"Military to curtail use of live animals in medical training; Medical exercises affected; battlefield tests will continue" by Bryan Bender | Globe Staff November 12, 2014
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon plans to halt the use of live animals in a variety of medical training programs, according to internal documents, putting it on a path to join the civilian medical community and most Western militaries, which have already banned such practices — from the poisoning of monkeys to study the effects of chemical warfare agents, to forcing tubes down live cats’ and ferrets’ throats as part of pediatric care training for military medical personnel.
Yet the steps stop short of ending all animal testing by the military. The armed forces will still be allowed to replicate battlefield trauma by shooting and blowing up goats, pigs, and other animals to gauge the impact of particular types of weapons....
"300 goats were killed last year alone," and why did District 9 just zap into my mind?
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It's currently $nowing dogs and cats, but who needs them?
Meet the 21st-century technological pet:
"Weapons directed by robots, not humans, raise ethical questions" by John Markoff | New York Times November 12, 2014
NEW YORK — On a bright fall day last year off the coast of Southern California, an Air Force B-1 launched an experimental missile that may herald the future of warfare.
Initially, pilots aboard the plane directed the missile, but halfway to its destination it severed communication with its operators. Alone, without human oversight, the missile decided which of three ships to attack, dropping to just above the sea surface and striking a 260-foot unmanned freighter.
Then Terminator was the future, and thank God machines never make mistakes.
The test was deemed a military success. But the design of this new missile and other weapons that can pick targets on their own has stirred protests from some analysts and scientists, who fear that an ethical boundary is being crossed.
They didn't fake and forge the results like they always do, did they?
Arms-makers, they say, are taking the first steps toward developing robotic war machines that rely on software, not human instruction, to decide what to target and whom to kill. The speed at which these weapons calculate and move will make them increasingly difficult for humans to control, critics say — or to defend against.
It's not a movie, folks; it was psyop preparation.
And some scientists worry that with the aim of reducing indiscriminate killing and automating conflict, these weapons one day could make war more thinkable, even more likely.
How more likely can it get? Look at the planet!
Conventional drones are operated by remote pilots, and heat- and radar-seeking missiles are directed by humans. But now Britain, Israel, and Norway are deploying missiles and drones that carry out attacks against enemy radar, tanks, or ships without direct human control.
Then Israel's hands won't be all over things like the attack on the U.S.S. Liberty.
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On Thursday, representatives from dozens of nations will meet in Geneva to consider whether development of these weapons should be restricted by the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. Christof Heyns, United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, last year called for a moratorium on the development of these weapons.
The Pentagon issued a directive requiring high-level authorization for development of weapons capable of killing without human oversight. But, technology has made the directive obsolete, some say.
Take Britain’s “fire and forget” Brimstone missiles, for example....
I'm not forgetting where they land and the people under them, are you?
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Related: Drones Fined With U.S. Government
