Before I get into the meat of this post, here's a quick note about the JAG School's 'Non-attribution Policy' -- in order to encourage the free expression of ideas and foster robust discussion, the opinions offered by students, faculty, and guests are to be kept private.  This allows us to have really great discussions about really tough topics without the stifling effect you might expect because of fear for negative career effects.  And our guests can rest assured that anything they say won't be used against them or taken out of context after a visit here.  Out of respect for this policy, I solicited Dr. Singer's consent before writing about his lecture today.

And what a lecture!  This was BY FAR the best event of the year to date.  Dr. Singer spoke for an hour about the way warfare is changing with the development and use of robots for the battlefield (captured in his book, "Wired for War").  But is lecture wasn't so much about the actual technology that's available (or on the way) so much as it was about the issues raised by these leaps in technology.  A recurrent theme was ethics -- how does the availability of such technology (that allows for the remote application of force or the use of force removed from human control) change the way we think about, conduct, and control warfare?

He mentioned at one point how technology has made the battlefront more accessible -- easier communication with Soldiers on the front line; video games that simulate war; the ability to watch YouTube clips of war on your phone, etc. -- and at the same time made it less personal, in a way less real.  It reminded me LTC Dave Grossman's book, "On Killing," in which he argues (among other things) that the way we train our Soldiers for combat has made it easier to wage war but has also dehumanized the cost of war. 

Dr. Singer also talked about the cycle of technological development and the dangers involved in both reluctance to embrace new technology and the tendency to latch onto 'the next big thing' before that 'thing' is actually determined (through competition or real-world testing) to be the best choice.  (One of the examples he used was the Commodore computer -- many of us had them growing up, but they didn't last in the market because there were better ways to do the same thing; the same is true with military technology.)

All in all, it was a great lecture, and I intend to go through my notes this weekend to add a few observations in a subsequent post.  In the meantime, you can learn more about Dr. Singer and his book at wiredforwar.pwsinger.com.


Tag: jag   judge-advocate   grad   course   robots   permalink