Search: robots

01 May Law and Ethics for Robot Soldiers

...places. Matt and I have also seen how much interest is developing among international law and national security academics around this topic, as well as around robots and the law more generally, and we’re delighted to be part of it. We welcome substantive comments, here at OJ or as well by email.   Lethal autonomous machines will inevitably enter the future battlefield — but they will do so incrementally, one small step at a time. The combination of inevitable and incremental development raises not only complex strategic and operational questions...

16 Jan Law and Robotics Conference Seeking Paper Proposals, and HRW’s Tom Malinowski Releases Video That I Will Always Treasure

...is the link if you’re interested. Meanwhile, over at Lawfare, Human Rights Watch’s Tom Malinowski, Benjamin Wittes, Matthew Waxman, and I have been debating the recent HRW report calling for a ban on “Killer Robots.” Tom’s latest response – though mostly a serious discussion, well worth reading, though I’m afraid it doesn’t finally manage to persuade me – has a video at the end that I will always, always fondly treasure. It’s great. (It’s in Hindi, and though I didn’t know Tom knew Hindi, I’m going to trust his subtitles.)...

06 Apr Events and announcements: April 6, 2014

...October 2014. Proposals for papers should be submitted to the editors by July 31, 2014. Contact details are available on the TDM website. Announcements The ICRC has launched its first Research & Debate Cycle on New Technologies and the Modern Battlespace. In recent years, a wide array of new technologies has entered the modern battlefield, giving rise to new methods and means of warfare, such as cyber attacks, armed drones and robots. While there can be no doubt that IHL applies to them, applying pre-existing legal rules to new technologies...

22 Jul Sotomayor, International Law, Context, and the Confirmation Hearings Charade

...judges are akin to autonomous robots who mechanistically and abstractly apply inbred, dry legal principles to meticulously pruned fact patterns. To the contrary, good judging is an intensely human and dynamic experience. American Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes spoke of this eloquently last century and Judge Richard Posner has done so in this one. And, on a macro level, good judging requires growth of the entire judicial collective conscience. Being aware of what is going on in the wider world is certainly an integral part of that. And it is, I...

26 Nov Human Rights Watch Report on Autonomous Weapons, and Matthew Waxman and Ken Anderson’s Critique

Human Rights Watch has released a new report (co-authored by the Harvard Law School Human Rights Clinic) on autonomous weapons systems that might emerge over the next several decades, titled “Losing Humanity: The Case Against Killer Robots.” The report calls for a multilateral treaty that would preemptively ban “development, production, and use” of fully autonomous weapons by all states. It would be hard to be more sweeping than the report’s language in calling a comprehensive ban – here is the language from the recommendations, directed to states: Prohibit the development,...

22 Apr Opposition to Drone Use in Libya

...we have the Army's new slogan for Afghani civilians: Don't be angry with us: we'd kill far more of you if we didn't use drones. How silly of those Afghanis to not realize that we're doing them a favor by killing them less indiscriminately than we could. Non liquet " Unfortunately that understanding may not be shared by a meaningful portion of the population." Well, I can only speak for myself, but my opposition to drone use in Libya has nothing to do with the fact that they are robots....

08 Jan Losing Latin America

...a handful of areas.Finally, Professor Borgen states "we have actually been focused on the Middle East to the detriment of the Atlantic Alliance and Latin American relations." I disagree... we may have been focusing on the Middle East, but with good reason, while Europe and Latin America have engaged in introspective navel gazing in comparison. USpace ..absurd thought -God of the Universe thinkscommunism is SUPEReven though it never worksbecause we are not robotsabsurd thought -God of the Universe feelscommunism is fairfools can't or won't think it throughidiots just keep scheming.....