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The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century
Penguin Press
February 2009
On Sale: January 22, 2009
400 pages
ISBN: 1594201986
EAN: 9781594201981
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
A military expert reveals how science fiction is fast
becoming reality on the battlefield, changing not just how
wars are fought, but also the politics, economics, laws,
and ethics that surround war itself P. W. Singer’s previous two books foretold the rise of
private military contractors and the advent of child
soldiers— predictions that proved all too accurate. Now, he
explores the greatest revolution in military affairs since
the atom bomb—the advent of robotic warfare. We are just beginning to see a massive shift in military
technology that threatens to make the stuff of I,Robot and
the Terminator all too real. More than seven- thousand
robotic systems are now in Iraq. Pilots in Nevada are
remotely killing terrorists in Afghanistan. Scientists are
debating just how smart—and how lethal—to make their
current robotic prototypes. And many of the most renowned
science fiction authors are secretly consulting for the
Pentagon on the next generation. Blending historic evidence with interviews from the field,
Singer vividly shows that as these technologies multiply,
they will have profound effects on the front lines as well
as on the politics back home. Moving humans off the
battlefield makes wars easier to start, but more complex to
fight. Replacing men with machines may save some lives, but
will lower the morale and psychological barriers to
killing. The “warrior ethos,” which has long defined
soldiers’ identity, will erode, as will the laws of war
that have governed military conflict for generations. Paradoxically, these new technologies will also bring war
to our doorstep. As other nations and even terrorist
organizations start to build or buy their own robotic
weapons, the robot revolution could undermine America’s
military preeminence. While his analysis is unnerving,
there’s an irresistible gee-whiz quality to the innovations
Singer uncovers. Wired for War travels from Iraq to see
these robots in combat to the latter-day “skunk works” in
America’s suburbia, where tomorrow’s technologies of war
are quietly being designed. In Singer’s hands, the future
of war is as fascinating as it is frightening.
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