The Ethics of Future Warfare

[Indy]

[The Comrade]

so not firebombing one of the largest cities in the middle east isn't better?

[Professor]

Also, one other thing.

I believe that, in the future, "all out wars" (at least, those involving America) will involve even fewer casualties than these "insurgent" wars. In an all-out war, combatants are clearly defined and tend to not hide among civilians. We can kill a tank, an air base, or a ship, and civilian casualties are held to a bare minimum. In these insurgent wars, the insurgents are the civilians. At night, when sleeping in their homes, they are civilians. Then, they wake up, pick up their gun, and suddenly they're an insurgent. Kinda tough to differentiate between them when deciding which category to sort them into when they're killed.

Oh, and for clarity on the numbers I used, I took high estimates of civilians/military, then subtracted. Then took low estimates, and subtracted. Then either averages or "best guesses" and did the same. For Vietnam, the ratios were something like 21% (for low estimates), 37% for high, and 41% for best guesses.

[Indy]

[John Galt]

i don't like the term "drone". a "drone" to me needs to be autonomous. these are actually remotely controlled by a human operator.

if actual drones come into play, ones that can make their own decisions as to how to react to a given situation in order to achieve an objective, then we can have a problem. a robot programmed to win at chess may end up killing you. why? because it's programmed to win at chess. unplugging it will make it so it can't win at chess. stopping you from unplugging it is clearly the correct course of action

theoretically a drone on drone war could end more like how war ended before (sans rape and pillage) where once the army is defeated the war is over. regular war could once again take place as people are afraid to confront the drone army when their own drones are vanquished. and so then we have a lot less loss of life, possibly none. unfortunately the humans will take up arms and turn it into an irregular war, increasing loss of life. autotargetting weapons may help them out but only delay the inevitable against an enemy that has enough resources to just make more drones (like the us)

[Indy]

[The Comrade]

[Indy]

You don't order me to do anything, chump. Especially answer any more of your questions when you refuse to do the same. Get over yourself.

[The Comrade]

[Dylan]

Ohhhh.snap he called you chump bro you gonna take that shit?