Serious misapplications of military research: dysfunction between conception and implementation

Researchers and technologists involved in the development of weapon systems can take their work to such extremes as to cause unplanned injury or death to others and lasting damage to the environment, reviewed here. In some cases innocent human casualties and ecological harm may actually be programmed and achieved. An analysis is proffered, attributing blame, and indicating efforts to correct the situation. The ethics involved are “complexified”, moral boundaries are exceeded, and humanity is transgressed as it develops solutions to the problem. The license to make mistakes becomes more limited with the passing of the years... Primo Levi, chemist¹ To use the term coined in 1994 by John L. Casti of the Santa Fe Institute.