Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!deimos!cveg!cseg!lag
From: lag@cseg.uucp (L. Adrian Griffis)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Robots and Free Will
Keywords: Robots, Electronic Warfare
Message-ID: <1725@cveg.uucp>
Date: 30 Jan 89 16:35:54 GMT
References: <3336@sdsu.UUCP> <43333@linus.UUCP> <1643@cveg.uucp>
Sender: netnews@cveg.uucp
Organization: College of Engineering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Lines: 62


This and another reply to my posting were mailed to me, presumably by
mistake.  I am posting them for the authors.  I apologize for the
delay.  I've been very busy, and we have had a number of hardware
problems with our network.  The article follows:

----------------

Date: Wed, 18 Jan 89 20:41:58 +0100
From: harry!ksuvax1!rutgers!dit.upm.es!ibm (Ignacio Bellido Montes)
To: lag@cseg.uucp
Subject: Re: Robots and Free Will
Newsgroups: comp.ai
In-Reply-To: <1643@cveg.uucp>
References: <3336@sdsu.UUCP> <43333@linus.UUCP>
Organization: dit
Cc: 
Bcc: 

In article <1643@cveg.uucp> L.Adrian Griffis writes:
>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.
>
>It's naive to talk about the morality of a weapon.  There have always
>been needlessly cruel or inappropriate uses of a weapon, and people who
>should not be trusted to use any weapon appropriately.  Talking about the
>morality of a weapon system distracts us from the real issues:
>
>   o  When should we use weapons.
>
>   o  How should we use them.
>
>   o  Who should make these decisions.
>
>   o  If the weapon system itself makes these decisions, how can we
>      be sure we will be satisfied with the decisions it makes.

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


	Well, I think that the atom bomb over Hiroshima was a great mistake, 
and it was a HUMAN mistake. There was no reason to use it over civil 
population, although it could be a great industry center. Why wasn't it used 
on an island, where there was only soldiers (poor soldiers).

	I know this is not the place to talk about it, but remember that 
technology is neutral, the bad things we can do with it belong to our
responsability, and of course, we MUST know what are we doing with it.

				Ignacio Bellido F.-Montes (ibm@dit.upm.es)

PS: Please, excuse my bad English. Thanks.



  UseNet:  lag@cseg.UUCP                 L. Adrian Griffis
  BITNET:  AG27107@UAFSYSB