Paradigm Shift Andy & guests Friday 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Tune in to the Paradigm Shift on 4ZZZ 102.1fm, Fridays at noon. We challenge the assumptions of our current society, to resist oppression

30 September, 2022

On today’s show we do one last preview show about Disrupt Land Forces – which began last night with two people arrested and half the cops of Brisbane protecting vehicles entering the convention centre. I chat about that and also speak to Matilda Byrne about lethal autonomous weapons – the next deadly technological warfare development.

https://4zzz.org.au/program/paradigm-shift

Playlist
Combat Wombat – Star wars
Anomie – Predator drones over Yemen
Edwin Starr – War
Racerage – Eat the rich
Franz James – Masters of war

Transcript

 Paradigm Shift – Disrupt Land Forces

Fri, Sep 30, 2022 1:46PM • 59:22

SUMMARY KEYWORDS weapons, people, lethal autonomous, autonomous weapons, ai, convention center, big, war, guess, australia, target, land, forces, warfare, facial recognition, Jagera, military, paradigm shift, talking, countries

SPEAKERS
Andy and Guests

Andy:   Welcome to the paradigm shift on 4ZZZ where we challenge the assumptions of our current society to resist oppression and investigate alternative ways of living for a world based on justice, solidarity and sustainability. On today’s show, we’re gonna be talking about a disrupt land forces one more time before, it all happens, although it did start last night. If you’re a regular listener to the paradigm shift, then over recent weeks, you probably would have heard me talking about the land forces weapons convention that is happening in Brisbane at the convention center next week. And you will also have heard that there’s a group of people organizing to try to disrupt it. Disrupt land forces is the name of the event. And it’s all happening this week. There’s lots of different events which I’ll speak about over the course of the show. But last night, the first disruption occurred, the first arrests, two young women jumping up on top of a vehicle carrying autonomous military vehicle a little. I don’t know what you caught like a land drone, basically.

Somebody else who knew that disrupt land force was coming up with a police of Brisbane who were stationed all around the convention center trying to shepherd these weapons and things into the convention center. And we’re running convoys through the city if you last night would late last night, we’re driving through the city and had a convoy of police guiding a truck scream past you with sirens on and motorbikes on each side. Well, that was the police protecting the interests of the weapons industry to make sure that they could get into the convention center without the people of Brisbane getting in the way. And that’s where that’s where we’re living in where the state government is a major sponsor of the Land Forces. Of course they are in the convention center and they also run the police and so the our friendly coppers who are meant to keep us all safe are sent out to protect the the weapons industry from a few protesters who all they want to do is jump up on top of a tank and stop it from getting into the convention center for a while.

But yes, we’ll hear much more about the show. I also I’m going to talk about autonomous weapons the the ‘hunter wolf’ little thing that our cloud and ash jumped on top of is autonomous. Not a weapon but a military vehicle. But there’s well it’s a droids guided I think by people but it is of great concern. The technological developments happening around lethal autonomous weapons. And so I speak I speak with Matilda Byrne from safe ground who ever campaign part of a global campaign called Stop killer robots trying to stop lethal autonomous weapons. So that’s what’s coming up and we might even chat a bit with mighty Branigan About militarism and the environment if I get time to fit it in, and we’ll play some great antiwar songs as well. To start us off though, I’m going to play a little clip of cloud and ash to brave young women who were arrested yesterday afternoon. They’re still in custody now hopefully, in court soon. And this is what they had to say when they disrupted land forces.

 Hi, everyone, its Cloud and Ash here.

 We’ve just stopped this piece of machinery death machinery from going to the Convention Center in South Brisbane for of the land forces Expo.

 We’re standing in solidarity with the First Nations people of this land. And with those in the Northern Territory, who are currently calling for a ceasefire to disarm the police in their communities, First Nations peoples were the first to experience militarized violence on this continent, and they’re still the most victimized by it today, here and all across the globe.

 It’s not hard to see why we are standing here today on top of this machinery in front of this expo, where the machines are designed purely to kill and disrupt these weapons, destroy lives, homes and entire ecosystems.

 When we’re at a crossroad for humanity, we’re on the breakdown of a climate and societal collapse. We cannot afford the division that this expo promotes. We cannot afford to fight. We cannot afford to destroy any more. We need to turn all resources and minds to equity and sustainability, wars pollution of our minds, our relationships. And yes, the military machine is burning our home directly with these weapons and through the thirst and consumption of fossil fuels. The military oppresses culture takes land that is not for taking by force, by fear, leaving vulnerable people to pick up their lives in rubble.

 That is, cloud and ash, who yesterday jumped on top of an EP Hunter Wolf is the name of the machine. There’s all kinds of bizarre military machinery and with all with very strange names, brand names and things like that.

 And offense to wolves, really, who wonderful creatures who don’t need military vehicles being named after them. But then again, there’s so many things like that. One of the big displays, of course, will be Boeing talking about their Apache helicopter, which I’m sure the native Apache people have the US who tried to defend their country from being invaded by what became the US military weren’t aren’t that keen on that particular piece of equipment being named after them either.   But bizarre branding is part of what land forces does, and trying to unveil, unveil what really goes on there and talk about, like Cloud and ash then did about the environmental cost about the cost on First Nations people around the world of militarism. And you know, where these guns end up and who they end up getting used on is part of the reason to protest. And so that is why, all this week, people will be disrupting land forces. Again, there’s a big program or event that starts tonight with a ceremonial fire and welcome the country at Musgrave Park. A lot of the events we focused out of Jagera Hall This Week, and they’ll be the land force convention itself runs from Tuesday to Thursday next week. So we’ll be there at the convention center causing a ruckus but there’ll be workshops and things over the weekend and a concert on Saturday night at Jagera hall where you’ll be able to catch some great performers, including  the one of the stars of this song. This is a classic Ozzy protest tune from combat wombat and Izzy Brown, whose voice you will hear on this song we’ll be performing at Jagera Hall on Saturday night say get down and join the party Join the Resistance.

 Defense Minister of Australia Robert Hill says the government is continuing to talk to the US about Australia developing a missile defense system. Earlier this year the government revealed it was considering whether a shield could be put in place to protect Australia against a possible missile attacks.

 The Empire Strikes Back war is terrorism. Star Wars. The Empire Strikes Back war is terrorism. Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back. Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back to attack for what’s it called to lose out on the ego of the present days. And the residence of the Pentagon’s military defense case turned against on Nevada by the story of an Arab with a pen not prepared to take his own life. And everybody’s going to end up paying free either by capitalist guy into another war to score points on the magic nano ray scoreboard for those who can afford to buy fine we feel this talk another deal size war in on CNN again showdown of the lowdown 30 Round versus the team is all that intersection and writing shots of the emperor has no clothes there’s no denying. Let’s take the power back. Without the flowers crap these motherfuckers got me ready to snap and they only got their own back we take our own back or see fantasy as our dignities attack, where you want to end up the first place or last left suffocating as their rocket ship. No life on Mars but none here either a global Holocaust as they glide through the ether. I’m a believer realist and truth seeker. Knowledge is power as he pumps through the speaker dismissal of a morally bankrupt leader is needed because identities lie bleeding. Was The Empire Strikes Back or is terrorism Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back? Or is terrorism?

A conspiracy? It might be it’s hard to say got a fixture at the end of the media.

 On the television, no clarity of vision is this world war three is this a reality? We’re living in given in killing each other?

We learn from Lost arms crimes against humanity secretly exploiting the minority creating daggers for revenge justification to avenge race war religious war did they tell you what you’re fighting for? You seem to have forgotten Star Wars that’s in question no more guessing tired of being ignored the shadow definitely flexing undealt with making the world like shoot ’em up Western in the madness laden session of a Christian then the workers with no lesson from the past we passed carpet bombed and asked what do they hate us and make us escape nuts bashed and crashed and smashed them as friends to help us in our task where we’ve been sending men to end all the senses bringing the cream of militant to distinguish the innocent premises the Nemesis is just the must send him enough trucks tanks missiles abrupt drop bombs to this nothing new rounds real weapons and in the best tanks trucks this isn’t such drop bombs to there’s nothing new round to blow up drop bombs to this no one leopard Friends Meeting us planet saving obviously angered America’s rights as constitution gets mangled daily operation as a compensated spray verbal Agent Orange if you get in their way pain in forms of back the bending of rules when false type power their swords in the cruel nothing new this Christian empire finds that Jesus was indeed born in Palestine remind remind remind yourself that history is written by the man with well but he is passionless next to those who felt the rough pan corrupt man has tell where’s the next target civilian market pursue those goals and from the families that pocket the whole scars filled with immense darkness where’s the love is it too much to ask this genealogy boo like attack seeks to religious fundamentalists love to argue or any allergy boo like attack sex to politician them know to argue Australia all the brave men and women around the globe watching last two  days today’s world  world peace  World Peace  world  peace  that he’s combat one back there. That one goes out to ollie very dedicated paradigm shift listener and a big fan of combat wombat to hope you can make it down on Saturday night down to Jagera a hall that’s tomorrow night  where I  Ah Is it from combat one that we playing alongside race rage while play later in the show accomplice collective local West Enders who are always a good time and dancing water. So  time for a bit of fun and dancing amongst all the disrupting that is planned land forces is big weapons Expo if you haven’t heard,  which if you’ve been listening to the paradigm shift affortable that hopefully you have.

 And the disruption began last night, as you heard earlier with cloud and ash jumping on a  hunter Wolf, which is an unmanned military vehicle used for carrying all their gear and weapons and things like that around.

 And technological development in war as actually that song Star Wars, of course, talking about partly the militarization of space that began in the 80s under Ronald Reagan with the US and beginning that the space warfare programs and of course, now,  a lot of modern warfare would be impossible without satellites that they have circling the globe spying on everybody.

 And there’s nowhere we can go to the out of the reaches of militarism. Well, the technological developments of warfare continue. And despite what people sometimes say about how wonderful it is, how good it is for technology, they don’t tend to improve our lives. They improve the ability for control and for countries to attack other people sometimes attack their own civilians, of course, which is a lot of what a lot of what the military is used for around the world. That’s the reality is that actually, it’s for policing protests for protecting corrupt regimes and things like that. And, and, of course, some of the technological developments of the last century in warfare. I think that the world now agrees a totally unethical chemical warfare, cluster bombs are landmines and nuclear weapons, which were on the way to banning the number of countries have signed on to a UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons. And certainly,  much of the world agrees that it’s totally unethical, something of the scale of nuclear weapons to ever be used. And so we’re left with technological developments that put us in a worse place than we were before. There’s the opposite of what new technology is meant to do to improve our lives make doing things easier and better. And the next step, and they still military,  the military industrial complex still goes on and on about innovation and being at the cutting edge of development and things like that. And of course, they go into high schools and primary schools, as we heard from  at least West who played on the paradigm shift a few weeks ago, talking about weapons companies going to schools, they have partnerships with universities, a lot of the time they get these development grants off the government. And then it’s left to the rest of us, people working in, you know, civilian organizations, civil society to rein in the terrible technology that they’re creating. Well, this is continuing, of course, with lethal autonomous weapons, the next step in technological warfare. I spoke with Matilda Byrne, from the organization safe ground about what to expect from  autonomous weapons, what’s already being used, and what we can do to try to stop them.

Andy: Could you start off by introducing yourself?

Sure. So my name is Matilda Byrne. And I’m based in Melbourne and with the organization safe ground, who’s a disarmament focused NGO, where I am the National Coordinator of the campaign to stop killer robots. So killer robots for those of us who have watched our share of science fiction movies have sounded pretty bad. Can you tell us specifically what is the campaign to stop killer robots about? Sure. So I think, obviously, killer robots can on conjure a very sort of sci fi esque image. And that’s not really something we’re talking about today. In the present. killer robots are also referred to as lethal autonomous weapons systems. So autonomous weapons are sort of this whole different range of emerging weaponry that we have. And lethal autonomous weapons are ones where the decision making processes to selecting a target to attack and then the decision of whether or not to attack that target is actually done by the machine itself. So using something like artificial intelligence, and there’s no human oversight, verification or sort of control over that process. And that’s what we’re really worried about. And so the campaign is advocating for a new international treaty. So a new international law that would regulate this area of autonomous weapons and put  in place, prohibitions to prevent laws or those weapons I just described and sort of other aspects of autonomy sort of put limits where we think this is just a step too far.

 So, in the US wars in the last couple of decades, we’ve seen the sort of drone warfare kind of remote controlled  aircraft, but also using AI algorithms to sort through metadata to find targets and things like that. So that’s, in a way a use of AI. But not it’s not quite what you’re talking about other other examples of this already in use in warfare.

 Right. So yeah, there are sort of already examples of AI being sort of integrated into defense systems, sort of what you described, or, for example, autonomous piloting where, you know, aircraft might be able to pilot itself, for instance, without being remote controlled. So these sort of things we are seeing that are sort of more increasingly autonomous weapons in the US, like you’ve mentioned, also, Russia, Israel, the UK and work being done here. So there are systems that I guess a semi autonomous or kind of precursory. But in those sort of selection of tickets and things that’s still being done by humans at this point in time, that’s what we want to retain. So presumably, there are other developments underway that you’re campaigning against, what kind of autonomous weapons are we talking about, that are being designed or created at the moment.

 So I think we’re most likely to see, perhaps stepping over this Real Red Line from sending might be semi autonomous, but has humans evolved to something beyond that, say, targeting humans, perhaps using target profiles, or that we find really worrying? I guess he’s most likely to be from the air. So sort of like a drawing that became becomes fully autonomous. So I kind of air based systems, or are things on the ground, I guess, deployed in land that can do the sort of sensing themselves, that’s what we’re really worried about. So I guess an example from Australia, something like the new loyal wingman project, that is a fully autonomous aircraft. But it’s not designed to deploy lethal force and attack targets, it’s designed to sort of accompany other aircraft. However, to sort of extend that capability into the future. And to arm something like that would be entirely possible. So what we’re worried about is crossing over that red line.

And so that there needs to be strong policy and commitments to not do that. And something that’s really problematic here within Australia is that we’re not hearing any of those commitments, any kind of policy like that, coming from the Australian government from the Defense Department, saying that we will roll out lethal autonomous weapon systems that do this targeting and attacking without human control, they have a very sort of opaque approach to human control where maybe it’s okay in this instance, and it’s given, there’s so much innovation happening in the area, a real concern for us. So what kind of like software’s artificial intelligence. So we talking about here, like facial recognition, like metadata analysis, GPS coordinates, what kind of things are they are being used to try to create lethal weapons? So we do know, there’s lots of different AI to do sort of big number crunching of vast volumes of data. And so we know that that’s something that’s sort of being integrated into systems already, facial recognition that you mentioned is something that we’re really worried about, partially because we know how bad facial recognition is. So to give you an example, I think it came out of Google.

So you know, one of the big sort of software developing companies where facial recognition was successful 90% of the time on white males without beards, specifically. And so I think if you think about realistically, where was a fort, we know that facial recognition is not going to get it right, it will be inaccurate, and in particular, it disproportionately impacts people of color. So AI struggles, as skin color gets darker. And so putting something like this in a system to target or any other kind of target profile, really something like if it’s heat based, whatever technologies they’re using, is really just distilling a person into these sort of metrics in a way where it removes all of the humanity as well as not necessarily being accurate. And so for us, that’s a real issue, which is why it’s so important that you know, a human does do the ultimate targeting and looking and seeing when assessing whether or not it is, you know, the correct personal waffle targets to say, you know,  A combatant that is in warfare rather than a civilian and so on.

 I did hear someone say that in the US drone warfare, because they use metadata analysis to pick targets, like, you know, GPS locations, people who are going to suspect areas, that there are taxi drivers and things who travel around a lot, who go to a lot of these places that are like red alerts for the good AI that get targeted wrongly, or the other things like that.

 Yeah, so that’s a really good example of how already, we’re not always getting it right. And so clearly, the,  you know, the technology is making this kind of false correlation. But then we have the opportunity with something like a drone strike for a person to evaluate that, to think about that to draw any other connections. And perhaps some of the time is still making the wrong choice, where we see sort of some issues with drone strikes that have already occurred.

So if you think about taking the human out of that equation, who is the person that actually can understand context and to make those other connections, or, you know, if we’re not talking specifically about targeting, in an individual instance, something else, like in a conflict zone, exercising restraint, when they see sort of incoming, a potential incoming attack that risks I guess, escalating unnecessarily, it’s people that can make those evaluations and judgments that are so crucial in warfare. And whilst we might not get it right, 100% of the time removing that is just such a big risk to sort of, you know, global stability in general, broadly. And then also in this individual cases, you know, the civilian populations where wars are fought. So there are some pretty serious ethical questions, I guess, about the use of AI to create autonomous weapons. Is this the kind of thing that stop killer robots is trying to bring up? Yes, 100%.

So I mentioned earlier use the word dehumanizing so that’s a real big part of this question. So the idea of, I guess, upholding human dignity and asking, Do we even think it’s okay for an AI to make a decision over who lives and dies. So there’s no human involved. AI isn’t a moral agent. So it can’t sort of make a choice based on its conscious or appreciate the value of life? So there’s this big ethical question that’s really being raised. And I think it’s also an important point, because it’s in all sectors of society where we’re seeing this integration of AI, not just in warfare in conflict and type in potentially targeting people, but also, you know, in health where, at the moment, health practitioners can use various AI systems that make suggestions around say history and traits and things. But ultimately, it’s a human practitioner or doctor or specialist, who then decides about, you know, how to proceed with that. And so, this idea of delegating life and death decisions to machines is one where really a society as a whole, we have to decide how we want to proceed with that. And really, we believe that there is a moral red line here and an imperative to not do that handing over. So that’s, you know, a really strong part of what the campaign does emphasize  All  right.

Andy: That is Anomie there on the Paradigm Shift. Predator drones over Yemen is the name of the song. And of course, in recent years Australia has  been fair Australian companies have been found at selling weapons to  the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in their occupation of Yemen, which has been a ongoing disaster, which has forced many,  many people to leave or as killed many civilians, and an ongoing conflict. Before that, we’ll be speaking with Matilda Byrne about autonomous weapons, the next stage in technological warfare, isn’t that exciting?

Plenty to look forward to new fancy ways to be killed by a robot. Let’s  go back to chatting with Matilda.

Andy: I’m interested in what you were just saying about AI being used in other sectors of society and ethical questions there. Because it is becoming so prevalent, you know, in our everyday lives in sort of social media algorithms and things like that, but also in industrial processes in you know, all kinds of work, driverless cars, all these kinds of things. Do you see autonomous weapons as being removed from these other questions about AI? Or is it all part of the same broad conversation?

Matilda: I think in some ways, it is all part of the same conversations. There’s these kinds of key ethical questions that we need to broach in AI in general. So things like ethical AI frameworks apply to all uses of AI and all different applications. I do think, though, there’s a really important distinction to be made with autonomous weapons. And this often comes up because people talk about autonomous vehicles being this kind of a great solution to minimize, you know, deaths and risks on the road, which in times the technology develops, it could well be, but I think it’s what’s key to see there is that the whole point of having autonomous vehicles or self driving cars, is to remove or reduce road toll, and to save lives inherently. But with autonomous weapons. The whole point is to use them to wage war to fight in conflict, you know, they’re sort of an instrument of killing in themselves, which does make the conversation a little bit different for autonomous weapons specifically, and some of the, I guess, aspects intrinsically linked to that.

Andy:  So can you tell us a bit about stop killer robots and the campaign to ban autonomous weapons?

Matilda: Sure. So the campaign to stop killer robots is, I guess, a global coalition of different organizations that are working with the same goal to sort of have an international treaty that would prohibit lethal autonomous weapon systems and maintain meaningful human control over weapon systems use. So that’s sort of specifically what we are advocating for globally. And so there’s about I think, now over 160 Different organizations in about 60 plus countries working on this issue. So there’s diplomatic talks that take  Place, there’s sort of been seven years now of international discussions within the United Nations on this topic specifically, and they’re not able to actually achieve much action. So a lot of our work is about putting pressure on that process. Part of the reason why action isn’t being achieved is because it’s a consensus process. So every single country has to agree to anything for it to move forward.

And, of course, we have countries like, for instance, Russia, who are very happy to sort of raise their hand and, you know, put forward an issue with, you know, how it’s been discussed, or you know, what policy outcome might possibly be taken. But we really feel there is a strong need for treaty in this area, new international law to be formed. And we know that there’s many, many countries that do support that.

So within Australia, specifically, the campaign is really I guess, trying to bring awareness of the Australian position and raise some scrutiny, I suppose, as I mentioned, the sort of a government position is quite opaque, they’re not really prepared to make any kind of commitment to ruling out lethal autonomous weapons or, you know, maintaining human control, like I mentioned, as autonomous weapons progress.

And so we’re really trying to push Australia to do that. And also to be less, I guess, detracting in the international process, because what’s also really problematic is, you know, Australia as an international actor, you know, attends these talks, but really, what they’re offering and saying in their statements, is at the very lowest common denominator of the packer amount among the small handful of countries that are saying, Oh, no, we don’t need strong policy options, we can just keep discussing and developing shared understandings. And that’s enough for now, when we know it’s not enough, because technology is being developed at such a rapid pace. And the time really to act is now and we do need that international law to set sort of the international standards from which all the other regulation can flow on from.

Andy:  So international conflict laws haven’t always been effective at stopping people from doing things like, I don’t know, genocide, or attacks on civilians, or, you know, conflicts without UN resolutions. But I guess you’d be looking at things like treaties against cluster munitions and landmines have precedents of what you’re trying to achieve here.

Matilda: Yeah, that’s exactly right. So we’ve seen with weapons that there has been a lot of success in, you know, disarmament treaties, limiting their use. So something like I guess chemical weapons or biological weapons is very much also based in that the moral revulsion of those weapons. And whilst it hasn’t been never used ever again, we haven’t seen it since you know, they were first passed, it really is only in this slight couple of instances where we’ve seen something like that being used. And then landmines is actually a really great example, because with land mines, there’s been a lot, obviously, ratification of the treaty. So when people agree, like, yes, they will abide by all of these terms. But a country like the US has not actually signed and ratified and often we get sort of the question raised, well, not everyone’s going to sign. But the thing about international law is that it also sets norms or customs or sort of expected standards of behavior.

So with landmines even though the US has never signed that treaty, they don’t, you know, produce them stockpile and use landmines anymore. So we do see that they do have an effect these treaties, even on big global actors that do wield a lot of power. So in Brisbane, there is land forces, weapons expo where a lot of the world’s biggest arms companies will be getting together and showcasing their wares.

Andy: So I guess in that context is interesting. Talk about what companies are currently developing lethal autonomous weapons?

Guest: Yeah, so it’s an interesting question, because we do know that more and more countries are using AI, integrating AI for maybe films, semi autonomous systems, etc. They’re all sort of on this pathway, potentially towards lethal autonomous weapons. So the really big ones that I would probably name a scene doing a lot of work in this area, a Boeing, Lockheed Martin as well. And they have a specific lab in Melbourne, the stellar lab working in this space, as some, I guess, like maybe the bigger arms companies that are doing a lot of work in this area where we would say that they also have their own imperative to say that they have clear policy where they won’t produce a lethal autonomous weapon system because it would be unlawful.

 But in addition to some of those bigger companies, we’re seeing a lot of other kinds of smaller companies that are working in this area using AI and defense systems.

 So, like cyborg dynamics skyborne technologies defend tech sterile Australian based companies that are doing work in this area, a lot of them I guess collaborate as part of this bigger trusted autonomous systems. It’s a defense Cooperative Research Center. So that also links with industry industry, University and the Department of Defense. And so we know there’s a lot of work going on with autonomous systems and where we don’t know is actually where the limits are, where the lines are, if there is any policy and how much is actually happening in that I guess spectrum from some autonomous systems in a surveillance system all the way through to potential lethal autonomous weapons, which we would see as being as I mentioned just before unlawful also immoral and where before which there must be aligned at these companies as well weren’t cross in their weapons development.

Andy: Okay, thanks for Matif people are interested in finding out more about autonomous weapons and stop killer robots how can they do so? Yes, you can find us on social media and also through the website so stop killer robots.org is sort of all the global information through the safe ground website so safe ground.org.au You can find out all about the campaign in Australia and on social media the easiest way across all platforms is to search hashtag us a US oz ban killer robots. Alright, thanks very much Matilda. Great thanks so much for having me  again  losing  God y’all  listen to  my heartbreaks  to the undertaker  within the younger generation and  chat  Undertaker  a young  man  precious  Waukesha  can’t give  it away  y’all  afternoon Mr. Chairman  to the undertaker  they say we must  know this guy jumped  on y’all  a classic antiwar song there on the paradigm shift on for trouble Zed from Edwin Starr.

Andy: That is war and 60s Motown. What couldn’t they do? What style of music didn’t they make amazing? Before then we’re speaking with Matilda Byrne from a safer ground organization trying to stop lethal autonomous weapons being developed. And now well that  interview was being played. I did get a text through. I got one requesting the Terminator theme, which would seem very apt, but I didn’t have it on hand to play. But I got another one from Dave from eco radio, which is great radio program. Palestine – You can listen to it midday on Wednesdays right here on for troubles Ed. And he alerted me to the fact that Israel has deployed an AI powered, remote controlled smart shooter to disperse protesters in Palestine at one of the checkpoints  at Hebron there in Palestine. Of course, if you’re unfamiliar, there’s checkpoints of Palestinian people want to move in or out of the occupied territories, and then they have to go through these checkpoints. And so, for crowd dispersal, Israel has put a  semi autonomous weapon there. And it is built by a company called  What are they called?

Smart shooter, who have developed autonomous fire control system called Smash, which they say can be attached to assault rifles to fall in locking on targets using image processing based on artificial intelligence. They say that  it overcomes challenges faced by soldiers battles such as physical exertion, fatigue, stress, mental pressure to aim accurately and ensure the shooters success. Well.

 Palestinian people have responded Issa Amro a Palestinian human rights activist says, I see this as a transition from human to technological control. We as Palestinians have become an object of experimenting and training for Israel’s military high tech industry, which is not accountable for anything it does.

 And I think that is the side I’m on defending the humanity of Palestinians ahead of the need to develop killer robots to enable better killing.

Andy:  Now, Palestine is an issue that has been talked about at disrupt land forces. Of course, if you’ve just tuned in, one of the reasons that we’re talking about weapons is that a lot of the world’s biggest, and Australia’s biggest weapons companies are in Brisbane next week for the land forces Weapons Convention at the Convention Center in South Brisbane and disrupt land forces is trying to make it a nightmare to run, trying to stop them gathering there, make it difficult for them to sell their weapons and network and,  you know, build better connections for making contracts for corroding our democracy for destroying our planet. And so we’re going to be causing a ruckus or next week, and there will be an event next Wednesday at 6pm.

Justice for Palestine long term Brisbane group working for, as the name says, Justice for Palestine are going to organize an event outside the convention center as the delegates are sort of walking out for the day, where there’ll be showing pictures and calling out the names of Palestinian people who have been killed by the Israeli military, including there was a recent massacre in the Gaza Strip. So that’s at 6pm outside the prison Convention and Exhibition Center, and the other week, we agree with us, we’re outside Elbit Systems who do make semi-autonomous weapons as well and have provided for a long time weapons to enable the Israeli occupation of Palestine. And there’ll be other tours of weapons companies coming up on the  Wednesday, same day, actually, to go around to some of Britain’s  weapons companies that are lurking in our suburbs unbeknownst to most of us these people that are selling weapons to conflict zones all around the planet.

 I’m going to play another little song here and then I will come back and read the whole program of everything coming up at  land forces. A little language warning on this next one from race rage. If you don’t like swearing, then look out because the next three minutes there’s going to be a little bit of it. But race rage will be here on Saturday tomorrow night playing at Jagera Hall as well. And this song is also the title of another event which you hear about to staffers. It’s called Eat the rich 

Plays song

Andy:  You can see race for age as I said at the get funked free concert for disrupt land forces. It is tomorrow night from 8pm at Jagera Hall in Musgrave Park. And eight the rich is the name of another event that’s coming up this week for disrupt land forces on Monday from 1pm There will be an eight the rich banquet followed by a parade down to all the hotels and restaurants around the convention center where we think some of the landlord’s delegates who are in there setting up their stores might be wining and dining and say  we’ll go down and let everybody know that we’re a city that’s keen on peace not so keen on weapons companies gathering. So that’s 1pm on Monday, meeting Jagera Hall, most of the events for disrupt land forces will be based around the convention center but also Jagga hall where we’ll have a little bit of a base there in Musgrave Park, of course, on Yuggera country there. And  so you can pop down there anytime, really. And there will be people there. Over Saturday and Sunday. There’ll be workshops running at Jagera Hall to learn all about how to resist a bit of information about the weapons industry and a bit about strategy and how to resist it. The strategy for disrupt land forces I’ll let you know  basically is make it so difficult and annoying to run this event that they just stopped doing it that it becomes just such a  hassle and an expense that it’s not worthwhile. And so far we’re doing okay. Last night, there was so many police all around the convention center and in fact driving escorting military vehicles through the city to get them to the convention center. It must have been an incredibly expensive exercise. And that’s the kind of thing that we’re in to make to cause too much of a ruckus. On that note, from Tuesday to Thursday, outside the convention center morning and afternoon, people will be causing a ruckus, making it sort of unpleasant to be walking in and out of the land forces convention. On the Wednesday there will be a tour around some of the weapons manufacturers that are permanently in our city. Or there’ll be meeting at Jagera Hall at 9am. You can come down before then of course, if you want to  shout abuse at people walk into the convention center.

 There’ll be a 24 hour silent vigil if that’s more your type, some of the Quakers will be organizing a 24 hour vigil in radical place in the city. And you can go and join them at any time if you want a bit of respite for all some quiet meditation on peace and, and witnessing holding the light as the Quakers say. And for the final day is sending the clouds is what has been called it’s going to be a fun big disruption on Thursday afternoon for the final afternoon of land forces. There’ll be plenty of other things going on too, that I’m not going to tell you about because they’re being secretly organized.

 But get down to Jagera Hall over the next week. Come and meet people and get involved and it will be a great time and an important campaign. Our city can be more than just a meeting place for some of the world’s worst corporations and let’s try to make it that and and organize an alternative convention. I wrote an article that’s called Five Reasons to disrupt land forces which covers everything you can find on the paradigm shift Facebook page, and hopefully I’ll see you down there over the next week. I’m going to go out with one final song friends James who his muse is a bit too gentle to be at the Saturday night party but you will hear him playing music for the next week I’m sure local folk singer is his cup of another 60s any war classic Masters of War See you next week.

Franz James (sings): Come you masters of war / You that build all the guns / You that build the death planes / You that build the big bombs  / You that hide behind walls / You that hide behind desks / I just want you to know / I can see through your masks / You that never done nothin’  / But build to destroy / You play with my world / Like it’s your little toy / You put a gun in my hand / And you hide from my eyes  / And you turn and run farther / When the fast bullets fly / Like Judas of old / You lie and deceive / A world war can be won  / You want me to believe / But I see through your eyes / And I see through your brain / Like I see through the water / That runs down my drain  / You fasten the triggers / For the others to fire / Then you set back and watch / When the death count gets higher / You hide in your mansion  / As young people’s blood / Flows out of their bodies / And is buried in the mud

You’ve thrown the worst fear / That can ever be hurled  / Fear to bring children / Into the world / For threatening my baby / Unborn and unnamed / You ain’t worth the blood  / That runs in your veins / How much do I know / To talk out of turn? / You might say that I’m young / You might say I’m unlearned  / But there’s one thing I know / Though I’m younger than you / Even Jesus would never / Forgive what you do / Let me ask you one question  / Is your money that good? / Will it buy you forgiveness? / Do you think that it could? / I think you will find / When your death takes its toll  / All the money you made / Will never buy back your soul …