Category Archives: T – war

T - war, W - future

Ethical Algorithms

Nano drones that an infantryman can pull out of his pocket; helicopters piloted by robots who extract wounded soldiers from the battlefield; micro satellites on demand; large spy balloons in the upper reaches of the stratosphere; virtual training with a helmet from your office; algorithms that resolve pilots’ ethical dilemmas (so they won’t have to deal with those pesky war crimes tribunals); and farming out code to a network of high school kids.

Ref: Nano Drones, Ethical Algorithms: Inside Israel’s Secret Plan for Its Future Air Force

T - war, W - now

WikiLeaked Data Can Predict Insurgent Attacks

And yet the military has spent millions developing predictive tools. They don’t work very well. Darpa’s Integrated Crisis Early Warning System actually predicts few crises. Its predecessors, which date back to the 1980s, were arguably even more inaccurate. But those seek to predict big, sweeping geopolitical events. Researchers have had better luck estimating expected fatalities from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But predicting violent events with news reports as data?

Ref: WikiLeaked Data Can Predict Insurgent Attacks – Robert Beckhusen