“Unlike the drones that have been causing so much controversy, this robot is designed to operate underwater, and instead of seeking out enemy targets, it will search for and destroy something equally sinister–ocean garbage.
Horrified by the size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and its identical twins forming in oceans all over the world, Ahovi and his classmates from the French International School of Design decided to come up with a simple-yet-sophisticated solution.”
Or: several varieties of nerdy hacker types gathered together in the Catskills and experimenting with robots
A Drone is exactly like a Suicide Bomber except
- total opposite reflection on one’s willingness to die
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one’s operational and strategic methods
- logistical plausibility for a non-state group
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geographic utility
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ability to penetrate civilian society undetected
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amount of training necessary
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communications infrastructure required
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public perception
- diplomatic negotiations required to base
Really, the only similarity is that both are used in asymmetric war and involve explosives. In which case, if that is the standard for similarity between drones and suicide bombers,
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a drone isn’t any different than a mortar
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a suicide bomber isn’t different than throwing a grenade
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drones are the same as land mines
~~~
Snark aside, it’s important to accurately study and report on both strategic intent and means used in collective violence. The “how” can be abstracted to similarity, as every weapon has “inflict casualties” as it’s ultimate objective. So the choice of weapon to fit a strategy, the choice of strategy to work with the means available, and ultimately the political object of the violence matter. All weapons, to some extent, cause fear and are supposed to kill people. But to have that as the sum total value in paying attention to a conflict ignores every relevant question about war. If we’re stuck assuming that the how is bad, it leaves us unable to comment on the why, at what cost, and to what ends? That’s a debate cheapened and hollowed out, and one that ultimately serves us less.
(Thanks to Slouching Towards Columbia for the list).
— The Office of Naval Research report (link is a .pdf) on the ethics of autonomous military robots. Strangely, a ruleset devised for fiction and used as the basis of a series of novels exploring their flaws is a poor guideline for the real world, and especially for military applications, no offense to Asimov.
