By P.W. Singer
In his book, Wired for War: the Robotics Revolution, P.W. Singer describes
the ongoing technological revolution in the US military. Director of the
21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institute, Singer has a
balanced view of these new technologies and highlights both their strengths
and weaknesses in detail.
Before Afghanistan and Iraq, senior military leaders had little interest in
robots. That attitude rapidly changed when military commanders discovered
exactly what these devices could do, under the right circumstances. For
example, "of the twenty high-value militant leaders the United States sought
out in 2008, eleven were killed via drones strike." Last year, the US air
force trained more pilots to fly drones than all its other manned aircraft
together.
The book explores the robotic revolution from multiple aspects. It describes
how the US military research and development establishment works and how
science fiction ideas didn't predict the future as much create the future.
Star Trek, for example, stimulated the future development of inventions such
as the cell phone and the microcomputer.
Robots are not without their limitations. For example, robots are used to
defuse IEDs (improvised explosive devices) in a far from one-sided contest.
The insurgents and the military have engaged in a see-saw technological
battle . measures, followed by countermeasures. Iraqis are not idiots. There
have been examples where robots, armed with weapons, developed a software
glitch and started firing in all directions.
An ethnical boundary was passed when unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were
armed with weapons. As these robots become more autonomous, sooner or later
robots will be given the authority to take out targets on their own
initiative. Such computer driven decisions create all sorts of ethical and
accountability issues. If a pilot drops a bomb on his own troops, there is
someone to hold accountable. Who can be blamed if a robot makes a mistake
and randomly attacks an innocent family?
The billions that the US military is spending on robots are bound to have
civilian implications. Research into autonomous driving systems, which is
proceeding at a very fast pace, has the potential to create robotic driven
delivery trucks. We know that new technology always has unanticipated
consequences; a recent example is that of the computer and the fax machine.
These two technologies have dramatically affected office work and eliminated
entire job categories. Who knows what will happen when robots become
mainstream?
Wired for War, by P.W. Singer, is well worth reading as the author candidly
explores a new generation of technologies with massive military and civilian
implications.
- Reviewed by John Shepherd, former trustee for the Prince George
Public Library Board
We Need To Talk About Kevin
By Lionel Shriver
Eva Khatchadourian's teenage son, Kevin, has committed a violent and heinous
crime: a high-school massacre. In the aftermath of his crime, Eva struggles
to come to grips with her son's actions and to understand what, if any,
responsibility she and her husband must shoulder.
The novel We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver, tells this story
in the form of letters that Eva writes to Kevin's father. Through her
communications, Eva examines her son's upbringing, trying to make sense of
what has occurred and trying to pinpoint the many warning signs that she and
her husband failed to heed. Through her narrative, Eva reveals and agonizes
over errors she and her husband made in raising their son: she being too
cold and distant, her husband being too lenient and permissive. Yet, none of
their errors are particularly unique to them; these same 'mistakes' are made
by many parents, and their children never go on to commit mass-murder. And
so, Eva's tale begs the question: are murderers 'made' via their upbringing,
or are some people just born evil?
We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver, is a thought-provoking and
horrifying novel that, while fictional, tackles the very real phenomenon of
high-school massacres and teenage killers. Each page is a page-turner, and
even though the reader expects the tragedy looming at the end of the novel,
the suspense and horror of the tale is no less intense. Fans of the
horror/thriller genres will find this book gripping, chilling, and
impossible to put down.
- Reviewed by Teresa De Reis, Readers' Advisor at the Prince George
Public Library
