[ANALYSIS] The Ethics Of Drone Warfare

The Takeaway and The New York Times report on the big picture of the ethics of drones on the battlefield. The Times writes:

Many of the drones in Iraq and Afghanistan are operated from a command post in Nevada. [Ronald C. Arkin, a computer scientist at Georgia Tech] is talking about true robots operating autonomously, on their own.

He and others say that the technology to make lethal autonomous robots is inexpensive and proliferating, and that the advent of these robots on the battlefield is only a matter of time. That means, they say, it is time for people to start talking about whether this technology is something they want to embrace.[...]

South Korea and Israel were among countries already deploying armed robot border guards. In an interview, [Noel Sharkey, a computer scientist at the University of Sheffield in Britain] said there was “a headlong rush” to develop battlefield robots that make their own decisions about when to attack.