I read an interesting article in the online E&T (above) that reports of a pledge to not assist in the development of so-called Killer Robots. Should the IET take a stance, be the first PEI to endorse the pledge and furthermore expect/encourage its members to sign up too?
I have to disagree with your last sentence. When you are looking at misuse causing unsafe operation or harm you are (or should be) not only considering harm to the operator but also harm to potential innocent bystanders. This is applicable to anything from electrical distribution substation design (people walking past just as the operator messes up the switching operation) to military weapons systems and autonomous drones. The military also want the autonomous drone to hit the intended target and not a bystander (though I admit that with budget cuts this may be because of the cost of these things rather than due to higher minded ethical principles) but the designer should be doing his/her bit to prevent 'foreseeable misuse' as you were taught.
I have to disagree with your last sentence. When you are looking at misuse causing unsafe operation or harm you are (or should be) not only considering harm to the operator but also harm to potential innocent bystanders. This is applicable to anything from electrical distribution substation design (people walking past just as the operator messes up the switching operation) to military weapons systems and autonomous drones. The military also want the autonomous drone to hit the intended target and not a bystander (though I admit that with budget cuts this may be because of the cost of these things rather than due to higher minded ethical principles) but the designer should be doing his/her bit to prevent 'foreseeable misuse' as you were taught.
