The brand new American way of war is here, notes the New York Times. Unmanned Predator drones piloted via handheld remote control have previously made a large impact in the Middle Eastern theater, but now the U.S. Armed Forces have taken an additional step in the development of warfare. These “Termi-nators†will be studying computers, intended to kill.

Fully automated killer drones changing face of warfare

Killing automatically

A fleet of military drones are used, with remote control, to save the Earth from an alien invasion by young Ender Wiggin in the 1985 Nebula and Hugo award-winning novel “Ender’s Game†by Orson Scott Card. In 1985, Card’s vision was much ahead of his time. There is no have to have a human pilot anymore now. Remotes aren’t necessary. Computations are performed by software in Aerial Terminator prototypes that can hurt, identify and even kill targets.

It is becoming increasingly significant to create things like this for battle, as reported by Dr. Charles Pippin who spoke with the Post. Pippin is a scientist at GA Tech Research Institute.

“You can imagine real-time scenarios where you have 10 of these things up in the air and something is happening on the ground and you don’t have time for a human to say, ‘I need you to do these tasks,'†Pippin said. “It needs to happen faster than that.â€Â

Already using drones

There have been computerized robots used in the demilitarized zone be-tween North and South Korea and other areas that could have battle, although a full U.S. military autonomous attack drone fleet probably won’t be around for a couple of decades. The U.S. military is doing several things to prepare for au-tonomous combat machines using facial recognition to discover terrorist suspects and de-liver a missile.

Discrimination and proportionality in killing

Things such as Predator drones, some experts suggest, are “too antiseptic†and should not be legal in places that are not at war with the U.S. to find ter-rorism suspects such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Controversy around the globe is likely to start when killer military drones are autonomous. Most won't approve. It could also run afoul of the Geneva Conventions' needs of avoiding “belligerents use discrimination and proportionality†in killing, something autonomous drones may be hard-pressed to ac-complish.

“The question is whether systems are capable of discrimination,†said International Committee for Robot Arms Control co-founders Peter Asaro. “The good technology is far off, but technology that doesn’t work well is already out there. The worry is that these systems are going to be pushed out too soon, and they make a lot of mistakes, and those mistakes are going to be atrocities.â€Â

Beware the Firebird drone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_p0ansnQr4

Articles cited

“Ender's Game†Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender's_Game

International Committee for Robot Arms Control: http://www.icrac.co.uk/

New York Times: http://nyti.ms/8yfNSP

RQ-11 Raven Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AeroVironment_RQ-11_Raven

Washington Post: http://wapo.st/nGNlSp