Ethics of Autonomous Drones in the Military Essay Example for Free

Ethics of Autonomous Drones in the Military Essay She states that even the best and most trained soldiers that are in the midst of battle may not always be able to act accordingly with the battlefield rules of engagement that were stated by the Geneva Convention because of possible lashing out from normal human emotions such as anger, fear, resent, and vengefulness. The second major point Dean wants to show, by the views and studies of others, in her article is that with this possible step in our evolution of military technology we do not want to let this idea fade away. Another major point is if we do develop this technology how would we do so, and if not, would we regret not advancing in this field further many years from now. With all of this information Dean uses to present her ideas there are still major flaws such as, the majority of these ideas and beliefs are theoretical, they still have not been fully tested, there is error in all technologies, and where else would the technological advancements lead artificial intelligence. The first argument providing support for Dean’s major point comes from the research hypothesis and thoughts of a computer scientist at Georgia Institute of Technology named Ronald Arkin. Arkin is currently under contract by the United States Army to design software programs for possible battlefield and current battlefield robots. The research hypothesis of Arkin is that he believes that intelligent autonomous robots can perform much more ethically in the heat of the battlefield than humans currently can. Yet this is just a hypothesis and while there is much research done towards this hypothesis there are still no absolutely positive research information that states an autonomous robot drone can in fact perform better than any soldier on the ground or up in a plane could do. In Arkins hypothesis, he stated that these robots could be designed with no sense of self-preservation. This means that without one of the strongest fears for humans, the fear of death, these robots would be able to understand, compute, and react to situations with out outside extraneous emotions. Although the men and women designing these robot programs may be able to eliminate this psychological problem of scenario fulfillment, which will cause soldiers to retain information that is playing out easier with a bias to pre-existing ideas, it is not always the case that this happens to soldiers. You have to realize that from the second a soldier begins his training he is trained and taught to eliminate the sense of self-preservation. There are isolated incidents with soldier error, but they are and will be corrected by superior officers or their fellow soldiers. Another factor that affects Cornelia Dean’s arguments is that there are errors in all things including technology. Throughout history there have been new uses of technology in warfare but with these come problems and error flaws that have cause and can cause more casualties than needed. With the use of an Automated drone the belief by Dean is that it will be able to decide whether or not to launch an attack on a high priority target whether or not if the target is in a public are and will decide if the civilian casualties would be worth it. But what happens if that drone is only identifying the target and the number of civilians surrounding it? It will not be able to factor in what type of people would be around him such as men, women, or children and any variance of them. The error in this situation would be the drone saying the target is high enough priority and a missile is launched and the civilians were women and children around while a school bus was driving by. The casualties would then instantly out weigh the priority to eliminate a specific target and a human pilot would much easier abort a mission than a predetermined response of an autonomous robot. Although Ronald Arkin believes there are situations that could arise when there may not be time for a robotic device to relay back what is happening to a human operator and wait for how to respond in the situation that could complete a mission, it may be that second of time delay between the robot and human operator that the ethical judgment is made. Also the realization that many robots in which are operated by humans are widely used to detect mines, dispose of or collects bombs, and clear out buildings to help ensure extra safety of our soldiers is a way that robots are already used today as battlefield assistants supports Dean. But all of these machines in the field have moments of failure or error. When the machines do fail it takes a soldier who has trained for that experience to fix and then use it again. If an autonomous drone fails while on a mission it is completely by its self and no human operator to fix it. Then can arise the problem of enemies realizing they were even being monitored and they could gain access to our military technology and can eventually use it against us. Another major point that Cornelia Dean discusses upon is with this possible step in our evolution of military technology we do not want to let this idea fade away. A large part of that is if we do develop this technology how would we do so, and if not, how much would we regret or how much would it affect us for not advancing in this field further many years from now. The argument that if other countries advance upon this faster and better than the United States military we could become less of a world power and be more at risk of attack and war with greater human fatalities is not necessarily true. This situation is important in the sense of keeping up with the other world powers but I believe that the risk for reward is not worth the amount of damage and civilian casualties that could happen from any number of robotic drones and their possible errors. There is a possibility as the technology develops and robots become more and more aware to the point were, Arkin believes that, they can make decisions at a higher level of technological development. Yet if these autonomous robots truly can think for themselves and make decisions brings a whole new possibility of problems of what if the robot can decide something differently than what the developers originally had programmed. Also comes the actual use problem of can the government ethically accept that in early stages of use, even after extraneous testing, there may be accidental casualties. If a robot has any error of making decisions because of how new and un-tested they are any of the possibly terrible results would not be the responsibility of the robot but of the country and government that designed it. The supporting evidence of this article strongly shows that Cornelia Dean will hope that use of these ethically superior autonomous robots will be apart of our military in the near future before the United States fall behind to other super powers in the world. Yet with all of this information Dean uses to present her ideas there are still major flaws such as, the majority of these ideas and beliefs are theoretical, they still have not been fully tested, and that there is error in all technologies. With these major points being enforced with plenty of evidence throughout the article, and with all of the possible negative sides and errors of this argument, it is safe to say that this will be and is a controversial topic of discussion by many governments and all parties involved with this technological advancement.

To Kill A Mocking Bird :: To Kill a Mockingbird Essays

To Kill a Mockingbird Usually, my method of writing a book review starts off with a quote. However, this time with this particular book I’ve decided to begin with a description of the author. Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926. She studied law along with her father and sister. In her allegorical novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee writes about a young girl in a small southern town by showing the difficulties she will have to face as she grows up.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The author’s purpose is to show us how life isn’t always fair. I strongly agree with her on that for several reasons. For example, look at what happened to Tom Robinson. He was accused of a crime he didn’t commit and then he was killed because someone was lonely. She got him in trouble, which drove him to his death. In this example, life is definitely not fair because he never should have been accused of something he did not do. I could give several examples of smaller, less important situations that have the same theme as this story does â€Å"do not harm people who do not harm you.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The setting of this book was in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s. Scout, Jem and Dill spend the summer trying to get Boo Radley out of his house. None of them had ever seen him. Scout started to school and on his way there and back, he and Jem would find gifts in a hole in the tree by the rocky place. Scout and Jem started hearing their father referred to as a â€Å"nigger-lover† because he was defending Tom Robinson – a Negro man accused of rape. When Scout, Jem and Calpurnia come home from church, they find Aunt Alexandrea is staying with them for the trial. One night, Atticus mysteriously leaves the house. Scout, Jem, Dill follow him. A lynch mob appears and was trying to force Atticus to let them have the Negro prisoner, but then the kids show up. On the way back from a Halloween pageant, the children were attacked by someone and caused Jem a broken arm.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  During the book, Scout changes a lot. She goes from being an immature young girl to a mature young lady. She had a lot to adjust to in this story. For example, Jem felt her was older and too old to hang out with his little sister.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation Essay

A motive is a specific need or drive that arouses you and directs your behavior toward a certain goal. Emotion refers to the experience of feelings, (such as fear, sadness, happiness, etc) which also affects behavior. They push us to take some kind of action whether we are aware of it or not. Psychologists have put these behaviors into 3 categories: Arousal Theory, Drive-Reduction Theory, and Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation (Morris, 2012). Intrinsic & Extrinsic Motivation Shannon comes to work every day on time. She does her job as assigned, works hard, takes on challenging tasks to improve performance, and ensures that this is noticed by others. She is very clear about the expectations for her position as well as the criteria for evaluation. During annual evaluations, she hopes her evaluation scores are high enough for her to be eligible for a merit raise. One of her primary goals for this year is to be nominated for the employee of the year at the company’s annual dinner, which comes with both a preferred parking and a cash bonus. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation may increase Shannon’s motivation because it motivates her to see others see her doing a good job and this behavior can be defined as intrinsic motivation because of the praise she gets from others. Her behavior is also motivated by the goal of being employee of the year, which comes with rewards and this can be defined as extrinsic motivation. Although Shannon enjoys her job the motivation of an award is what motivates her the most. She is motivated extrinsically by the rewards she may receive for her behavior at work, therefore her intrinsic motivation and sense of responsibility for her behavior are likely to increase. The Arousal theory may decrease Shannon’s motivation because she doesn’t need to be stimulated to do her job, and there are no incentives in the end to reward her for a job well done. She is not seeking a thrill for her behavior; she will perform better with praise and rewards (Morris, 2012). Arousal Theory Joe enjoys coming to work each day. He finds pleasure in the outcome of his work. He believes his work helps others. He seeks out new ways to make his work more effective, and often initiates new work projects. He likes to stay busy throughout the day. He sometimes has a hard time if there is not enough work to do. He has no desire to leave the organization and would like to continue to be promoted within the company as he gains experience. The Arousal Theory can best motivate Joe because he is a thrill seeker and is motivated by the challenge of seeking new ways to make his work more effective. Joe is a sensation seeker and without it he will become bored with his work. He needs to keep his arousal at an optimum level in order to be productive. The Drive- Reduction theory may decrease Joe’s motivation because it’s the drive that keeps him going. Homeostasis or balance may not be enough excitement for him, and will lower his motivation and ambition at work. His primary and secondary drives are already established by his work performance, and his reward is the knowledge he has gained (Morris, 2012). These achievement-oriented behaviors can be very useful in the work place because everyone need a motive to do a good job. An employee can motivate by giving new challenges to a bored employee whose job has become routine and boring like in the Arousal Theory, or by giving incentives such as praise and bonuses as mentioned in the Intrinsic and Extrinsic Theory. Once an employer observe an individual’s behavior and work ethics they can decide which method will best motivate their employee to do a good job and enjoy it as well (Morris, 2012). References Morris,C. (2012). Understanding Psychology( 10th ed.).

Informed Consent Valid Consent Essay - 1787 Words

INFORMED CONSENT : Valid consent is impossible. To date, foetal tissue transplants have been handled as any other organ transplants under the UAGA, thus requiring consent of next of kin. The mother cannot give morally legitimate consent, since she initiated the termination of the pregnancy. Elimination of consent, however, would further turn the unborn child into an object; it would be inconsistent with the fact that, biologically, the developing foetus does not interpret the woman’s tissue. The UAGA and the NIH Panel both fail to discern the conflict between normal organ transplants and the function of foetal tissue. In the instance of foetal tissue, the mother is presumed to be the one who gives consent to the use of the tissue for the transplant (or for some other kind of experimentation). Granting to the normal understanding of proxy consent, her role assumes that she is working in the best interest of the unborn child. 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