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John Markoff writes in the NYT on a new report written by a former Pentagon official who helped establish United States policy on autonomous weapons who argues that autonomous weapons could be uncontrollable in real-world environments where they are subject to design failure as well as hacking, spoofing and manipulation by adversaries. The report contrasts these completely automated systems, which have the ability to target and kill without human intervention, to weapons that keep humans "in the loop" in the process of selecting and engaging targets. "Anyone who has ever been frustrated with an automated telephone call support helpline, an alarm clock mistakenly set to 'p.m.' instead of 'a.m.,' or any of the countless frustrations that come with interacting with computers, has experienced the problem of 'brittleness' that plagues automated systems," Mr. Scharre writes.
The United States military does not have advanced autonomous weapons in its arsenal. However, this year the Defense Department requested almost $1 billion to manufacture Lockheed Martin's Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, which is described as a "semiautonomous" weapon. The missile is controversial because, although a human operator will initially select a target, it is designed to fly for several hundred miles while out of contact with the controller and then automatically identify and attack an enemy ship. As an alternative to completely autonomous weapons, the report advocates what it describes as "Centaur Warfighting." The term "centaur" has recently come to describe systems that tightly integrate humans and computers. Human-machine combat teaming takes a page from the field of "centaur chess," in which humans and machines play cooperatively on the same team. "Having a person in the loop is not enough," says Scharre. "They can't be just a cog in the loop. The human has to be actively engaged."
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Francis on Tuesday March 01 2016, @01:27AM
There's a few things that happened there. Up until then militaries mostly met each other on fields for battles. And the weapons weren't that powerful. Try accidentally killing civilians with a sword some time and you'll see what I mean. Whereas a bullet can travel rather far if you miss your target.
Also, bombing raids and deliberately targeting civilians are relatively new occurrences. I'm sure they happened in the past, but not to the extent we've seen in the 20th and 21st centuries.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Tuesday March 01 2016, @01:52AM
Starving everyone within the walls was the point of castle sieges.
Flinging a few decaying bodies to cause diseases is commonly referred to as the first case of biological warfare.
In both cases, the civilians, amateur defense forces, are also a target.
Also, while less civilians died on the battlefield, traveling or occupying armies were always causing a lot of "collateral" damage, with or without weapons.
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Tuesday March 01 2016, @01:59AM
Ah, yes... raining rocks and fire from catapults over a fortified township full of civilians is indeed recent (at geological scales, perhaps).
Notable mention to the "Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women."
Not for the lack of trying, no. It was only due to the limitations of their weapons.
It is the protection of civilians at the time of war that is recent:
Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949. [icrc.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 3, Insightful) by deadstick on Tuesday March 01 2016, @04:45AM
bombing raids and deliberately targeting civilians are relatively new occurrences.
Leave out the aerial bombing and read Joshua 6:21.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 08 2016, @04:19AM
Genghis Khan
The movie 'Hero'
United State's takeover of western North America.
I'm sure there are dozens of other examples.
Civilian populace has been targetted since time immemorial. And if they are not outright butchered, their males often are and their females raped and usually impregnated to ensure subjugation is complete.