Are We Ready To Have Robots Fighting Our Battles

Leslea Mair got a new floor sweeper - a puppy-like robot that happily cleans up crumbs before returning to its corner to recharge. But then she wondered about its cousins - the ones with machine guns strapped to their backs.

When the U.S. and their allies entered Iraq in 2003, they had no robotics fleet. Today, they have 7,000 unmanned vehicles in the air and another 12,000 on the ground.Another 43 countries, including Canada, now have dogs in the global robotic fight.

Mair, a Regina-based documentary film producer for Zoot Pictures, believes people just accept the growing use of drones and self-guiding vehicles without understanding the ethical burden they carry.

"If we wait too long, there won't be (room) for debate," says Mair, whose documentary Remote Control War airs on CBC's Doc Zone on Thursday night.

"There's something a little cold-blooded about targeting someone from the other side of the planet. You actually toss a bomb and someone dies - then you take your kids to soccer. "Some people think it's a really good thing, while "¦ others see there are problems."

An estimated 63% of Canadian fatalities in Afghanistan have come from improvised explosive devices. So why not just send in robots? Mair says there's more to it than just finding a way to stop another knock on another military family's door.

"There is something incredibly important happening," explains Peter W. Singer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and author or Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century. "Not only for the history of war, but maybe for the history of humanity."

Suddenly, humans are not just armoured in machinery. Technology allows robot sentries to fight in our place - and pull the trigger on our behalf. While experts admit current battle bots are more like washing machines than Terminators from Hollywood's dark imaginings, Mair's documentary argues the technology is quickly developing into self-thinking attack swarms - that could also be used by our enemies.

Mair says now may be the only time when Canadians can enter the debate over the use and counter-use of warrior robots - rather than just sweeping up after things have settled.