Philipp Preußger // Visions of a Smart War? Image and Ethics of Autonomous Weapon Systems
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Contact
© M. Kretzschmar, TUD
Fellow
NamePhilipp Preußger
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Z21, Room 216a Zellescher Weg 21
01067 Dresden
Räume 205, 206, 216 + 217, jeweils a+b
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Technische Universität Dresden Schaufler Kolleg@TU Dresden
01062 Dresden
Research Project: Visions of a Smart War? Image and Ethics of Autonomous Weapon Systems
Subject: Protestant Theology
Mentoring professor: Prof. Dr. Christian Schwarke and Prof. Dr. Kerstin Schankweiler
With the application of artificial intelligence in weapon systems, ethics is challenged at a central point: Since autonomous technology can independently select and engage its target, the decision on the life or death of a combatant is no longer left to humans alone. The shift in decision-making competence from man to machine also leads to a shift in responsibilities not only in terms of execution but also in terms of planning and evaluating the action. In the current discussion, many call to establish a meaningful human control over all phases of an action.
On the one hand, such a demand expresses the feeling of human powerlessness towards the machine. On the other hand, the desire for control becomes plausible when it is recognised that it is not the concrete technology - this is not yet tangible in view of the early phase of development - but the images of technology that are the starting point for an ethical assessment.
This research project sheds light on the connection between image and ethical judgement using the example of autonomous military technology. For this purpose, images are evaluated which represent artificial intelligence in its military application. It is shown that technology is depicted "humanoid". Based on these anthropomorphic images, ethical questions, which up to now have only concerned the acting human, are also posed to autonomous technology: Is the robot responsible? How far may its decision-making power go?
Such questions imply a competence of technology to act that can hardly be claimed. However, if the technology does not "act", then its "action" cannot be judged ethically either. Therefore, the Before and the After of the execution of action must become the focus of ethics: the interfaces between man and machine.
CV
| from 2020 | Research Assistant, Institute of Protestant Theology, TU Dresden |
| 2019-2020 | Research Assistant, Chair for Systematic Theology, Institute of Protestant Theology, TU Dresden |
| 2014-2019 | Undergraduate Assitant and Tutor, Chair for Systematic Theology, Institute of Protestant Theology, TU Dresden |
| 2013-2019 | State Examination in Higher Education in German Studies and Protestant Religion, Technische Universität Dresden |
Presentations
- Drone Images (english language online workshop together with Michael Richardson, Sydney), Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden, June 4, 2020.
- Participation and Prediction. Ethical Challenges of Digital Life (german language presentation and workshop), Deutsches Hygiene Museum-Dresden as part of "Über unsere Verhältnisse - Grenzen der Digitalisierung", May 19, 2021.
Publications
- "Drone Art" zwischen Anschauung und Vermittlung, in: w/k - Zwischen Wissenschaft & Kunst (Online-Journal mit Peer Review), 2021.
Teaching
- Summer 2019: Eschatology (Seminar), Chair of Systematic Theology, TU Dresden
- Winter 2019/20: Introduction to the Study of Protestant Theology (Tutorial), Introduction to Systematic Theology (Seminar), Responsibility (Seminar), Chair of Systematic Theology, TU Dresden