Army of none : autonomous weapons and the future of war / Paul Scharre.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 369-423) and index.

Part I: Robocalypse now. The coming swarm : the military robotics revolution ; The Terminator and the Roomba : what is autonomy? ; Machines that kill : what is an autonomous weapon? -- Part II: Building the Terminator. The future being built today : autonomous missiles, drones, and robot swarms ; Inside the puzzle palace : is the Pentagon building autonomous weapons? ; Crossing the threshold : approving autonomous weapons ; World War R : robotic weapons around the world ; Garage bots : DIY killer robots -- Part III: Runaway gun. Robots run amok : failure in autonomous systems ; Command and decision : Can autonomous weapons be used safely? ; Black box : the weird, alien world of deep neural networks ; Failing deadly : the risk of autonomous weapons -- Part IV: Flash war. Bot vs. bot : an arms race in speed ; The invisible war : autonomy in cyberspace ; "Summoning the demon" : the rise of intelligent machines -- Part V: The fight to ban autonomous weapons. Robots on trial : autonomous weapons and the laws of war ; Soulless killers : the morality of autonomous weapons ; Playing with fire : autonomous weapons and stability -- Part VI: Averting armageddon : the weapon of policy. Centaur warfighters : humans + machines ; The Pope and the crossbow : the mixed history of arms control ; Are autonomous weapons inevitable? : the search for lethal laws of robotics -- No fate but what we make -- How robotic weapons are transforming the battlefield today.

"The era of autonomous weapons has arrived. Today around the globe, at least thirty nations have weapons that can search for and destroy enemy targets all on their own. Paul Scharre, a leading expert in next-generation warfare, describes these and other high tech weapons systems--from Israel's Harpy drone to the American submarine-hunting robot ship Sea Hunter--and examines the legal and ethical issues surrounding their use. 'A smart primer to what's to come in warfare' (Bruce Schneier), Army of None engages military history, global policy, and cutting-edge science to explore the implications of giving weapons the freedom to make life and death decisions. A former soldier himself, Scharre argues that we must embrace technology where it can make war more precise and humane, but when the choice is life or death, there is no replacement for the human heart."--Back cover.