LedgerGermane: links on futurity, cover ups, mind control and the weird , Autonomous Systems Report '09

Within a decade, we could be routinely interacting with machines that are truly autonomous – systems that can adapt, learn from their experience and make decisions for themselves. Free from fatigue and emotion, they would perform better than humans in tasks that are dull, dangerous or stressful.
“If you take an autonomous system and one day it does something wrong and it kills somebody, who is responsible? Is it the guy who designed it? What’s actually out in the field isn’t what he designed because it has learned throughout its life. Is it the person who trained it?
“If we can’t resolve all these things about who’s responsible, who’s charged if there’s an accident and also who should have stopped it, we deny ourselves the benefit of using this stuff.”
In order to help society prepare for their arrival, the Royal Academy of Engineering has published a report on the social, legal and ethical issues surrounding autonomous systems… one of the report’s contributors, believes that engaging with the public early on is critical to manage people’s expectations and ensure that an appropriate regulatory framework is in place. (blurb via)