Singer, a senior fellow and director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution, a public policy think tank, said the recent technological revolution is a growing phenomenon that "changes the rules of the game, like the atomic bomb or the printing press." While some experts portray modern warfare and its advanced weaponry as "Terminator-like," this characterization in not accurate, he said.
Singer who based the lecture on his 2009 book, "Wired for War," which focuses on ethics, politics and law of robotics in 21st century warfare sought to leave the audience with the idea that the "future is coming at us quicker than we think," he said. The technological advancements "that we see as far off in the future are already here," but the field of robotics has not begun wrestling with the ethical and legal implications that the increase in robotic technology creates, Singer said. The lack of ethical discussions, in addition to his general childhood interest in science fiction, sparked Singer's interest in the field, he said.
The relevance of robotic warfare not only applies to people who work directly in engineering or computer science what Singer called the "cutting edge field" of robotics but also to those interested in government, law and foreign policy because they must make decisions regarding how to use this technology, according to Singer. He described how robots, like computers, are creating new legal questions about privacy and accountability as an example of an issue that experts have not yet addressed.
Questions of intellectual property rights theft have expanded with the introduction of robot designs, and cyber-warfare is becoming a rising concern for intelligence officers and civilians alike, he said.
Singer attributed the "significant" progress of robotics to Moore's Law, which states that more and more computing power can be packed into smaller microchips as technology improves. Microchips typically double in power and capacity every 18 months, according to Singer. Giving an example of Moore's Law in action, Singer explained how an average Hallmark musical greeting card has more computing power than the entire U.S. airforce had in 1960.
"The key issue is not the ethics of the robots, but the people behind the robots," Singer said.
In this new field of robotics, there is no set code of ethics like in already-established fields such as medicine, according to Singer. Ethical issues in robotics include a robot's attributes, how the creation of a robot will be funded, whether it should be armed, who should be able to buy it and who should have access to intelligence it gathers, according to Singer. There is a unfortunate and troubling prevalent attitude that workers in the technology industry should not have to grapple with such questions, he said.
Singer also discussed more traditional ideas relating to warfare, including the evolution of the warrior. Singer cited the story of a young man who was not fit for the military but now operates drones remotely in the United States. Although this man's war experience may seem like a typical day job because he is based in the United States, he is actually more efficient at killing enemy combatants than many of his colleagues in war zones, Singer said.
The lecture, titled "Wired for War: Everything you wanted to know about war and robots, but were afraid to ask afraid to ask afraid to ask " was sponsored by the Rockefeller Center, the Ethics Institute, the Dickey Center for International Understanding and the Institute for Security, Technology and Society.
