1. Which of the following is NOT cited by supporters as a potential advantage of relying on autonomous weapons rather than on human soldiers to conduct our wars? Robots have the potential to be much faster, stronger, and more skilful fighters, and therefore much more likely to complete their missions successfully than human soldiers. Robots can attack their targets with greater accuracy and precision than humans can, thus significantly reducing the number of non-combatants killed by mistake or as collateral damage. Robots, unlike humans, are not susceptible to irrational prejudices or to emotions like rage and vengeance, which might undermine the success or moral quality of their mission. Robots operate autonomously, so if a military force directs its killer robots to decimate an enemy population through a campaign of horrific atrocities, it can deflect moral outrage and war crimes charges by blaming it all on the “unfortunate” actions of a bunch of “rogue robots.” Correct! Wrong!
