Star Wars – Engaging Peace

In the world of Hollywood, R2-D2 is an appealing robot who comes to the rescue in every Star Wars movie. In the real world, robots are being created to kill on their own—that is, without human direction and oversight.

Big dog military robots. Image in public domain.

Although proponents of killing without risk to one’s own side use terms like “lethal autonomous robotics” or “autonomous military robots” to describe the latest product of deadly technology, the term “killer robots” captures better what these machines are programmed to do.

The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots makes a very compelling case for why it is so risky to program robots to kill and then to turn them loose.

Concerns about killer robots are strong enough and widespread enough that the Human Rights Council of the United Nations is urging a moratorium on their development “before it is too late.”

A U.N. ban on the development of killer robots is a good idea, as was the U.N. 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction–the international agreement banning antipersonnel landmines. The U.S. is among the small number of nations that have not signed that treaty.

UNICEF estimates that in the world today there are 110 million landmines in 64 countries; many of those (e.g., in Vietnam and Afghanistan) were planted by the U.S. Every month about 800 people–mostly innocent children and other civilians–die from landmines, and thousands more are seriously injured.

Do we really need to add killer robots to our arsenal of deadly weapons?

So many Americans cloak themselves in hatred and search for an evil empire to destroy with the latest Star Wars weaponry. They may succeed. And the empire they find and destroy may be our own.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

In the midst of the Cold War nuclear arms race in 1983, President Ronald Reagan proposed a Strategic Defense Initiative aimed at mounting defensive weapons in space to shield the United States from a Soviet nuclear attack.

Map of the fictional Stars Wars galaxy by W.R. van Hage. Used under CC Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Perhaps in part because of Reagan’s own publicly-stated conviction that Armageddon, as predicted in the Bible, was at hand, the proposed initiative raised anxiety levels around the world and was promptly labeled “Star Wars.”

Some of these anxieties were relieved by the signing of the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) by the U.S. and U.S.S.R. in 1991 and the subsequent Strategic Offensive Reduction Treaty with Russia in 2001, requiring reductions in nuclear weapons in both countries.

Despite the fact that the sanity of the nuclear arms race was challenged around the world, technological junkies and arms manufacturers have been busy on another Star Wars adventure. This time, it’s developing weaponized drones (euphemistically called unmanned aerial vehicles). [In our next post we will consider Autonomous Weapons Systems (AWS).]

Nuclear weapons were terrifying in part because they were likely not only to vanquish any “enemies” almost immediately but also to leave in their wake destruction and contamination that could destroy life on earth. In contrast, weaponized drones and other modern “miracle” weapons are touted for their ability to zero in on individual bad guys. What could be more precise? More humane? More just?

Our own President has said that their use will be guided by just and moral principles but national and international anxiety is once again high. A recent study indicates that drones have killed more civilians than manned aircraft in Afghanistan.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Star Wars off their rockers

From Star Wars to weaponized drones