Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War

· Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Roger Wayne
4.5
2 reviews
Audiobook
13 hr 21 min
Unabridged
Eligible
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About this audiobook

Paul Scharre, a Pentagon defense expert and former U.S. Army Ranger, explores what it would mean to give machines authority over the ultimate decision of life or death. Scharre's far-ranging investigation examines the emergence of autonomous weapons, the movement to ban them, and the legal and ethical issues surrounding their use. He spotlights artificial intelligence in military technology, spanning decades of innovation from German noise-seeking Wren torpedoes in World War II-antecedents of today's homing missiles-to autonomous cyber weapons, submarine-hunting robot ships, and robot tank armies. Through interviews with defense experts, ethicists, psychologists, and activists, Scharre surveys what challenges might face "centaur warfighters" on future battlefields, which will combine human and machine cognition. We've made tremendous technological progress in the past few decades, but we have also glimpsed the terrifying mishaps that can result from complex automated systems-such as when advanced F-twenty-two fighter jets experienced a computer meltdown the first time they flew over the International Date Line.

Ratings and reviews

4.5
2 reviews
Alan Rominger
November 16, 2020
This was a fun listen, but it could probably have been condensed some. I learned some new things with several of the researched cases it had. I was astonished by the degree of sophistication that cyber warfare had advanced to, but the author lays it out in a way that's too abstract for me to actually understand what was going on. It talks about super sophisticated new methods for hacking into a network, but there are some layers of knowledge below that missing. It was unclear to me what the basic categorization of the hacks being attempted were, and the net effect of success was. In the storytelling and connections the book makes, you're getting the modern military perspective. That was great, it made it a more enjoyable listen. Some of the examples were repeated a few times over to make certain points. In a few cases, there just were not a lot of precedent, so it's obvious why this happens. For example, if you're trying to talk about documented fatalities from autonomous systems, there just aren't all that many to draw from. Overall this was very well put together, and it covers a whole lot of ground.
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Roger Patrick
January 6, 2021
otemo aodeo livro. Prosperidades,estarei uzamdo este qualificativo com projeto de defeza naceonao japonês.
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About the author

Paul Scharre is a former US Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The author of the award-winning study of autonomous weapons, Army of None, he is currently vice president and director of studies at the Center for a New American Security. He lives in Virginia.

Roger Wayne hails from small-town Minnesota. He served in the Air Force as a broadcast journalist in South Korea before obtaining his BA in communications and journalism. Roger has recorded for video games, animation, and commercials, and he loves making books come to life. You can see what he's up to at rogerwayne.com.

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