ABSTRACT
The fear that autonomous or semi-autonomous robots, artificial intelligence, cyberwarfare, and capacity-increasing technologies might challenge the legitimacy of killing during warfare is a grave concern and deserves to be taken seriously. It is also important to note that the nature of those against whom these technologies are being used can also satisfy the logic of the reciprocity of killing. This is clearly the case today with members of certain terrorist organisations that do not themselves respect the moral rules of warfare. Many authors have claimed that these technologies are inherently immoral because of their propensity to transform war into a simple manhunt; thus, it would leave us with no choice but to either forbid their use or to think of new ways to justify killing during wartime. In light of Michael Walzer’s account of the legitimacy of killing, the contemporary technologies seem to cause a major conceptual problem that seems insurmountable.
