THE FUTURE OF DRONES IN WARFARE

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THE FUTURE OF DRONES IN WARFARE
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• As frightening a thought as it may be to many, a
  drone designed for use in warfare with mass
  killing capabilities may one day be available
  thanks to advances in technology. A recent video
  created by those who are pushing for a ban on
  autonomous weapons, depicts innocent civilians
  being slaughtered by a swarm of killer drones.
  Entitled slaughterbots, the video has gained
  worldwide attention and has certainly bolstered
  the argument against the use of such weapons in
  warfare (or in any circumstances), but just how
  realistic is this?
• What is the main premise of the video,
  slaughterbots?
• The theme and central message that the video
  intends to convey, is the risk of

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• future militaries developing and creating micro
  drones that are fully autonomous and have the
  capability to fly towards an individuals head,
  cause an explosion, and kill the victim. The
  videos creators also wanted to highlight what
  they perceived as being the very real threat of
  these killer drones somehow getting into the
  hands of terrorists.
• Experts have stated that these combat drones are
  in fact, much easier to create than something
  like a self-driving car, and require far less
  standards of performance than them, making their
  development a very real possibility.

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• How does a slaughterbot work?
• While military drones in use today are generally
  controlled remotely, other drones used for
  recreational purposes are becoming increasingly
  autonomous, making the prospect of a drone such
  as a so-called slaughterbot being autonomous
  and equipped with facial recognition technology
  as portrayed in the video, more possible.
• How significant is the threat of such drones
  getting into the wrong hands?
• We need to be realistic when assessing the risk
  of drones that can kill on mass,

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• being used by terrorists, and while we can
  enforce preventative measures to try and avoid
  such a risk, we will never be able to stop the
  threat entirely. Just as a terrorist can make a
  bomb, or drive a car into a crowd of people,
  little can be done to stop them from turning
  recreational drones, into basic but deadly
  killing weapons.
• One proposal for a solution to the threat,
  involves a legally binding treaty that places a
  ban on all autonomous weapons, but its hard to
  see how this could ever tackle the very real
  problems mankind is facing as weapons become
  increasingly autonomous.

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• The increased development and use of autonomous
  drones as weapons of war, raises many questions
  about the moral role of humans in warfare, and
  about the basic and generally accepted laws of
  combat, risk and controllability. However,
  advances in technology mean that slaughterbots
  may soon be in use, and there could be precious
  little we can realistically do to prevent this
  from happening.
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