Will there be no limitations on automations?
February 13, 2012There was an article in The Baltimore Sun a few days ago (January 27, “Jet pushes ethical envelope”) that produced some rather unusual images in my mind. The article itself was about the invention of, testing of, and ultimately the use of a robotic aircraft for the navy that could even be deployed from an aircraft carrier. The ethical part comes into play when this weapon “could usher in an era when death and destruction can be dealt by machines operating semi-independently”. It was stated that the implications of such a scenario is truly “unnerving” to many.
The article went on to state that two such experimental drone aircraft (known as the X-47B) are presently undergoing tests by the Navy near the Chesapeake Bay area, With the Pentagon already in possession of about 7,500 pilotless drones, many of which are in use in Afghanistan, it is no surprise that further development of robotic machines is advancing at a very rapid pace as the following quote states: “All military services are moving toward greater automation with their robotic systems…Increasingly humans will no longer be ‘in the loop’ but rather ‘on the loop’ monitoring the execution of certain decisions.”
I’m willing to leave the ‘decisions’ implied in the above article to the politicians I help elect and the military commanders who will implement them. In fact, there is hardly anything else I, or anyone else, can do in such a situation. However, I am really more concerned with ‘other’ possible applications of robotic use in the future. Can you envision yourself in a Boeing 747 halfway across the Atlantic Ocean when you are suddenly awakened from your nap with the words, “This is your Captain, Delta Airlines robot number ABC123, stating that we are approaching some very difficult weather and advising you that although there is no human person in the cockpit the situation is firmly under control…under control …under control …under control …” As much as I love to fly such an announcement would be more than somewhat disconcerting! Or what if you were a parent of a six year old child who was being transported to school each day through heavy early morning traffic in a school bus driven by a robotic system?
No one would deny that those of us in my age group have lived long enough to see what was once thought to be only science-fiction imagination become actual realty. My grown children have never known a day without television being a part of their lives – as was my early experience. Likewise my seven grandchildren have never known a time in which computers did not play a great part in their society – while as a child, or even a young adult, I could have only dreamed of such a fantasy. The internet, cell phones, space exploration, MRIs, a thousand channels on television, airplanes that can carry hundreds of people miles high and almost at the speed of sound, and the weapons of mass destruction that have been spawned by the “atomic age” – all would have been unbelievable or at least highly imaginary only a half century or so ago – but today they are not only realities in our way of life but accepted by the larger public as the ‘norm’ in 21st century living. I am certainly not hankering for a return to rotary phones and only three channels on my television (without remote!). I’m very comfortable with progress in communication and transportation that has made my life easier and more enjoyable. Having lived during World War II, the Cuban missile crisis, the Cold War and ‘hot’ wars in Korea, Viet Nam, Kuwait, Iraq, and presently Afghanistan, I am well aware of the growth of more and more destructive weapons of war, and of necessity I have been able to make peace with that reality. But now I may be challenged to surrender human decision-making, even those with ethical connotations, to non-human sources. That truly gives me the willies and scares the soles off my shoes!
Am I the only one who feels this way? I certainly hope not – BUT — I wonder!
Jimmy Jackson, February 13, 2012
