Looking for moral being attachments

As the recent stench of war grew stronger, I noticed once again how much we love our machines, be they bunker-busting or surgical, life-saving or high-earning, analog, digital or artificially intelligent. But what happens when our doodads and thingamajigs act human … you know … err?

To wit: Last week in this space, the modern marvel autocorrect changed one letter in one word (“defund” to “defend”) in one sentence, in one paragraph of an entire 750-word commentary. The “correction” altered the entire meaning of the piece. But those were simply the details.

More pressing appears to be that we’re...