Schwarznegger arrives as governments embrace military robotics
The age of the ‘terminator’ has arrived, with the Australian and United States government recently increasing investment expenditure on ‘self-manned’ military robotics.
The increasing popularity of such technology has sparked belief that wars of the future are no longer to be “fought by humans, but rather for humans,” as stated by former consultant to Barrack Obama and leading defence expert, Peter Singer.
In a recent interview with ABC radio, Singer outlined the US government’s exponential increase in the use of unmanned robotics, whilst also establishing it’s power in allowing governments to identify and spy on suspected threats to national security.
“We went into Iraq just a few years ago with a handful of these unmanned planes. We now have over 7,000 in the US military inventory alone and the growth curve is only continuing.”
Singer also stressed the impact such “ably intrusive” technology may have on an individual’s privacy rights, one of the key ethical issues of concern behind it’s implementation. “We may be entering into an era where as opposed to 15 minutes of fame; 15 minutes of privacy is all (that) we get.”
In spite of such obvious concerns, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has confirmed Australia’s devotion in ‘robitizing’ the military, recently releasing a multimillion dollar investment plan that includes the purchase of 100 ‘remote controlled’ fighter jets.
