Banning Autonomous and Semi-Autonomous Weapon Systems
“down in the park - where the machmen meet the machines and play “kill-by-numbers” - down in the park with a friend called “five”.
Gary Numan - Down in the Park
As technology grows ever closer to giving us an Autonomous Weapon System (AWS) I wonder if now is a good time to question whether or not they should be banned. The problem I see is not one of rehashed science fiction in which “the creation” turns on “the creator”. The problem I see is two fold.
First and foremost AWS’s and Semi-AWS’s lower the cost of war for a country. If the only cost of attacking someone is vehicle loss, nations may, and I believe eventually will, go to war quicker as there will be little to no backlash from the public. When there is no longer a need to send “the boys” off to fight and die what will make a war unpopular? Who’s propaganda do you trust?
Secondly and more disturbing is the question of what can and what will a government do to its own people when there is no longer a chance of failure in the chain of command. No longer will the ground forces have the human ability to go against orders. Imagine Nazi Germany with these systems. Imagine a mechanized SS patrolling the streets. Now understand that the likely hood of such a regime having these systems is almost guaranteed. It is human nature after all.
After these considerations I would propose an international treaty banning Autonomous and Semi-Autonomous Weapon Systems. This banning would not affect the use of drones for reconnaissance. It would however ensure the cost of war would remain more than most people are willing to pay and possibly keep governments a little more honest.
July 13, 2007
Friday the 13th - Reds and Double Crosses + T +

July 7, 2007
Live Earth - Cult of Gaia Target Youth

I’ve been watching the commercial called “Live Earth”. It clearly is designed to scare people to take action on a “cause” that the audience most likely doesn’t know much about. That is, I doubt that the nearly two-billion people watching are well versed in the earth sciences. This argumentum ad metam is being clothed in pop culture. Who doesn’t like pop culture? Unless you are pathologically anti-social you can’t help but like some of the people involved with this effort.
What exactly is their goal? Well it appears that they are fighting global warming and pollution. I can totally get on board with fighting pollution. Nobody likes it when rivers catch fire. I have something to say about their “carbon emission” fight though.
I’ll forego the most widely used and known arguments against the concept and backers to list a few points to consider when confronting the idea that a gas that plants and trees eat is actually harming the environment and requires taxation to be controlled.
If for a minute we forget that the galaxy and our solar system are currently going through some interesting phases and we look solely at the Earth’s “closed” eco-system. We find that a little carbon gas is the least of man’s environmental altering fate.
1. All warm blooded animals give off ,that’s right, warmth. That is to say they transform their food “energy supply” into heat.
2. Cars may give off carbon-monoxide that pollutes the air, but they also convert the potential energy of fuel into movement and heat. Think of all the engines that are constantly driving across this planet. Want to feel global warming first hand? Touch a car’s engine while its on. Do you not think that the heat given off by these cars doesn’t accumulate?
3. Stationary “manufacturing” machines that create heat. They too add to the “heat pollution”.
4. Don’t forget air-conditioners. They remove the heat from rooms and buildings. This is displaced heat. Plus you guessed it. Moving parts again create heat.
5. Let’s not forget the broadcast’s that have been covering this globe for nearly 100 years now. More energy in the sky that wasn’t there before. And more each year. You have a cell phone right? Listen to the radio? Watch television? Use wifi? All energy that used to be dormant in the ground.
6. What about solar panels? Energy is energy whether it’s from the ground or from space. Solar panels just ensure that the solar energy is trapped on Earth.
etc, etc, etc…
There are a myriad of heat sources that animals, humans, and the natural world create. The question you have to ask yourself is, “What’s more important to me? A planet or Humanity? A thing or a life? A place or a person?