Jobs for philosophers in the US Army?

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"New 'Iraq massacre' tape emerges. The BBC obtains new video evidence that US troops may have deliberately killed 11 Iraqi civilians in March." (Thursday, 1 June 2006, 22:06 GMT 23:06 UK )

War is one of the things that best distingushes homo sapiens from other animal species. It might not be too obvious, if fought with stones and sticks. But once weapons finally become available and religion kicks in, Darwin Test is over: you know which agent belongs to our species by just looking at the puking amount of destruction and pain that he can violently and gratuitously inflict onto others.

Not so for the Turing Test. Perhaps a robot could not easily fool you into thinking that he is a warrior; but the warrior may certainly be indistinguishable from an automata. Or at least that's what the army would like him to be. I know. I was an automata myself for a full year.

Automata are trained not to think. So war, which is so quintessentially human, is unfortunately incompatible with that other trait, just about as uniquely human, that is intelligence.
This of course creates a bit of a vicious circle, but also a nice job opportunity for your philosopher. One begins by training perfect fighting automata. But then these tend to commit awful crimes, massacres, genocides, violences of all sorts. This would not be a problem if only there weren't reporters and a public that likes a good fight but gets upset when war becomes bellic. Soon it is realised that these automata should be a bit more human, that they need some further untraining, that perhaps some ethics could do. We are back full circle: we need to teach them to think again.
"Ethics lessons for US Iraq troops. US-led troops in Iraq are to undergo ethical training in the wake of the alleged murder of civilians in Haditha." BBC. (Thursday, 1 June 2006, 17:47 GMT 18:47 UK)

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