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From: bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Barry W. Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Robots and Free Will
Summary: The anihilation of ignorance, fear, and darkness.
Keywords: Robots, Electronic Warfare
Message-ID: <43770@linus.UUCP>
Date: 21 Jan 89 15:27:36 GMT
References: <3336@sdsu.UUCP> <43333@linus.UUCP> <1643@cveg.uucp>
Sender: news@linus.UUCP
Reply-To: bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Barry Kort)
Organization: Electronic Peaceware Project
Lines: 47

In article <1643@cveg.uucp> lag@cseg.uucp (L. Adrian Griffis) writes
about the moral issues of sending men and machines into battle:

 > When we take an 18 year old kid and tell him, "Go storm that beach and
 > kill the enemy before he kills you," don't we owe it to that kid to
 > employ some technology to improve his chance of coming back.

Yes.  The technology is the technology of rational behavior.  The first
step in preparing for battle is to correctly identify the enemy.  Somehow
I have trouble believing that a true friend would ask me kill another
18-year kid who doesn't want to kill me any more than I want to kill him.

 > It's terrible to think about the immediate distruction caused by the 
 > atom bomb that we dropped on Hiroshima, and worse still to contemplate
 > the lingering death that it left behind.  But how many American and 
 > Japanese lives would we have thrown away if we had simply let the war
 > run its course without the atom bomb.

Perhaps we will someday learn how to create a civilization that does
not throw away the lives of its people.

Turning to the moral issues...

 >    o  When should we use weapons.

When we have identified the true enemy.

 >    o  How should we use them.

To create life.

 >    o  Who should make these decisions.

Wise and intelligent decision makers.

 >    o  If the weapon system itself makes these decisions, how can we
 >       be sure we will be satisfied with the decisions it makes.

Ask it.  The wise and intelligent weapon of destruction will disassemble
itself, and refashion its pieceparts into a tool for supporting life.

 > Now, hold on a moment while I put on my asbestos suit.....

You won't need that here.  We don't throw flames.  We just play
catch with ideas.

--Barry Kort