass-murdering capabilities of the human mind. All that, however, will change soon,
See, the human mind operates within an emotional framework (which is, to say, our thoughts are somewhat guided by our emotions). The human conscience prevents us from becoming cold, trigger-happy gunners. Machines, on the other hand, are not bound by such parameters, as they operate based on hard logic.
The very prospect of handing over the controls of a nation's war machinery to a governing artificial intelligence might seem tantalizing at first, given that the hard decisions are made by the machine, not man; but take a walk a little longer down the road and the ramifications of a machine-led war quickly become obvious. The very concept of a death toll would seem meaningless to an AI, and ceasefires would not be called by either parties due to an AI not being to comprehend the values of defeat and/or living to fight another day.
At any rate, the control of lethal weapons should stay in the hands of sentient, living beings, capable of making moral judgments. Current artificial intelligence technology simply does not have the processing power nor the expertise to accurately model human behaviour. Some aspects of technology are indeed best left to the imagination. (257 words)
Written by Kaza and Thinesh
References:
Knight, W.(2015). Military Robots: Armed, but How Dangerous? MIT Technology Review [Online] August 3 2015. Available from http://www.technologyreview.com/news/539876/military-robots-armed-but-how-dangerous/. [Accessed 5 November 2015]
No comments:
Post a Comment