Creating moral buffers in weapon control interface design

Author

Cummings, M.L.

Author_Institution

Massachusetts Inst. of Technol., Cambridge, MA, USA

Volume

23

Issue

3

fYear

2004

Firstpage

28

Abstract

We examine the ethical and social issues surrounding the design of human-computer interfaces that are designed for control of highly autonomous weapons systems. With the improvements of global positioning satellite communications and control algorithms, it is currently possible to launch weapons. These systems are highly autonomous in that they do not need constant human supervision and manual control for operation and indeed, only require human intervention when a change in a goal state is required. In the swarm concept, human decision makers are removed even further from the decision-making loop.

Keywords

decision making; ethical aspects; human computer interaction; satellite navigation; user interfaces; weapons; autonomous weapons systems; control algorithms; decision-making loop; ethical issues; global positioning satellite communication; human decision makers; human-computer interfaces; moral buffer creation; social issues; swarm concept; weapon control interface design; Buildings; Communication system control; Computer interfaces; Control systems; Decision making; Ethics; Human factors; Pervasive computing; Safety; Weapons;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Technology and Society Magazine, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0278-0097

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MTAS.2004.1337888

Filename

1337888