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War as Entertainment?

Peter W. Singer
Peter W. Singer Former Brookings Expert, Strategist and Senior Fellow - New America

February 28, 2009

Peter Singer joined bigthink.com to explore if force is used more liberally when humans are removed from the battlefield and replaced by robotics.

Peter Singer: I went around the world and interviewed all sorts of people working on the robotics trend — everything from robot scientists, to the science fiction authors who inspired them, to 4-star generals, to the 19 year old drone pilots in Nevada, to the Iraqi insurgents they were targeting and to Red Cross layers. You name it, across the board.

One of the things that was fascinating is that there was one shared concern among all of them. And it was that as you moved humans out of danger, it also potentially made them more willing to use force.

Watch the full interview »