03 April 2009

Pakistan, Afghanistan and Battlestar Galactica: An exclusive interview with P.W. Singer on the future of war

On Friday, March 27, just as a surge of new deployments was being announced for Afghanistan, the TED Blog talked with military analyst P.W. Singer. Posted today, his TEDTalk discusses the use of robots in modern combat zones.

In this interview, he applies his intensive knowledge of robotics and war to the situations the U.S. military faces in months ahead. Singer clarifies the questions we should all be asking, as these weapons of the future find their place in our conflicts at present. Interestingly, many are questions that science fiction has been addressing for some time.

Here's an excerpt:

"When new technologies are developed, we can’t know the broader ripple effect that they will have. When the Internet first appeared, we couldn’t know that this thing was going to cause mothers in Pennsylvania to worry about predators in Seattle that might prey on their children. Now we know that the Internet can allow an extremist Mullah in Pakistan to inspire a young man in Birmingham, England, to blow himself up."

For the full interview, read after the jump >>

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03 April 2009

Military robots and the terrifying future of war: P.W. Singer on TED.com

In this powerful talk, P.W. Singer shows how the widespread use of robots in war is changing the realities of human combat. He shows us scenarios straight out of science fiction -- that now may not be so fictitious. (Recorded at TED2009, February 2009, in Long Beach, California. Duration: 16:06.)

Watch P.W. Singer's talk from TED2009 on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 400+ TEDTalks -- including more talks about war.

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04 February 2009

Twitter Snapshot: P.W. Singer on robots of war

Chris Anderson managed to sum up the mood at TED2009, and on Twitter, when he described P.W. Singer's presentation on robots and war as "a bit frightening."

Here are some of your thoughts, as tweeted in recent minutes:

Scary presentation. Democratization of technologies of warfare will be accessible to all, fallacy to think only nation states will play -- glanceteel

PW Singer's lead off TED talk on military technology depressing, chilling and numbing. -- trib

PW Singer - There is serious competition between the US, other nations and private players for dominance. Think AlQaeda/Unibomber. TED2009 -- wanyama

Other tweets proved that TEDsters can see humor in all things:

Just realised that a robot is about to replace me ted --
joedawson

Thank you P.W. Singer for the nightmare of all those at home following along in their cubicles taking revenge on us TED folks -- faketed

Keep checking in for the latest Twitter roundups from TED2009.

Photo: TED / Asa Mathat

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