FOOD FOR THOUGHT: What Should Tech’s Role in War Be?

Surviving Combat, Completing Mission and Protecting the Innocent.

Lucas Kunce, a Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, has some advice for high technology workers in a New York Times opinion piece  that appeared Wednesday (August 28).  Pressing their employers at corporations like Google and Microsoft to refuse government contracts for weapons technology, won’t  change the decision-making of the U.S. leaders who choose to go to war. And therefore, he writes, their petitions and demands are unlikely to prevent any harm caused by war.

Instead,  Kunce says technology companies and their concerned employees should focus on developing devices that help keep both U.S. troops and innocent civilians safe.  He called for:

… tools that enhance situational awareness, provide information that overcomes fear and fatigue, and enable fast, effective and precise combat decisions for both commanders and individuals. If tech companies work with the military, then technologies from applications of A.I. (artificial intelligence) to augmented reality would save innocent lives and reduce suffering.

(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Corporal Michaela R. Gregory)

But he noted the American people and their leaders also need to give some serious thought to determining when, where and how the United States goes to war — not to mention, if we should even go to war in any given circumstance.

America is long overdue for a conversation about how we engage in war and peace; the difference between the decision to go to war and decisions about what happens on the battlefield during warfare; and what it means to fight, die and kill for our country, Kunce wrote.

Here at 4GWAR we think Kunce’s op-ed piece is food for thought and America needs to start that conversation.