Drone Wars (2012)

Drone Wars (2012)

Who bears responsibly for lethal action when weapons are fully automated? Can a machine have a code of ethics? While their accuracy might, in theory, minimize innocent deaths, drones also enable illegal political assassinations, and by keeping US troops out of harm's way they also make war easier. A serious debate on these topics is long overdue.

The forerunners of drones that are currently targeting people on the ground were once themselves targets. They have since evolved into reconnaissance vehicles, and more recently as weapons platforms. Predator drones are manufactured in Poway, near San Diego, where over 4,000 people are employed at General Atomics at the taxpayers' expense. We examine the implications of this kind of warfare, and the loop of finance that rewards contractors and the politicians they support.

Drone warfare has increased dramatically since 2008 and there are over 60 bases across the globe engaging in a US drone missions. US drones are currently deployed in the skies of over 14 different countries, some for surveillance and others for attacking ground targets. The area of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan, known as Waziristan is the locus of much of the drone operations. But are these weapons keeping us safe, or do they just incite further terrorist attacks? And is their use a violation of the Geneva Conventions?

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Now imagine this: These drones may well be controlled by systems of artificial intelligence. You may think that they're being controlled by military pilots, but this idea may be the outcome of public relations and military propaganda. This may mean that a computer system with lists of all names of all human beings on this planet decides, based on certain criteria, who will live and who will die. And we've thought that the antichrist is going to be a human being.

John C. Lilly has been talking about this war of the machine against human beings. Humans are being used by this machine to eliminate other humans just like in a chess game - but they too will eventually be eliminated by the machine. It's just like the Terminator movie. "And now I have become death." (Bhagavad Gita)