The New York Times has an interesting piece up about the future of robotic warfare. First of all, I have to admit that I have a boy's fascination with all things robotic. How could I help it? I grew up on this stuff:
Yes. Those are jets. In space. That turn into robots. That shoot giant aliens.
How can you not love robots after being fed that sort of thing every lazy afternoon after school?
That said, I have some reservations about the mechanization of warfare (unless we're fighting giant aliens, naturally).
My feeling is this: given two countries engaged in hostilities, both with fully mechanized forces, is it likely that a conflict will be resolved after a bloodless robot fight? Were that the case, we'd already be resolving our conflicts via chess. That's not likely to happen anytime soon.
Sooner or later, the robots are going to be used to kill someone.
In the second situation, the side incapable of fielding few mechanized forces is going to have no choice but to directly target weaker targets, specifically civilians. In this event, overwhelming force may actually make things more dangerous for the country wielding them.
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