Not an entirely meaningful situation, and most of it is done with tongues planted firmly in cheeks. However, with the recent incident of an South African combat robot killing fourteen people, it echoes some important questions about technology.
Friday, November 02, 2007 •
Thursday, October 25, 2007 •
We’re not used to thinking of them this way. But many advanced military weapons are essentially robotic—picking targets out automatically, slewing into position, and waiting only for a human to pull the trigger. Most of the time. Once in a while, though, these machines start firing mysteriously on their own. The South African National Defence Force “is probing whether a software glitch led to an antiaircraft cannon malfunction that killed nine soldiers and seriously injured 14 others during a shooting exercise on Friday.”
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It “is assumed that there was a mechanical problem, which led to the accident. The gun, which was fully loaded, did not fire as it normally should have,” he said. “It appears as though the gun, which is computerised, jammed before there was some sort of explosion, and then it opened fire uncontrollably, killing and injuring the soldiers.”
-SA National Defence Force spokesman brigadier general Kwena Mangope