Embedding laws in software is an abuse of language since programs are always reprogrammable

Evidence

But to claim, as they do, that the law can be integrated into “weapon design” itself is a gross abuse of language. All that the roboethicists can do is integrate certain rules within the design of certain programs, which clearly can be uninstalled or reprogrammed at any time. If you are capable of doing this on your own computer, you can be sure that every army in the world is likewise capable of doing so. The discursive operation here consists in justifying the development of highly dangerous hardware by offering the option of virtuous software. Congratulations: in buying the car (or rather the robot tank), you have also won a magnificent key ring. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 668

Categorization

• SEED: Could fuel an essay on the ‘virtuous software / dangerous hardware’ rhetorical move — how tech industries justify deployment by promising ethical add-ons that are trivially reversible.
• XREF: connects to: Embedding ethics in software cannot guarantee lawful conduct because software is reprogrammable.; Programmatic specification centralizes lethal command more tightly than separate orders — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 677; Computational universality is a code totality that evades languages’ lived drama

Broader Connections

• Programmatic specification centralizes lethal command more tightly than separate orders #expands (0.60) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 677