The Wild West: Nanotechnological Weaponry and the Rule of Law on the Battlefield Moira Carroll-Mayer Bernd Carsten Stahl Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering The Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility De Montfort University 1. Introduction Driven by military requirements the goal of some nanotechnologists is to build the smallest, fastest weaponry (Chen: 2002: 2). Their effort is currently focused upon microelectromechanically enabled autonomous (MEMS) weaponry and self-replicating nanoassembler weaponry. Under the terms of Joint Vision 2020 the US administration, enabled by nanotechnology, plans to combine the navy, air force and army into a largely autonomous force (Adams: 2000:54). This force will operate as part of “the System of Systems” (Shelton: 2000:6, Tether: 2003:9), otherwise referred to as C41SR (see Fig 1 below). The system[1] is proposed for operation within the next 15 years (Altman: 2004:63). The UK is engaged in a similar plan[2] Operation Watchkeeper scheduled for completion in 2006[3] Advances are gathering pace so quickly that the weaponry is available to the military absent consideration of sage warnings (Wulf: 2004) or effective discussion of the legal consequences (Phoenix 2003;Harlan Reynolds 2002; Drexler 2004) Before perusing the implications of the novel weaponry for the rule of law it is necessary to go beyond the opaque acronyms and obscure language of the policy makers to describe the operational environment of C41SR and the weaponry that will operate therein. 2. C41SR or “The System of Systems” The ubiquitous C41SR battle system must be imagined upon a scale, encompassing the heavens and the earth. C41SR will employ multimode data transport elements integrated into a store and forward network. The network will be self-managing under normal circumstances, in the event of failure or of attack damage. An elecronic interface will link autonomous agents to a distributed processing environment comprising many thousands of computers. There data will be autonomously exchanged and loads shared as required by a fluctuating force structure. Software agents will provide, fuse and filter information without user request (Protecting the Homeland: 2000:28) so that weaponry will be autonomously directed and fired at targets. Other autonomous weaponry outside the C41SR loop will be operational. It is intended to impart autonomy to all land and air combat vehicles (Nielsen: 2004) in a manner compatible with C41SR. A representation of C41SR illustrates the propensity for dominance of the autonomous computerised elements over the human elements of the system. 20th BILETA Conference: Over-Commoditised; Over-Centralised; Over- Observed: the New Digital Legal World? April, 2005, Queen's University of Belfast Page 1 of 13 The Wild West: Nanotechnological Weaponry and the Rule of Law on the Battlefield 27/04/2005 file://C:\unzipped\biletapapers\carrollMayer.htm