Under the Radar

Drones are launched in the iPad's shadow.

The onslaught of Apple reviews this week is a curious thing. There is no escaping the scathing attacks and defensive support of the iPad – an internet connected portable media device. This, in a week which announces the launch of a $1 billion venture to develop pilot-less Black Hawk helicopters. Preceded with little hype, I suspect it will attract relatively little attention.

Unmanned war planes, or ‘drones’ are not new, but have never been applied to such large-scale aircraft. Technology is changing the rules of warfare and this ‘robotics innovation’ aims to create a generation of fighter pilots who can use simulated programs to fight wars, kill real people and return home for dinner with their families. This is not science fiction. With or without 3D glasses, this is the reality of today.

Not only are there massive moral implications of this innovation, allowing armies to operate completely removed from context, but these technological changes surely lead us to ask some difficult questions; will software designers be held accountable for the war crimes of our robo-future?

More worrying than this mind-boggling reality is how much harder it is to find passionate debate around this type of technological launch beneath the lines of discussion about yet another to screen to run our Apps on.