82: Hasta La Vista, Baby

Meta Treks: A Star Trek Philosophy Podcast

Drone Warfare and "The Arsenal of Freedom."

When the Enterprise is sent to the Lorenz Cluster in search of the missing U.S.S. Drake, the crew gets drawn into a life-and-death game of cat and mouse with the demonstration model of an ancient automated weapon system, including increasingly powerful and adaptive autonomous sentry probes. While the concept of automated drone warfare may have been closer to science and military fiction in the late 1980s during the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the philosophical ethical issues related to automated warfare in "The Arsenal of Freedom" are even more relevant today.

In this episode of Meta Treks, hosts Mike Morrison and Zachary Fruhling discuss "The Arsenal of Freedom" (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 1), from the commodification of war within the military industrial complex to the pros and cons of peace through superior firepower. Mike and Zachary also discuss the distinction between genuine artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms.

Chapters Intro (00:01:20) Initial Thoughts on "The Arsenal of Freedom" (00:02:44) Star Trek and Reagan-Era Warfare (00:09:14) Data as The Terminator (00:14:31) TNG and Virtues of Drone Warfare (00:20:03) Peace Through Superior Firepower (00:27:49) The Commodification of War (00:41:41) Is Technology Morally Neutral? (00:50:58) Algorithms vs. Artificial Intelligence (00:56:23) Failsafe Failures (01:07:34) Geordi and His First Command (01:16:03) Dr. Crusher, Medicine Woman (01:25:37) Closing (01:34:04)

Hosts Mike Morrison and Zachary Fruhling

Production Mike Morrison (Editor) Zachary Fruhling (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Patrick Devlin (Associate Producer) Kay Shaw (Associate Producer) Mark Walker (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager)