The distinction between a "thought experiment" and a "simulation" is fuzzy, and we can argue about how important the differences between the second and third versions of the story are.

But the first version of the story, where an actual drone supposedly turned around and deliberately killed a US warfighter, goes well beyond credulity. If something like that happened, it would be HUGE, with congressional-level investigations over many months, not something casually mentioned at some conference.

@mattblaze

"the first version of the story, where an actual drone supposedly turned around and deliberately killed a US warfighter, goes well beyond credulity. If something like that happened, it would be HUGE,"

I agree, but then again it wouldn't be the first U.S. military drone to kill a U.S. citizen in cold blood. What does it matter to the victim if a robot or human pressed the fire button?

The military industrial complex behind the violence is the same either way.

@mattblaze

The "rogue unmanned military drone" trope really only scares people who aren't already targets of the manned military drones...

A hellfire missile is a hellfire missile all the same no matter who or what fires it.

Is there much difference between a human operator huddled in a shipping crate in Nevada, mistaking a wedding in Afghanistan (in a vastly different culture) for a military gathering and killing 40 people.... and an autonomous killer robot drone?