Comment Paper

Comment Paper 6

Rich Russell

The article Don’t Fear the Reaper by Charlie Carpenter and Lina Shaikhouni discusses why we shouldn’t be so fearful of drones. Much of their argument revolves around the idea drones often serve nonlethal purposes such as intelligence gathering and surveillance. Also an incredibly important factor is that the drones are not autonomous and controlled by a human operator. Having an operator “in the loop” ensures supervision over the destructive power that many drones possess.

The “in the loop” idea of drones fascinates me because it seems to mirror the debate about guns and their destructive power. The argument by pro-gun supporters often is “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Though I am a supporter of this theory obviously drones can help kill more people. However, the discussion should include whether drones are inherently evil or the humans, who use them for destruction, constitute the real threat. Drones are simply big pieces of metal and fiberglass that have no destructive power without a human controller to tell them to kill. Any condemnation of drone use should start with the condemnation of the operators and their superiors because the “killer” part of it is controlled by humans.

Another point that Carpenter and Shaikhouri addressed with “in the loop” ideal is that debate over whether drones should become robots, which are autonomous. This would put the decision of whether to kill or not out of human hands. This decision should never be outsourced to machines because robots can’t take make decisions about what is right or wrong. Human lives are merely statistical. There should be very serious international mandates discouraging development and production of autonomous drones.

In conclusion, I think that the drone argument should really center on how humans are really the main vehicles of destructions. However, given a choice between human controlled drones and autonomous robots I take drones any day of the year. Humans must be regulate the destructive power of drones.