Listen - Download MP3 - iTunes

Part 2 of our interview with John Arquilla, Naval Postgraduate School

Listen - Download MP3 - iTunes

The U.S. posture on cyber warfare is largely defensive, with military geeks focused on preventing and mitigating Internet-based attacks on critical infrastructure. John Arquilla, professor of defense analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, believes Pentagon code-slingers should alter their focus somewhat and team with International white hat hackers to disable the war-making capabilities of nations preparing to go to fight.

Listen - Download MP3 - iTunes

In Wired magazine, Nicholas Thompson writes about system known as Dead Hand. It was designed by Soviet scientists in the mid 1980s to automatically retaliate against a nuclear strike from the U.S.

Thompson's new book on the cold war is The Hawk and the Dove.

Listen - Download MP3 - iTunes

Part 2 of our interview with Massoud Amin of the University of Minnesota

Listen - Download MP3 - iTunes

The worry over coordinated cyber attacks against U.S. computer systems from foreign enemies or terrorists has been larger than any damage that's occurred so far, perhaps, but the bad guys are getting better and threats are growing, according to Massoud Amin, who heads a new master's program in security technologies at the University of Minnesota.

MP3 - iTunes

Today, part two of our conversation with Ronald Arkin, author of Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots

MP3 - iTunes

Unmanned aerial vehicles and other robots are taking on an ever-larger role in how the U.S. wages war. Fully autonomous battle robots seem inevitable. One researcher is committed to the notion that battle robots should be imbued with ethical decision-making technology.

Guest: Ronald Arkin, author of Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots

MP3 - iTunes

Snipers of the American military are already quite accurate and deadly -- look no further than the recent standoff in which Navy Seal snipers killed three Somali pirates who were holding an American ship captain hostage.

The Defense Department is investing in technology to take snipers to another level, to be able to better handle long distances, variations in wind and air temperature, and heat shimmer -- when distant objects look wavy and distorted on hot days.