Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century (original 2009; edition 2011)

Very informative on where robotics comes from, what trajectories might the innovation take, and the problems involved in that. A connoisseur at its best, with all the sort of argument-and-its-opposite that is typical in a topic in flux. ( )

Interesting book. Author brings up some good points. I really makes one wonder about how war is going to change (it should go away). I found the ethical and legal discussions in the second half more fascinating than the robots descriptions. ( )

Wired for War ranges far beyond robotics, discussing the many ways high-tech is changing warfare and its institutions.

Peter Singer has deliberately written a much more personal book than Corporate Warriors, which was dry and academic in tone, but he never strays far from the position of defense expert.

In Wired for War, the still youthful author (34 at the time the book was published) appeals to a broader audience, incorporating anecdotes, one-liners, catchphrases, hundreds of references to popular culture, and a glib journalistic style that skates over intellectual depths. The book's glowing reviews in both general and specialized publications indicates he has succeeded.

His notes on sources, are meticulous. He sometimes slips up, though, e.g. Sartre's "Hell is other people" is attributed to Nietzsche (287); some of the chapter epigraphs (unsourced) also seem dubious. Despite his Ph.D. in government, his sense of history is also unreliable: it is surprising that he doesn't know that the samurai code of chivalry, far from having "lasted over a millennium" (433), was a 19th-century re-invention inculcated by Japanese nationalists (cf. Tessa Morris-Suzuki, "The Invention and Reinvention of 'Japanese Culture', Journal of Asian Studies 54.3 [August 1995]: 759-80).

Singer could be called a critical militarist. He excludes radical and even moderate critical input—a pity, because his material is often so radically new—more than once signaling his disdain for the left as clueless (288, 388). Singer's position is couched in the rhetoric of inevitability, but like the reactionary American national security state élite of which he is a part and the decline of which his work aspires to help stave off, he seems primarily motivated by fear. Singer never criticizes the concept of the War on Terror. He is sensitive to many ethical concerns, especially at the level of the individual. He is also uninterested by social problems like inequality. Implicitly an élitist, Singer is particularly interested in the effect of technological revolution on problems of authority and command. ( )

Professor Mary Kaldor of LSE has chosen to discuss P W Singer’s Wired for War on FiveBooks as one of the top five on her subject - War , saying that:



“… In 2004 there were 150 robots being used in Iraq. By 2008 there were 12,000. They do relatively benign things like de-mining and dismantling explosives but they also kill people. There is “The Predator” – an unmanned vehicle that hovers over an enemy for up to 90 hours before they decide whether to kill them or not. …”



The full interview is available here: http://five-books.com/interviews/mary-kaldor ( )

Brookings Institute fellow Singer (Children at War) believes that we resist trying to research and understand change in the making of war. Robotics promises to be the most comprehensive instrument of change in war since the introduction of gunpowder. Beginning with a brief and useful survey of robotics, Singer discusses its military applications during WWII, the arming and autonomy of robots at the turn of the century, and the broad influence of robotics on near-future battlefields. How, for example, can rules of engagement for unmanned autonomous machines be created and enforced? Can an artificial intelligence commit a war crime? Arguably more significant is Singers provocative case that war itself will be redefined as technology creates increasing physical and emotional distance from combat. As robotics diminishes wars risks the technology diminishes as well the higher purposes traditionally used to justify it. Might that reduce humanities propensity for war making? Or will robotics make war less humane by making it less human? Singer has more questions than answers—but it is difficult to challenge his concluding admonition to question and study the technologies of military robotics—while the chance remains. (Jan. 26)