With technology and robotics changing the way we live, what impact will autonomous and semi-autonomous systems have on high performance special forces, conflict and war?
This public talk features two special guests who will offer their insights - Major General Jeff Sengelman (retired), a former commander of Special Operations Australia, and internationally-renowned robo-ethicist Professor Ron Arkin.
Titled The Emerging Nexus Between Special Operations and Autonomous Systems: Insights and Reflections, it is part of the QUT Institute for Future Environment's Distinguished Visitor Lecture Series.
While war continues to be fundamentally a human endeavour whose character remains largely unchanged, the nature of contemporary and future conflict is undergoing significant changes.
Speaking from direct and extensive experience, Major General Sengelman will reflect on high performance special forces teams and the attributes that have made them so globally successful under the most extreme conditions and circumstances.
He will discuss how autonomous and semi-autonomous systems, and the technologies that underpin them, are likely to impact fundamentally on current cultural, military, societal, ethical and legal approaches to conflict and warfare.
Major General Sengelman will be joined by Professor Ron Arkin - Regents' Professor and Director of the Mobile Robot Laboratory in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech, who has also been a visiting professor at QUT.
Major General Sengelman has seen combat operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and South-East Asia, and received awards including the Distinguished Service Cross, the US Legion of Merit and a Member of the Order of Australia.
