Journalist Peter Singer has a new book out called Wired for War, about all the scifi-influenced tech being deployed on battlefields right now, including autonomous robots. He explains the folly of robot war.
In a terrifically intriguing - and occasionally frustrating - interview with Mother Jones, Singer says:
There was an editorial in the Washington Post this month that talked about how we should do something in Darfur with unmanned machines. Now, let's leave aside the irony of a humanitarian intervention done by an inhuman machine. What we overlook too often is that military operations are not simply throwaway commitments, even with machines. They involve you in something that is complex and long-term on the ground.
Read the whole interview to see what he says about how the military uses science fiction as an inspiration for their war machines, and to get a better sense of why Singer is worried about deploying robots instead of humans in war zones.
Should You Fear the Killer Robots? [via Mother Jones]