Creating moral buffers in weapon control interface design

With the increasing presence of computing in all facets of life, the impact of computer-control on a user's sense of autonomy and moral responsibility and the responsibilities of designers when building such systems has become a topic of considerable ethical interest. This report outlines the ethical and social issues surrounding the design of human-computer interfaces that are designed for control of highly autonomous weapons systems. The argument is that when directing highly autonomous weapons through a human-computer interface that provides a virtual user-friendly world, moral buffers can be more easily created as a consequence of both psychological distancing and compartmentalization.