Nov 24 2012: I wanted to start a new thread, but adding to this one will do. Today's Washington Post has an editorial piece written by Tom Malinowski titled: " A dangerous future of killer robots." Our killer drones have had a chilling effect on Al Qaeda. Anwar Al-Awlaki knew he was a wanted man and did what he could to avoid detection. Last fall he ran outdoors to a car, hoping his sprint would make his appearance very brief, but that was enough for an overhead drone and he was taken out. The decision to strike was made by human operators, but Mr. Malinowski's piece makes clear that the Pentagon is looking to a future where our killing machines will make the decision to strike on their own. So what is "rationality?" The Pentagon certainly hopes that our future drones and robots will be rational, can distinguish a target from innocents, and restrain itself to avoid collateral damage. Ethics wouldn't be hard to program into a robot because it would be a set of rules. Forgiveness and magnanimity are irrational because self interest is ceded. Some things can't be synthesized.
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A comment on Conversation: Are humans irrational? If so, how can we build stronger institutions to compensate for human shortcomings in rationality?