RISE OF THE DRONES
Kiyotaka ISHIKAWA
Military use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or simply drones, has already been popularized over U.S. war zones as tells the news of future installation of the RQ-4 Global Hawk (an unmanned spy plane) into the Senkaku Islands by the government of Japan. However, benefits (and risks) from absence of man are not only for wartime but also for a lot of industrial and commercial applications. A surprising fact about private Drone use is that the most advancing sector is agriculture; the feature of drones, extension of our physical presence, matches the management of vast crop fields, but we face the very problems similar to ones in military drones.
Drone Use in Wartime
A solution for Obama administration suffering from the budget deficit was the reduction of the arms budget by the installation of unmanned vehicles, so America’s huge war zones can be covered by cheap remotely piloted vehicles and a few operators. For example, the MQ-1 Predator (an unmanned bomber) costs only a 1/3 billion yens while the latest stealth fighter F-35 is priced at 11 billion yens and more for pilot training**. Although the absence of man on the vehicles has saved money and pilots, however, this may cause a new risk; as the United Nations Human Rights Councils states ‘there is a risk of developing a “Playstation” mentality to killing.’ Whether that is right or not, CIA drone attacks have killed 2,629 to 3,461 people in Pakistan alone, of whom 475 to 891 were civilians*.
Rising Private Use of Drones
The same reason as the military installation of drones appears over various drone use amongst many industries including agriculture in which drones are applied to spraying chemicals, correcting soil analysis data and so on. In fact, Japan’s paddy fields sprayed by unmanned helicopters in 2003 accounts for 45% of total rice fields where chemicals in use, and the share of spray drones are growing***. On the other hand, as some environmental organizations warn, sprayers tend to be discouraged from paying attentions to the chemical leakage over neighbors and the natural environment even though much higher concentration of chemicals has been enabled by the unmanned vehicles.
What the Absence of Man gives and takes
Drones have potentials to extend our physical presence just like the internet has extended our virtual presence; we can perceive situations from a distance and make actions there if you want. This is a fantastic innovation, but we have to care the risk arose from the absence of man as the former case studies suggest. It is typical that some quiet-type people turn into very offensive characters on the Internet communities. Even some people fail to distinguish virtual themselves from the real and keep a good relationship in the real society. Given that extended our physical presence influences directly our lives in the same way the virtual presence does to mentality, it is an imminent and important matter to control the power of drones with development of laws for some certificates or licenses.
*Article from TIME issued Feb 11, 2013
**Video from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d7lHUMDCrg
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