Defense technologies raise critical questions

May 24, 2010

What are the ramifications of making self-directed robots, cyborg insects, drone fighter aircraft and cognitive-enhancement drugs essential tools of national defense operations?<separator></separator>Are we prepared to deal with the social, political and moral implications of deploying these powerful military technologies?<separator></separator>Such technology isn’t futuristic, it’s on the near horizon, says Arizona State University engineering professor Brad Allenby.<separator></separator>Allenby writes in the online news magazine Slate about the challenges we face in framing a rational societal response to the potential impacts of these stunningly advanced technologies – impacts that will reach far beyond the battlefield.<separator></separator>The article is published in conjunction with "Warring Futures: How Biotech and Robotics Are Transforming Today's Military—and How That Will Change the Rest of Us," a May 24 conference in Washington, D.C., sponsored by Slate, the New America Foundation, and Arizona State University.  <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2254147/">Read article.</a><separator></separator>To hear an interview on the the subject with Allenby and Daniel Sarewitz, director of ASU's Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes, on the national radio program The Takeaway, <a href="http://www.thetakeaway.org/2010/may/27/how-military-tech-will-change-wa… here.</a><separator></separator>  <separator></separator>The show is a co-production of Public Radio International and WNYC Radio in collaboration with BBC World Service, The New York Times and WGBH Boston.<separator></separator>Allenby is a professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, a part of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. He’s also the ASU Lincoln Center Professor of Engineering and Ethics.<separator></separator>He is working with the U. S. Naval Academy Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership in a program bringing together scholars and teachers with senior career military officers, civil servants and others to promote public understanding of ethics and leadership issues involving war and defense strategies.<separator></separator>Related to that effort, Allenby investigates the social, cultural, ethical and operational implications of emerging military and national security technologies.

Engineering Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering