Technological Developments and Militarization Thoughts on Current Dangerous Developments Presentation by Reiner Braun (Executive Director IALANA) Let´s remember: Leonardo da Vinci designed already the mechanized person - controlled by magic

Technological Developments and Militarization2 The World Debates over Drones Dimension:  In 2015 one third of the US- armed vehicles and aircrafts will be robots  „triumph“ of robots in war technology  Not surprising: military operations will be without own victims Campaigns of the Peace Movement what ethical consequenses has the trend towards automatic warfare? dynamics of technological development involves the risk that humans abdicate as moral and own acting persons

Technological Developments and Militarization3 Drones In the beginning used for reconnaissance then drones became an armed platform (combat drones)  no longer „just“ for reconnaissance and surveillance purposes warfare (conditioned by technology) leads to automatic use of lethal means (through automatisation) reconnaissance and combat is going to be one (sensor to shooten gap) when the responsible actor is missing, there is nobody limiting the actions

Technological Developments and Militarization4 Today (not my questions) until the 90s: drones only for reconaissance means Now: drones are a tool of personalized, „surgical“ warfare (targeting killing) Open questions: are individual decisions possible? Is the proportionality preserved? Role of civilians (i.e. secret service  Grey zones of int. law) Clear is: part of asymmetric warfare and reducing the threshold of activation

Technological Developments and Militarization5 Today: my points on drones remote-controlled flight systems with armament are only an intermediate step on the way to weapon systems with autononomous decision making robots decide - using algorithm systems - the use of sharp weapons

Technological Developments and Militarization6 trends: 1.miniaturization and autonomy of the weapon platforms - flying and act independently 2.automatisation and autonomy of the platforms:  processors and sensors react autonomously several objects can be approached trajectories change Targents/ missions change reaction to objects - independently without external communication / feedback  no aeronautical remote control (joystick) BUT autonomous accomplishment of assignments/ missions  the person is setting the general framework via informatics/ programming, no human autonomous real decision-making (only function „abort“ within mili-seconds)  people are excluded from decision-making-chains (out of the loop)

Technological Developments and Militarization7 3.increase of sensor technology and autonomization of sensor data processing amount of data (accurate in detail and multiple objects / scenes simultaneously) which can not be evaluated in real time  new dimensions of processing power  analysis of these data are autonomized (associated algorithms are developed) human being is not the master of information anymore – dependent on (an imperfect) technology

Technological Developments and Militarization8 Consequence: New Role of the Human Being in the loop: humans are in a decision- making process out of the loop: humans are only observers and confirmers of a strategy designed by machines  why: amount of data, time frame, instantaneously decisions, mechanically pre- selected options, only electronically controlled decisions (by algorithms, artificial intelligence)

Technological Developments and Militarization9 It Can Only be Guessed: Significance for Nuclear Weapons The reaction will be the further tightening of asymmetric wars “technologically“ weaker states / persons will react ("Terror reactions") AND/OR by obtaining access to the technology of the 20th Century - the atomic bomb

Technological Developments and Militarization10 Stop: a Rubicon is being Crossed are machines ethically? responsibility? shall robots make decisions over life and death? Alternatives (i.e.):  Stop the process: Moratorium  Preventive Arms Control, Prohibition: Drone Convention (as NWC)

Technological Developments and Militarization11 THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!