Drones Essay #3 - Grade: A PDF

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Essays about Drones and Surveillance ...

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IMPLEMENTATION OF DRONES Class 375-01

KHANG LAM Professor Sander Eller

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As time has passed we can agree that technology has changed the way society has evolved. The rapid growth of technology has challenged many companies to adapt to our time implementing new business plans and technological features that will save money and time. The use of drones has become among the most important implementations to companies such as Amazon and UPS. This technology will allow such establishments to deliver products to customers’ doors in a faster time than usual. Drones are also referred to as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or remotely piloted aircrafts (RPA) and these flying machines have become very popular throughout the last two years as many hobbyist and photographers have turned them into an attractive trend, capturing breath-taking aerial images and sharing them through social media. “The film industry is already full of remotely piloted copters serving as camera platforms, with a longer reach than booms as well as cheaper and safer operations than manned helicopters” (Anderson, 2012). They are energy efficient and are cheap to build and repair, which explains how this resource can save money. There are many scientific uses for drones, however, although this type of technology can serve a useful purpose and become a convenience to Americans, it also raises awareness concerning privacy issues and interfering with the liberty of citizens. Drones were originally used by the military, while deployed in Afghanistan and other countries, to spy on enemy troops in the attempts to prevent any tragedies and terrorists attacks from occurring. While these were only used for spying at first, these aircrafts were later developed into

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weapons and used for targeted killings against terrorists. The advantage of this technology is to send remotely piloted aircrafts into dangerous war zones without risking the lives of any American soldiers. “Many drones are designed to carry surveillance equipment, including video cameras, infrared thermal images, radars and wireless network detectors” (Ahlert 2012). The advancement of this technology has made it aware to government officials that this is a powerful tool, for this reason, future plans involve law enforcement putting these aircrafts to use for surveillance purposes. According to Healy (2014), “Large numbers of [UAVs] now deployed overseas may be returned to the United States as conflicts in Afghanistan and operations elsewhere wind down in coming years”. This creates anxiety and awareness among American citizen as it generates a threat to privacy. The thought of having these flying machines monitoring your every move is not pleasant to most people, ignoring the fact that using this method for law enforcement has many positive aspects as well, such as, protecting the lives of law enforcement officials and developing better tactics to avoid crimes on the streets. “It’s great!” says Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell. He continues- “If you are keeping police officers safe, making it more productive and saving money it’s absolutely the right thing to do”. However, civil rights must be protected and privacy laws must be updated in order to get this approved. Also, citizens require the Federal Aviation Administration to limit airways open to drones. However, “Congress recently instructed the FAA to open up the skies to more domestic use of the pilotless aircraft by private

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citizens and law enforcement”.(Lowry, 2012) “Markey and Barton ask questions about the privacy implications of drone use, including: What privacy protections and public transparency requirements has the FAA built into its current licensing process for drones used in U.S. airspace?; how does the FAA plan to ensure that drone use under the FAA Modernization and Reform Act is transparent and protects individual privacy rights?” While this technology has created controversy, we can also point out how the use of drones can also be beneficial and positively impactful to our country’s economy. Many of our country’s biggest companies, such as Amazon, FedEx and UPS, have implemented this technology to its business plan in order to complete business cycles quicker between customers reducing the time of delivery and saving money along the way. “Domino’s pizza is testing “Domicopter” drones to deliver pizzas, which will compete with Taco Bell’s “Tacocopter” drones” (Berkowitz, 2014). Drones are being used internationally as well, and for other purposes other than money. “In Denmark, farmers use drones to inspect fields for the appearance of harmful weeds, which reduces herbicide use as the drones directly apply pesticides only where it is needed” (Berkowitz, 2014). Healthcare is also aiming towards the use of drones for better and faster treatment to patients. According to Dan Bowman (2014) “the World Health Organization and the Government of Bhutan, will work with a technology company from California to examine new methods for improving patient care efforts with drones”. “The technology, according to an article in

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Quartz, will connect three rural clinics with the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital in Bhutan’s capital city of Thimphu. Each of four drones will be tasked with carrying 4 pounds of medical supplies, such as medicines and blood samples, back and forth between landing stations”(Bowman, 2014). This is a major contribution to our healthcare sector that will change and benefit American citizen greatly. This technology will open doors to new innovations and change the way we do things for the better. “Drones could deliver medications and supplies to patients being cared for in the home instead of a hospital-based setting, the future will see more outpatient care and even home-baised care that used to be delivered in the hospital”(Bowman, 2014). Drones are great tools for the following reasons: they are efficient, economical and reliable (parallel). We can clearly see how useful this technology can be in the near future; nevertheless it is important that we force restrictions and rules in order to maintain a controlled environment when using drones. Forcing the FAA to implement airway restrictions is the first step towards protecting citizens’ privacy and personal airspace. Technology in general does not affect our world negatively but the hands we put them in can. Technology can be used for many purposes however we must introduce ethical thinking and morals to the way we put them to use. Ultimately speaking, in terms of our future warfare, as technology advances we can only expect more and more implementation of drones in our military forces. With that being said, in about the next decade or so, aside from

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nuclear weapons, it is only reasonable enough that war in the future will be much more advanced and deadly, perhaps even less physical than it has ever been in history. The introduction of drones’ technology will not only speed things up in terms of spying, etc… but it will be a war between advanced technology and networking. A war in which we never forget, or even worse, a war in which we can never recover from.

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Works Cited "Arnold Ahlert: Drones Against Democracy." Arnold Ahlert: Drones Against Democracy. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2016. "Can Drones Improve Healthcare in Remote Regions?" FierceHealthIT. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2016. "Game of Drones." Cato Institute. N.p., 12 June 2012. Web. 22 Feb. 2016. "Hospital Impact - A Role for Drones in Healthcare." Hospital Impact - A Role for Drones in Healthcare. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2016. "How I Accidentally Kickstarted the Domestic Drone Boom." Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2016. The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2016. Waterman, Shaun. "Drones over U.S. Get OK by Congress." Washington Times. The Washington Times, n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2016....