Paul Scharre - Army of None (2018)
Book Description
A Bill Gates Top Five Book of 2018
A Pentagon defense expert and former U.S. Army Ranger explores what it
would mean to give machines authority over the ultimate decision of life
or death.
What happens when a Predator drone has as much autonomy as a Google car? Or when a weapon that can hunt its own targets is hacked? Although it sounds like science fiction, the technology already exists to create weapons that can attack targets without human input. Paul Scharre, a leading expert in emerging weapons technologies, draws on deep research and firsthand experience to explore how these next-generation weapons are changing warfare.
Scharre’s far-ranging investigation examines the emergence of autonomous weapons, the movement to ban them, and the legal and ethical issues surrounding their use. He spotlights artificial intelligence in military technology, spanning decades of innovation from German noise-seeking Wren torpedoes in World War II―antecedents of today’s homing missiles―to autonomous cyber weapons, submarine-hunting robot ships, and robot tank armies. Through interviews with defense experts, ethicists, psychologists, and activists, Scharre surveys what challenges might face "centaur warfighters" on future battlefields, which will combine human and machine cognition. We’ve made tremendous technological progress in the past few decades, but we have also glimpsed the terrifying mishaps that can result from complex automated systems―such as when advanced F-22 fighter jets experienced a computer meltdown the first time they flew over the International Date Line.
At least thirty countries already have defensive autonomous weapons that operate under human supervision. Around the globe, militaries are racing to build robotic weapons with increasing autonomy. The ethical questions within this book grow more pressing each day. To what extent should such technologies be advanced? And if responsible democracies ban them, would that stop rogue regimes from taking advantage? At the forefront of a game-changing debate, Army of None engages military history, global policy, and cutting-edge science to argue that we must embrace technology where it can make war more precise and humane, but without surrendering human judgment. When the choice is life or death, there is no replacement for the human heart.
Chapters
The Power Over Life and Death
PART I / ROBOPOCALYPSE NOW
THE COMING SWARM
The Military Robotics Revolution
THE TERMINATOR AND THE ROOMBA
What Is Autonomy?
MACHINES THAT KILL
What Is an Autonomous Weapon?
PART II / BUILDING THE TERMINATOR
THE FUTURE BEING BUILT TODAY
Autonomous Missiles, Drones, and Robot Swarms
INSIDE THE PUZZLE PALACE
Is the Pentagon Building Autonomous Weapons?
CROSSING THE THRESHOLD
WORLD WAR R
Robotic Weapons around the World
GARAGE BOTS
DIY Killer Robots
Failure in Autonomous Systems
Can Autonomous Weapons Be Used Safely?
The Weird, Alien World of Deep Neural Networks
The Risk of Autonomous Weapons
An Arms Race in Speed
Autonomy in Cyberspace
The Rise of Intelligent Machines
Autonomous Weapons and the Laws of War
Autonomous Weapons and Stability
Humans + Machines
The Mixed History of Arms Control
The Search for Lethal Laws of Robotics
No Fate but What We Make