IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2020 - 43

a continuum with technological anthropomorphization3
and MHC at its extremes (see Figure 2). The first stage
defines human-LAWS interaction to be dependent on
technology's " behavior, " treating technology as an
essential being with human-like features (e.g., intelligence or decision-making authority). In contrast, MHC,
at the other end of the continuum, implicitly assumes a
hierarchical relationship between humans and technology, with humans having legitimate authority over technology as an instrument. We only marked phrases
specifically referring to MHC with the respective code,
while all other statements regarding control (without further conceptualization as meaningful) where marked
accordingly (i.e., " control " ).

of a target. The interpretation of the statements indicates that detection is a critical function belonging to
the targeting cycle, preceding the actual selection and
subsequent attack of a target. Numerous statements
point to the detection and identification of a target,
while most times they do not offer explanatory details:
" Both primary sensors (laser scanners, millimeter-wave
radars, hyperspectral imaging, etc.) and signal processing Algorithms " (WP2-ES/FI); " the Lightweight Counter
Mortar Radar can identify indirect fire threats by automatically detecting and tracking shells and backtracking
to the position of the weapon that fired the shell "
(WP4.2-US).
Besides these functions belonging to the targeting
cycle, CCW participants also pointed to other tasks that
may be categorized as autonomous. These are supportive tasks like " cyberattack warning, supply chain logistics " (DARPA_2) or automatization of (US) Department of
Defense " business processes, such as security clearance vetting or accrediting software systems for operational deployment " (DARPA_2), for accident prevention,
i.e., ground collision (WP4-US), or logistical calculations
(WP1-UK).
In general, references that were made with respect to
autonomy of certain critical functions stressed repetitively that a weapon system might consist of autonomous as well as non-autonomous parts and functions,
e.g., " weapon systems that have been deployed still
require human remote authorization to launch an attack
(even though they may identify targets autonomously) "
(ICRC/WP5-BR). At the same time, CCW participants did
not omit referring to autonomy's different degrees.
Often, autonomy of a system meant automatization of
processes, but references to artificial intelligence and
machine learning, indicating self-learning capabilities
and independence, were also prevalent (WP2-ES/FI). No
references regarding specific types of deep learning
algorithms or the like were made.

Adherence to principles of
international humanitarian law
are a dominant reference point
for evaluation.
The code " powerful_tech " was used to grasp statements that indicated perceiving technology (and technological development) as a driving force while not
anthropomorphizing it. In cases where perceptions of
" both sides " (technology versus human) were used, they
weighted each other out to " interaction, " reflecting a
rather equal relationship. This code was naturally also
used when actors explicitly referred to interaction as a
relationship. The code " human_above_machine " refers
to a hierarchical relationship of humans, yet not necessarily being always in control. It is important to note that
this process heavily focused on linguistic formulations,

Human-Computer Interaction
To understand the dominant and respective marginal
counter-discourses on human-LAWS interaction across
the CCW debate, we created and organized the codes in

19.13%
0

8.25%
20

tech_anthro

It would have been plausible to put " autonomy " as the contrary extreme
to " MHC. " Yet, this code was used massively across documents, including
reflections on definitory issues and demands for constraining LAWS. Thus,
we created a code to reflect anthropomorphized illustrations of technology.

23.3%
30

powerful_tech

24.75%
50
(%)

interaction

21.34%
70

human_above_machine

control

3.23%
100

mhc

FIGURE 2. Continuum of human-LAWS relationship (100% = 1,176 codings).

DECEMBER 2020

∕

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2020