ABSTRACT
Reordering and clarifying the lessons learned in the historical debate regarding the hopelessly muddled conceptual foundations of ethics and law for uncrewed systems. Meeting the need for more helpful and illustrative case studies. The impact of “folk morality” and its varieties of mistaken or misleading insights on the debate concerning machine morality. Origins and significance of the “Arkin test” for satisfactory legal compliance by autonomous war machines. Whether “moral cognizance” in machine behavior is even necessary or useful for meeting these requirements, let alone feasible in its own right. Implications of a less complex engineering research agenda for attaining the goals set by all stakeholders and parties to the debate over machine autonomy and meaningful human control of targeting decisions.
