Feb. 23, 2009

Contact: Patrick Lin
Ethics + Emerging Technologies Group
805-570-5651
palin@calpoly.edu

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Cal Poly Researcher to Speak on War-Robots Panel at International Conference

SAN LUIS OBISPO -- Patrick Lin, director of The Ethics + Emerging Technologies Group at Cal Poly, has been invited to give the first presentation on a war-robots panel at the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) 2009 Annual Meeting, the largest applied ethics conference worldwide.

Drawing from his recently released report “Autonomous Military Robots: Risk, Ethics, and Design,” Lin will discuss the benefits as well as the wide ranging ethical and social concerns arising from the use of battlefield robots.

“War robots aren’t susceptible to fear, adrenaline or hatred that has led human soldiers to make poor decisions and even to commit war crimes,” Lin said. But the use of robots raises questions of ethics and risk, such as:

  • Who is responsible if a robot malfunctions and causes a fatality? 
  • Will the use of robots encourage more armed conflicts, given that fewer human soldiers would be put in harm’s way? 
  • Would robots erode squad cohesion, if they can monitor actions of fellow human soldiers? 
  • What is the risk of our enemies capturing or hacking into a war-robot to use against us?”

The war-robots panel will convene on March 7, during the March 5-8 conference in Cincinnati. The APPE Annual Meeting also includes the Ethics Bowl competition. For more information about the conference or APPE, go online to: http://www.indiana.edu/~appe/index.html.

The full report on military robots, risk and ethics can be accessed online at: http://ethics.calpoly.edu or http://www.emergingethics.com.

ABOUT ETHICS + EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES GROUP

Based at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, the Ethics + Emerging Technologies Group is a non-partisan research and educational organization focused on the risk, ethical and social impacts of emerging technologies. Current projects and interests are related to issues in robotics, human enhancement, nanotechnology, space development and other areas.

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