IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2023 - 49

Figure 3. Weapons as a function of psychological distance relative
to the moral agent. Extension of Grossman [92] to include physical
(conventional) and virtual AWS (cyber weapons).
[29], [91]. Consequently, Grossman [92] has suggested
that the social prohibitions against killing
are lessened as a result of the psychological (and
physical) distance of the attacker and the target.
As the distance increases, social cues of the target
category members (i.e., human) are reduced or
obscured, leading to an increased probability that
an individual will use lethal force.
Extending Grossman's model (Figure 3), the use
of virtual weapons and/or AWS will likely be associated
with a higher probability of use, especially
given that people might believe that fatalities will
be less probable and less directly related to death,
for example, compromising an ICS could result in
the loss of power which could lead to hypothermic
conditions during winter months, whereas
disrupting running water could lead to the spread
of disease. Thus, the reduced realism associated
with virtual and AWS in conjunction with the TWM
might increase the losses to nations over the duration
of a conflict.
Psychological factors must be weighed heavily
when considering how ethical judgments will be
affected by the use of these weapons. For instance,
studies have repeatedly demonstrated that when
people experience anonymity (e.g., being unseen or
unknown), they are more likely to engage in antisocial
behavior [93], [94]. Similarly, when groups fail
to formally assign roles and responsibilities to agents
within a social network or establish procedures for
monitoring the decision-making processes of groups,
we experience a diffusion of responsibility [95], [96].
This becomes especially problematic in the development
of AWS where the responsibilities of operators,
developers, and manufacturers are not clear,
and each agent is separated from the physical reality
of the combat situation. In this scenario, we might
unknowingly creep closer to adopting the TWM, diffusing
responsibility across people, space, and time.
September 2023
Cyberweapons are especially likely to reduce
perceived realism and promote anonymity. The
reduced salience of social cues noted earlier means
that antisocial behavior, aggression, and conflict
are more likely to occur [97]. Moreover, the effects
are not always immediate, meaning that the possible
future negative outcomes associated with the
deployment of a weapon might be discounted relative
to the immediate gains. In conjunction with
issues in attributing cyberattacks and malware due
to the limitations of digital forensics, the deployment
of these weapons might become more likely.
Unlike conventional weapons (e.g., missile
strikes, use of landmines, UAVs), operators and
manufacturers might not have a complete grasp of
the consequences of an action. By restricting consideration
to intentional damage of cyber-physical
systems [8], users might ignore collateral damage to
other systems, organizations, and persons that would
result from the interconnectivity of these systems
with domestic technologies [10].
Dual-use technology: The genie and its bottle. Both
cyberweapons and AWS introduce ethical issues
related to the attribution of responsibility. However,
assigning responsibility is complicated by the dualuse
nature of these technologies. Components might
be manufactured and sold without any intention
or belief that they would be used in weapons systems
(e.g., computer chips and domestic drones),
whereas other third-party nations might purchase
technologies and sell them to nations who intend to
use them in armed conflict.
The Russia-Ukraine War highlights the difficulties
in assigning responsibility due to complicated supply
chains. Before the ongoing conflict, a three-year
investigation into UAVs recovered from the Donetsk
and Luhansk regions of Ukraine revealed that many
parts were manufactured in Western countries [98].
Of course, given that these components were supplied
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