Something big is going on in war today and maybe even in the history of humanity itself.

The U.S. military went into Iraq with a handful of drones in the air. We now have 5,300.

The U.S. military went into Iraq with zero unmanned ground systems. We now have 12,000.

We need to remember that we're talking about the model T fords compared to what's coming soon.

An Air Force 3 star General said that where we are headed, very soon, is tens of thousands of robots operating in our conflicts.

These numbers matter because we aren't just talking about tens of thousands of todays robots, but tens of thousands of these prototypes and tomorrow's robots.

One of the things that's operating is Moore's Law where you can pack in more and more computing power into those robots and so flash, around 25 years, if Moore's Law holds true, those robots will be close to a billion times more powerful in their computing than robots of today.

What this means is that the kind of things we use to only talk about at science conventions have to be talked about in the halls of power and places like the Pentagon.

A robots revolution is upon us.

When historians look at this period, they are going to determine that we are in a revolution in war. Like the invention of the atomic bomb. But it may be even bigger than that because our unmanned systems don't just effect the how of war fighting, they effect the who of fighting at its most fundamental level. That is every previous revolution in war, be it the machine gun, or the atomic bomb, was about a system that either shot faster, went further, had a bigger boom. That's certainly the case with robotics but they also change the experience of the warrior and even the very identity of the warrior. Another way of putting this is that mankind's 5,000 year old monopoly on fighting of war is breaking down in our very lifetime.

There's another side to technological revolutions.

Where does this leave us with issues like war crimes. Robots are emotionless. So they don't get upset if their buddy is killed. They don't commit crimes of rage and revenge. But robots are emotionless.

They see an 80 year old grandmother in a wheel chair exactly the same way they see a T80 tank. Both are just a series of 0s and 1s. How do we catch up our 20 Century laws of war with our 21st Century technologies?

Is our generation going to make the same mistake that a past generation did with atomic weaponry and not deal with the issues that surround it until pandora's box is already opened?

Our machines can be used for both good and evil. There is a duality to humans as well. Our creativity has taken our species to the stars. Our creativity has created works of art and literature to express our love. And now we're using our creativity in a certain direction to build fantastic machines with incredible capabilities. Maybe even one day an entirely new species. But one of the main reasons we are doing that is because of our drive to destroy each other. So the question we all should ask is, is it our machines or is it us that's wired for war?

Duration : 0:16:6