2012 The Science, Technology, and Ethics of National Security
Convened in collaboration with the Tufts University School of Engineering and the Department of Philosophy
“Throughout history, technological evolution and military activity have been linked. The existential challenge to society represented by warfare, combined with the immediate advantage that new technology can deliver, tends to accelerate technological innovation and diffusion. The relationships between the resulting technology systems, and consequent social and ethical issues and changes, are quite complex, however, and understanding and managing them to enhance long-term military advantage and security, is a critical and underappreciated challenge. This is particularly true when, as now, technological change is both rapid and accelerating; posing the risk of cultural backlashes that could affect both short term mission capabilities and longer term security interests.
Many technologies of sufficient power to be of interest militarily have at least the potential to be deeply destabilizing to existing economic, social, and technological systems. Examples might include the possibility that military RFID sensor systems, insect robots and cyborgs are shifted from theatre intelligence to domestic intelligence; that telepathic helmet technology transitions from a small unit communication enhancement to a non-intrusive thought detection device in civil society; or that warrior enhancement technology results in radical life extension for selected civilian populations. Emerging technologies are likely to have similar destabilizing effects within the military as well, potentially affecting not just military operations, but military culture and organization, as well as broader social perspectives on military initiatives generally.
These challenges are far more profound than is usually realized, in part because it is not just military and security domains that are being destabilized by accelerating technologies, but also the institutions and social structures upon which they are predicated, such as the nation-state and the idea of war as a public, not private, activity. It is our belief, however, that despite the complexity and unpredictability of the environment within which we all find ourselves, it is still possible to res3ond rationally, responsibly, and ethically to these challenges. It is that belief which lies behind the establishment and work of this Consortium.”
Braden Allenby
Founding Chair, Consortium for Emerging Technologies, Military Operations, and National Security
Schedule
9:00-9:30am | Introduction and Overview
• 9:45-10:45am | Robotics
• 11:00am-12:00pm | Neuroscience
• 1:15-2:15pm | CyberSystems
• 2:45-5:15pm | Ethics, Norms and Governance
Participants
Braden Allenby, Arizona State University
Braden R. Allenby is currently Lincoln Professor of Engineering and Ethics, and Professor of Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering, and of Law, at Arizona State University. He is the founding director of the Center for Earth Systems Engineering and Management, and the founding chair of the Consortium for Emerging Technologies, Military Operations, and National Security, at ASU. During 1995 and 1996 he served as Director of Energy and Environmental Systems at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He is the author of The Techno-Human Condition (with Dan Sarewitz, 2011).
-Robotics-
Colin Allen, Indiana University
Colin Allen has broad research interests in the general area of philosophy of biology and cognitive science, with particular interests in animal behavior and cognition. He has received funding from the National Science Foundation and several grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities for his work in digital humanities. His work on the prospects of moral capabilities in machines is also influential. Allen’s appointment at IU is split between the Department of History and Philosophy of Science and the Cognitive Science Program, where he is currently serving as Director. His coauthored books include Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong (OUP 2009) and Species of Mind (MIT Press, 1997).
Ronald Arkin, Georgia Tech
Ronald C. Arkin is Regents’ Professor and the Director of the Mobile Robot Laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology. During 1997-98, Professor Arkin served as STINT visiting Professor at the Centre for Autonomous Systems at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden. From June-September 2005, Prof. Arkin held a Sabbatical Chair at the Sony Intelligence Dynamics Laboratory in Tokyo, Japan and then served as a member of the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Group at LAAS/CNRS in Toulouse, France from October 2005-August 2006.
Moderator
Jessica Wilson, EPIIC Colloquium Member
-Neuroscience-
Jonathan Moreno, UPenn Center for Bioethics
Jonathan D. Moreno is a Senior Fellow at American Progress, where he edits the magazine, Science Progress. He is one of 13 Penn Integrates Knowledge university professors at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also professor of medical ethics and health policy, of history and sociology of science, and of philosophy. In 2008-09 he served as a member of President Barack Obama’s transition team. He has served as a senior staff member for three presidential advisory commissions, including the current bioethics commission under President Obama, and has given invited testimony for both houses of Congress. He advises various science, health, and national security agencies and serves as a member of the Defense Intelligence Agency’s TIGER committee on potentially disruptive novel technologies.
Wendell Wallach, Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics
Wendell Wallach is a lecturer and consultant at Yale University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics. Before coming to Yale, he was a founder and the President of two computer consulting companies, Farpoint Solutions and Omnia Consulting Inc. At Yale University, he chairs the working research group on Technology and Ethics, leads a seminar for bioethics interns, and functions as a senior coordinator for other working groups and projects. Machine Morality: From Aristotle to Asimov and Beyond, which Wallach is co-authoring and which will be published by MIT Press, explores the prospects for designing computer systems capable of making moral decisions.
Moderator
Laurel Woerner, EPIIC Colloquium Member
-Cyber-
David Clark, MIT
David Clark is a Senior Research Scientist at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Since the mid 70s, Dr. Clark has been leading the development of the Internet; from 1981-1989 he acted as Chief Protocol Architect in this development, and chaired the Internet Activities Board. His current research looks at re-definition of the architectural underpinnings of the Internet, and the relation of technology and architecture to economic, societal and policy considerations.
Herbert Lin, Chief Scientist at Computer Science and Telecommunications Board
Herbert Lin is chief scientist at the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, National Research Council of the National Academies, where he has been study director of major projects on public policy and information technology. These studies include a 1996 study on national cryptography policy (Cryptography’s Role in Securing the Information Society), a 2004 study on aspects of the FBI’s information technology modernization program (A Review of the FBI’s Trilogy IT Modernization Program), a 2007 study on privacy and information technology (Engaging Privacy and Information Technology in a Digital Age), and a 2007 study on cybersecurity research (Toward a Safer and More Secure Cyberspace).
Moderator
Graham Starr, EPIIC Colloquium Member
-Ethics, Norms, and Governance-
Joining the above in the concluding discussion are:
Captain Wayne Porter, Naval Postgraduate School
Capt. Wayne Porter co-authored, with Col. Mark Mykleby, the National Strategic Narrative, published by the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars and subsequently cited in televised editorials on both CNN and MSNBC. The Naval Postgraduate School community recently welcomed alumnus Capt. Wayne Porter as the new Chair of Systemic Strategy and Complexity under the Global Public Policy Academic Group. Porter most recently served as the special strategic assistant to former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen.
Colonel William B. Ostlund, The Fletcher School
Colonel William B. Ostlund is the deputy commander for the 75th Ranger Regiment at Fort Benning, Georgia. Colonel Ostlund has served in a variety of command and staff positions in the United States, Korea, Europe, the Balkans, Iraq, and Afghanistan; most notably as commander of 2d Battalion (Airborne), 503d Infantry, in Vicenza, Italy, and Kunar Province, Afghanistan, during Operation Enduring Freedom VIII.
Benjamin Paganelli, Lt Col. (ret) USAF
Col Benjamin Paganelli is a partner and senior consultant with Viable International Applications (VIA) Unlimited, a research and consulting firm focused on success in the international community. In 2004 Paganelli attended the NATO Planning School and began his assignment as the chief air planner to NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Afghanistan and in the same role for the development of NATO’s first rapid response force (NRF).
John P Williams, Maj. (ret) USMC, The Johns Hopkins University
John Williams is the Program Manager for Asymmetric and Irregular Challenges at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL). His work and research focuses on the study and analysis of Unconventional Warfare, non-violent conflict, and the evolving role of U.S. national power in a changing security environment to inform resource decisions at the national leadership level. Prior to his work at JHU/APL, John was the Deputy Director of the Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies at the United States Naval Academy (USNA).
Moderator
Lucas Kello (EPIIC’96), Joint Research Fellow, International Security Program and the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
