This past week, I was absentmindedly surfing news channels, and stopped in my tracks when I viewed some very creepy photos of cameras and gun towers mounted on small platforms with miniature tractor treads. The voice of a military officer said, "We can remotely view the face of a person in the camera sight and decide whether to fire the guns." Knowing that no person seeing one of these devices coming towards them on the ground would wait around to face the camera for identification, it's clear that the military officer was trying to reassure the public that these killing machines are somehow safe and ethical, knowing full well that they are slaughtering machines designed to up the "kill ratio" while keeping our troops safely at a distance and (relatively) psychologically undisturbed as they play with controls that operate like a video game. We are told that these robots are called "Talon," so I thought I'd read up on them, and here is what I found out:

These robots are manufactured by a company called Foster-Miller. According to Global Security, a website specializing in military and security issues, "TALON is a powerful, lightweight, versatile robot designed for missions ranging from reconnaissance to weapons delivery. Its large, quick-release cargo bay accommodates a variety of sensor payloads, making TALON a onerobot [sic] solution to a variety of mission requirements."

The model pictured in Iraq is an Explosive Ordnance Disposal system designed to save lives during the decommissioning and destruction of bombs, confiscated explosives, etc. This life-saving device is the one most frequently trumpeted in press releases and military propaganda. However, the website goes on to say: "Soldiers have armed robots as battle buddies by early 2005. The Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System, or SWORDS, joins Stryker Brigade Soldiers in Iraq when it finished final testing. The system consists of a weapons platform mounted on a Talon robot. It’s not a new invention, its just bringing together existing systems.... Different weapons can be interchanged on the system – the M16, the 240, 249 or 50-caliber machine guns, or the M202 –A1 with a 66mm rocket launcher. Soldiers operate the SWORDS by remote control, from up to 1,000 meters away. In testing, it’s hit bulls eyes from as far as 2,000 meters away. The only margin of error has been in sighting. It can engage while on the move, but it’s not as accurate."

The SWORDS device is the one pictured manuevering across trade-show carpet. The error in sighting is not explained--one can imagine it being either due to operator error in determining what is or is not an enemy target, or problems in aiming. However, "as of late 2004 there were four SWORDS in existence; 18 were requested for service in Iraq. Each system has cost about $230,000 to produce. When they go into production, it is estimated the cost per unit will drop to the range of $150,000 to $180,000." In other words, these defective devices are either in use right now in Iraq, or soon will be, killing God only knows who.

We are reassured that, "While many people are fearful that armed robots will run amok on the battlefield, this was not an issue for the demonstration. The robots employ a 'man in the loop' where the robots are always under the direct control of a soldier. The soldier issues commands to the robot and the small arms weapons through the robot's operator control unit. The soldier also issues commands to the rocket and grenade launchers through a newly developed Remote Firing and Control System. This firing and control system, which was developed by Duke Pro, allows a single soldier to control up to five separate firing systems using a 40 bit encryption security system."

In his groundbreaking novel "I, Robot," Isaac Asimov proproses three laws of robotics, the first one of which reads: "A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm." These laws are still bandied about by artificial intelligence researchers as a good starting point for an ethical foundation for guiding the design of robots that may some day think for themselves (see http://www.asimovlaws.com/ for a review). The idea is that technological advances are occurring so quickly that a moral groundwork needs to be laid before man destroys himself with his own technology. Apparently, the US military and the companies that design these killing machines for them don't see things the same way.

(Photos courtesy of GlobalSecurity.org.)