Just war and robots’ killings

May lethal autonomous weapons systems-'killer robots'-be used in war? The majority of writers argue against their use, and those who have argued in favour have done so on a consequentialist basis. We defend the moral permissibility of killer robots, but on the basis of the non-Aggregative...

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Main Authors: Simpson, T, Müller, V
Formato: Journal article
Publicado em: Oxford University Press 2015
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author Simpson, T
Müller, V
author_facet Simpson, T
Müller, V
author_sort Simpson, T
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description May lethal autonomous weapons systems-'killer robots'-be used in war? The majority of writers argue against their use, and those who have argued in favour have done so on a consequentialist basis. We defend the moral permissibility of killer robots, but on the basis of the non-Aggregative structure of right assumed by Just War theory. This is necessary because the most important argument against killer robots, the responsibility trilemma proposed by Rob Sparrow, makes the same assumptions. We show that the crucial moral question is not one of responsibility. Rather, it is whether the technology can satisfy the requirements of fairness in the redistribution of risk. Not only is this possible in principle, but some killer robots will actually satisfy these requirements. An implication of our argument is that there is a public responsibility to regulate killer robots' design and manufacture.
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spelling oxford-uuid:5e1b2f9a-e97b-4b7d-8c9f-9179b8d6cd392022-03-26T17:38:28ZJust war and robots’ killingsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:5e1b2f9a-e97b-4b7d-8c9f-9179b8d6cd39Symplectic Elements at OxfordOxford University Press2015Simpson, TMüller, VMay lethal autonomous weapons systems-'killer robots'-be used in war? The majority of writers argue against their use, and those who have argued in favour have done so on a consequentialist basis. We defend the moral permissibility of killer robots, but on the basis of the non-Aggregative structure of right assumed by Just War theory. This is necessary because the most important argument against killer robots, the responsibility trilemma proposed by Rob Sparrow, makes the same assumptions. We show that the crucial moral question is not one of responsibility. Rather, it is whether the technology can satisfy the requirements of fairness in the redistribution of risk. Not only is this possible in principle, but some killer robots will actually satisfy these requirements. An implication of our argument is that there is a public responsibility to regulate killer robots' design and manufacture.
spellingShingle Simpson, T
Müller, V
Just war and robots’ killings
title Just war and robots’ killings
title_full Just war and robots’ killings
title_fullStr Just war and robots’ killings
title_full_unstemmed Just war and robots’ killings
title_short Just war and robots’ killings
title_sort just war and robots killings
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