Robo-Ethics: Maybe my last post was wrong
I read the 112 page report found at http://ethics.calpoly.edu/ONR_report.pdf, which exhaustively examines the concept of the autonomous device. Including the idea of the autonomous device as a “comfort” robot, see page 80, I am NOT going into detail on that speculation, we are all adults here, you go read it yourself.
On to ethics, outside of the “comfort” robot scenario, this paper is a good read and discusses in depth the different ways to look at war. The use of force and the motivation behind the use of force is clearly outlined.
So maybe I was wrong in that last post, maybe there should be a field of Robotic Ethics. But to me, it just sounds like human ethics. Robots may need to act autonomously, but any machine has to be owned by someone. In that case the rules of chattel are the controlling law, and that makes the owner the one responsible.
All of this is easy for me to say, sitting here in my comfortable chair. In the fog of war, ethics are difficult, and if you are the one being fired on, you want as much force to be available as possible.
