When Emerging Technologies Affect the Human Psyche: Weapons of War

Emerging technologies change how we relate to the realities of the world, and to each other.  Technology in warfare is no different.  Whether it was the cannon, the machine gun, or the nuclear bomb, the change expanded the horizon of our capabilities.  And since war is a human activity, the way we interact with these newfound capabilities, on a mental, emotional, and even physical level, affects its trajectory and outcomes. In a TED talk, military analyst P.W. Singer tells a story about an American explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) team in Iraq on a mission to diffuse an improvised explosive device (IED).  When one member of the team got close enough to the bomb to begin to attempt to diffuse it, it exploded.  But the story ended with a twist:  that team member was not a human soldier, but a robot.  No condolence letter needed to be written to any family members.

When talking about emerging technologies in warfare, whether they be drones in the sky or robots on the ground, we are dealing with two aspects of human nature that, in the context of war, must be carefully balanced.  On the one hand, we want to preserve our lives, and the lives of others.  On the other hand, drone technology that is now used to that end has psychological consequences that affect behavior.  Singer said something that surprised me:  drone pilots who operated drones that fly in Iraq from bases on U.S. soil had higher rates of PTSD than units who were overseas.  There is a dichotomy of two experiences with virtually no transition between them: pilots will go to shifts, then go home for the night.  A pilot can fire rockets at real people and then be with their family a few hours later.  War became an experience not much different from other lines of work.  And then, of course, there is the classic question of whether or not it is easier to make rash decisions when one is disconnected from the violence on the ground.

There are other kinds of emergent technologies that could be weaponized in the near future when applied to robotics.  Ahead of the release of Batman v. Superman, the Film Theorists YouTube channel highlighted a method by which Batman could beat Superman without the use of Kryptonite:  scientists at UC Berkeley created robotic muscle fibers that are a thousand times stronger than human muscles.  My question is, how might this change the psychology of war if we begin to use this technology in robots on a regular basis?  Presumably, there is great potential in its use in rescue operations, and so forth.  But if we use our technology as an extension of our capabilities, to what other uses might we investigate?

This stuff might seem more distant from our daily lives, but there are real policy impacts to examine.  What do you think?  How ought we to approach emerging technologies in warfare going forward?