UN report wants to terminate killer robots, opposes life-or-death powers over humans
Wikimedia Image (click robot for source)
GlobalPost.com
May 2, 2013
The Canadian Press
Killer robots that can attack targets without any human input “should not have the power of life and death over human beings,” a new draft U.N. report says.
The report for the U.N. Human Rights Commission posted online this week deals with legal and philosophical issues involved in giving robots lethal powers over humans, echoing countless science-fiction novels and films. The debate dates to author Isaac Asimov’s first rule for robots in the 1942 story “Runaround:” ”A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”
Report author Christof Heyns, a South African professor of human rights law, calls for a worldwide moratorium on the “testing, production, assembly, transfer, acquisition, deployment and use” of killer robots until an international conference can develop rules for their use.
His findings are due to be debated at the Human Rights Council in Geneva on May 29.
According to the report, the United States, Britain, Israel, South Korea and Japan have developed various types of fully or semi-autonomous weapons.
In the report, Heyns focuses on a new generation of weapons that choose their targets and execute them. He calls them “lethal autonomous robotics,” or LARs for short, and says: “Decisions over life and death in armed conflict may require compassion and intuition. Humans — while they are fallible — at least might possess these qualities, whereas robots definitely do not.”
[hat tip: Luke Rudowski]
Governor General Pushes Sustainable Propaganda
by Terry Wilson
Canadian Awareness Network
April 23, 2013
OTTAWA — The governor general delivered an unusually blunt environmental message for Earth D ay Monday, calling on Canadians not be “plunderers of the earth.”
In a statement released by his office, Gov.-Gen. David Johnston said Canadians “are bound together by a shared love of the land — the ocean coasts, tall mountains, open fields, quiet forests and frozen tundra that compose Canada’s rugged and majestic landscape.
“It would be a grave error to take all this for granted. “
He went on to say natural wonders are “not as immutable and eternal as we should like to think; much like a famous work of art, they require great care, maintenance and attention. We live in a symbiotic relationship with our planet, dependant on its resources for sustenance, shelter and wealth.
“The well-being both of our planet and of humankind rests on the delicate balance of the earth’s ecosystems. Only by promoting sustainability will we be able to face the challenges ahead as both our global civilization and our planet grow older. In other words, let us aspire to be curators rather than plunderers of this earth. Our children will thank us for it.”
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VIDEO — US Defense Sec. Hagel ‘confident’ chemical weapons used in Syria
Russia Today
April 25, 2013
The US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has said his intelligence services have, quote, ‘some confidence’, that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons on a small scale. He said it’s believed the nerve agent sarin was deployed against civilians and rebel fighters.
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Damascus Phone Call Arab Countries Are Unsafe Now [video]
108morris108
April 14, 2013
The Syrian people want to live in peace, security and stability, they will not be allowed to do so by the dark forces
Humanitarian Intervention Challenged [video]
Global Research TV
April 3, 2013
Humanitarian Intervention Challenged
Remembering the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
The Centre for Research on Globalization
UK invites Syria’s foreign-backed opp. members ahead of G8 meeting
PressTV
April 10, 2013
British Foreign Secretary William Hague
British Foreign Secretary William Hague has invited the leaders of Syria’s foreign-backed opposition coalition to London in a latest instance of foreign meddling in the domestic affairs of the Arab country.
Hague said on Tuesday that senior members of the foreign-backed opposition, the so-called Syrian National Coalition, will attend meetings with top diplomats from the G8 leading industrial states ahead of a formal summit of the group.
The individuals, including Ghassan Hitto, George Sabra and Soheir Atassi, are expected to ask for further support from the Western governments in their fight against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
The move by the British foreign secretary to invite members of the foreign-backed Syrian opposition, who are not considered representatives of the Syrian people, is considered the latest attempt by Western governments and their allies to interfere in the domestic affairs of Syria.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry has said he would meet with Syria’s foreign-backed opposition leaders in the British capital, adding that the US administration is looking at possible ways to help the militants in Syria.
Foreign ministers from eight countries – Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Russia, Italy, Japan and the United states – will hold formal talks on Thursday.
The ministers will discuss the issues of Syria and North Korea.
Hague also said that Britain and France would continue efforts to facilitate the arming of the militants in Syria.
In another act of foreign meddling, the Arab League handed Syria’s seat to the so-called National Coalition during a two-day summit held in the Qatari capital, Doha, on March 26.
Damascus condemned the move, saying the League has “forgotten that it is the people who grant the powers and not the emirs of obscurantism and sand.”
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of Syrian army and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.
SAB/PR/HJL
PN 