Content area
Full Text
The Ethical Questions of Military Technology
In 1139, Pope Innocent II led the Second Lateran Council in banning the use of crossbows in war. At the time, the technology of the crossbow was unparalleled. Requiring only minimal training and little strength, the weapon had a range of up to four hundred yards and an unprecedented deadliness. A lowly and hastily-trained peasant could penetrate the armor of a trained knight at the squeeze of a trigger, thereby challenging the traditional power structure in conflict. The Roman Catholic Church, the most powerful political and spiritual order of the time, perceived the technology as a moral abomination and a gross transformation of the nature of warfare. Therefore, the Second Lateran Council proclaimed in their 29th Canon a "prohibit[ion] under anathema that murderous art of crossbowmen and archers, which is hateful to God, to be employed against Christians and Catholics from now on." The reaction of the Church to the development of the crossbow is an early but illustrative example of how ethical concerns can prompt society to reconsider the potentially devastating effects of military technology.
In recent years, the rise of robotics and human enhancement has given rise to a new variety of ethical questions. The desired effects of progress in the realm of military technology include increased effectiveness in combat, durability in defense, and rapidity in the resolution of conflicts. At first glance, automated fighting and human enhancement appear as effective ways to achieve these goals. The removal of human fighters from the battlefield, the vision offered by fully robotic warfare, would be the most direct way to reduce casualties. Moreover, human enhancement offers possibilities of yet more efficient and effective combat and defense mechanisms in fighting.
However, robotics and human enhancement also pose alarming prospects of ethical blowback. The depersonalization of warfare lowers the stakes of declaring war in the first place. Therefore, with regards to international law and the longterm goals of military programs, automated warfare may be self-defeating and even counterintuitive. Furthermore, biological and technological upgrades to the human body raise a host of concerns, such as risks to health, the ability to reintegrate into civil society, and the use of enhancements outside of warfare.
Development of Robotics
At a basic level, robots are...