The book explores industrial accidents with robotics, but most of these occur when people fail to follow established protocols around an active robot (i.e., don’t enter the caged area around an active robot until you have disengaged its power source and have physically locked that power source in the “off” position.) Programming errors are not really addressed in the book.

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The issue of protecting the integrity of the nation’s robotics and economy from cyberattack is addressed, however. As most people are aware, cybercrime is exploding as more and more of our daily activities are conducted thru the Internet. The book addresses what has been done to mitigate this but also questions what a nation may or may not have the right to do in limiting its exposure. Given that a virus can be hard-wired into printers, thumb drives and the like, it is a curious dilemma that more and more electronics used in the U.S. are manufactured overseas, often in nations that are only nominally friendly.

The book mentions a couple of times that China has dedicated upwards of 9,000 “programmers” towards cyber issues, and it quotes senior Chinese military officials as mentioning what people will do when their devices rise up against them. Ah, it makes one oh-so-comfortable to find “Made in China” stamped on the bottom of your computer, cell phone or Blackberry, doesn’t it?

All in all, Wired for War is a good book for opening one’s eyes to the horizon of robotics and for feeding one’s paranoia of Big Brother—who just might not be who you think he is.

Wired for War author P.W. Singer talks about how the robotics revolution has given rise to the "strategic corporal" and "tactical general" and asks, "Is this a good thing?" in an exclusive article for ArmchairGeneral.com. Read what he has to say and leave your comments.

Michael Peccolo is a retired Armor Major from the U.S. Army with overseas duties, company commands and assignments in recruiting and ROTC. He lives in Tennessee where he raises horses with his wife.

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