British Technology Deployment: Sick Sense Of Humour Or Life Imitating Art?

UNLESS YOU’VE BEEN LIVING under a rock for the last couple of decades you will no doubt be aware of a seminal sci-fi series of movies concerning the end of the world as we know it, brought about by our own folly and dependency on machines and technology. I refer of course to the “Terminator” series, which basically charts the downfall of humanity and the rise of machines.

In the movies the system which we foolishly built to run global missile defence networks was called “Skynet”. The system also controlled unmanned aircraft and bombers. The only problem of course was that (in the movies you understand) the system became self aware, and decided that humanity was basically a threat to it. The resulting armageddon wiped the vast majority of humans off the face of the planet and enabled the machines to rise to dominance.

So – a successful piece of science fiction yes? Absolutely, but still it contained some central themes and warnings for the future – notably never give over control to machines. Unfortunately the armed forces of our wonderful planet don’t seem to have taken any notice, as more and more unmanned vehicles and devices are invented and deployed year on year.

Now however the situation has just got weirder… about as weird as you can get actually.

The latest development in this area really smacks of someone with either a sick sense of humour, or no social life whatsoever. The Brits have just announced their intention to deploy a fleet of airbourne unmanned gunships (known as MQ-9 Predator “Reapers”). The MQ-9 “Reaper” is the most formidable killer robot currently in operation. It’s a big beast, 36 feet long with an 86-foot wingspan. It can fly for 14 hours without refuelling, going at a maximum speed of 300mph and as high as 50,000 feet – nine and a half miles up. It’s not just the Brits who are deploying this beastie either, the USA are getting in on the act too. The US Air Force describes it as an “unmanned hunter/killer weapon system“. Any of this sounding familiar yet?

Worse still, these robot gunships are to be controlled by an IT system known as, you guessed it, “Skynet”.  Skynet 5 is the programme to update the UK’s military satellite communications capability for the British Ministry of Defence. This system is to provide the next generation of secure global military satellite communications system for the British.

So – either we have a very very twisted sense of humour in evidence from the British Ministery of Defence, or worse we have a case of life imitiating art (or movies to be precise) and we should all start hoarding canned food and get ready to head for the hills as soon as they hand over control to the Skynet system.

I wonder how long before they try to hook up some military grade robot warriors to the Skynet system? Actually, come to think of it, the loons in Singapore have already announced a competition to design and build an autonomous urban warfare robot, terminator style – so I guess it’s not that far away after all. The prize up for grabs for developing this urban cyborg is 1 million Singapore dollars – so you can bet a bunch of folks are going to try.

Hmm – let’s review….

Global defence system? Check.

Terminator style robots? Check.

Unmanned Hunter Killer flying machines? Check.

Idiots in control of the Military? Check.

Anyone else worried yet?