LA Times reporter J.W. Hennigan had an article that was featured in the Friday January 27, 2012, Tacoma News Tribune entitled, “Drone may drop bombs without human control.” There is little doubt that the deployment of unmanned, pilotless drones turned the tide in favor of the United States in its “war on terror” by killing almost all the top al-Qaeda leaders as well as crippling the Taliban in Afghanistan. Although this high-tech killing machine is not without its drawbacks because some innocent civilians have mistakenly been targeted as hostile insurgents and lost their lives after the drone unleashed death-dealing missiles and rockets upon their location. Now the Navy is about to test its newest aerial war toy, The X-47B. What makes this drone so remarkable is that it just might have the ability to indiscriminately initiate its own attack protocols without direct human involvement. A human operator would program it with a flight plan and could override its decisions or abort its mission; at least that is the plan in theory. Although this could certainly alter the face of warfare in the modern era but it should also be of great concern to everyone if something goes wrong and a malfunction of the world’s most sophisticated offensive, aerial war machine could prove a grave danger to those along its flight path. In case of such an incident, how soon could the military get control of or destroy a rogue mini-plane roaming the skies, probably flying at Mach speed and out of control, lacking the human capacity to distinguish between friend or foe?
This brings to mind several Sci-fi precedents: The movie, “The Day the World Stood Still” where the space traveler Klatuu mentioned that the United Federation of Planets have given all police duties over to robots like ‘GORT,’ which includes the ability to detect any form of aggressive behavior or hostility [through internal programming and sensors] and act automatically [by artificial intelligence] to completely neutralize any threat [unleashing a disintegration beam or ray through its visor. In the Sci-fi television series, “Star Trek,” Captain Kirk of the USS Enterprise was in danger of losing his command to the super computer M-5, which had human-like sentiments (“ingrams”) incorporated into its AI (artificial intelligence) circuitry and it functioned in place of Kirk by making bridge decisions during Starfleet battle simulations. It later malfunctioned by destroying an empty space freighter, which could have contained human occupants, and then it took over the Enterprise. The movie, “2001: A Space Odyssey” where the super-computer ‘HAL’ developed self-awareness [sentience] and took control of the ship. The “Terminator” movies and television’s “Sarah Connor Chronicles” where advancements in computer technology leads to the creation of ‘SKYNET,’ which becomes the harbinger of doom and MAN vs. MACHINE Armageddon by manufacturing and unleashing the prototype cyborg-series terminator robots. The 2010 movie “Stealth” was about an AI (artificial intelligence) super-advanced, pilot-less Stealth fighter plane that went rogue after being struck by lightning.
So, many could argue that such comparisons are unwarranted and concerns to the contrary are mere paranoia because safeguards will be built into this super plane to prevent even the slightest loss of total human control. It is one thing to watch a movie or a television series but all comparisons stop there because fantasy is one thing but reality is quite a different thing altogether.
Robert Randle
776 Commerce St. #B-11
Tacoma, WA 98402
January 27, 2012
robertrandle51@yahoo.com
