Ethics Essay
Homework Assignment
Is a ban on offensive autonomous weapons beyond meaningful human control going to work?
While a ban on offensive autonomous weapons beyond meaningful control would be in the best interest of humanity, this ban will ultimately not work because it will be too difficult to enforce. Many scientists are currently against the use of offensive autonomous weapons due to their harmful effects. Since there is no human control of these systems, there is no guilt associated with the actions of the weapons. In most cases, people want to prevent war and save people’s lives. Humans also try to keep wars contained, and not target civilians. Since the offensive autonomous robots do not have feelings, they will not feel guilty if the target is a civilian.
However, people governing countries do not necessarily follow the advice of scientists and engineers. For example, in the 1940s, the Manhattan project was used to develop nuclear weapons. Even though scientists advised that the nuclear weapons should not be used, the US government went ahead and dropped them on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This could also happen with offensive autonomous weapons. Even though scientists and engineers such as Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking advise that a ban should be place on offensive autonomous weapons, government officials will not necessarily follow this advice.
There is also not a group that governs the entire world, so it would be difficult to get all countries to agree. Even if all countries were to accept the ban, there is no way of guaranteeing that all the countries would stay within the agreement. This happened with the Paris Agreement. This agreement brought many nations together to help combat the effects of climate change by attempting to limit the rise of temperature. Even though the US initially joined the agreement, they withdrew shortly after. If a similar agreement were to come out placing a ban on offensive autonomous weapons, there would be nothing stopping countries from withdrawing from the agreement if they felt it was in the best interest of their country.
There is also the concern that these offensive autonomous weapons can get into the hands of the wrong people, such as terrorists. In this event, the autonomous weapons can be even more dangerous. However, a ban will not necessarily prevent this from happening, as black markets can still emerge. In this case, the people who can cause the most harm with the offensive autonomous weapons are still able to obtain them, so the ban will not be successful.
Overall, a ban on offensive autonomous weapons would be useful in preventing more harm in wars and other scenarios. However, this ban would be extremely difficult to enforce, and due to the nature of the black market and the idea that government officials will not necessarily follow what is advised, this ban would not be successful.
Sources: https://futureoflife.org/open-letter-autonomous-weapons/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/06/01/trump-withdrew-from-the-paris-climate-plan-a-year-ago-heres-what-has-changed/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7c2d56120df5 https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement