Our Final Thoughts

Drones are amazing pieces of technology that are capable of so much. They give people the ability to see places and things without actually having to be there. They are certainly revolutionary, but can be very dangerous if placed in the wrong hands. Drone use for media purposes, recreational purposes, and even business use can pose serious security and privacy threats. Not only that, they can cause physical harm to people or things if operated by an inexperienced individual. Drone use in the military, however, are plenty useful for, both, defensive and offensive purposes. Our military is able to use drones to protect themselves from enemies and have been used to take down many members from different terrorist organizations. We don’t believe that drones are bad, but we believe that they should only be used in the hands of the professionals AKA our military. They should not be allowed to be purchased by members of the media, average Joe’s like you and I, or businesses that want to cut out human labor for convenience.

After reading all our posts on our viewpoint of drones, here is another blog that you might be able to follow along in the future if still interested in the topic. click HERE to move on to Ted.com’s blog about drones.

Truthful Tuesday: Drones Working to Serve and Protect

So far, all you’ve heard from us is reasons why drones are bad for society, but believe it or not, we don’t think drones are all bad. Yes, when put in the wrong hands, drones can be dangerous, but we believe that in the military, drones can be a powerful and helpful resource.

Let’s face it; in the world we live in, war is inevitable. Whether it’s to protect our own nation or help fight for other nations, war happens. Thousands and thousands of soldiers get deployed to fight in these wars and we believe that drones can help make their fight just a little bit easier. Ok, no fight is easy, but drones have certainly changed the way we do war.

Back before drones, we would lose thousands of soldiers in sneak attacks. Our enemies would hide, sneak around our troops, and attack when least expected. Not anymore! In Mark Bowden’s article How the Predator Drone Changed the Character of War Bowden mentions that with the help of drones, soldiers have been able to scope territory before stepping into it. This allows for less sneak attacks and higher chances of survival for both, soldiers and civilians.

Because drones are equipped with quality cameras, our military is able to keep an eye on different territories without having to send a pilot out to do it. This is important for two reasons. One, now that drones do the job of the pilots, there are way less chances of air combat. Sure, our enemies can shoot our drones down, but those can be replaced. Two, drones can provide 24 hour surveillance so rather than exhausting our Air force pilots with long shifts, they can focus on other duties or at least be well rested enough for battle.
Drones are also useful in attack. Our military has learned that missiles can be attached to drones and dropped on enemy territories. In the article, Why Drones Work: The Case for Washington’s Weapon of Choice written by Daniel Byman, Byman states that U.S. drones have helped kill 3,300 members of Al Qaeda, Jihad, and other terrorist organizations under the Obama administration. Because drones are able to provide visuals of a certain area, our military can see exactly where we can and cannot attack. For example, we can avoid dropping bombs on civilians if our drones show a certain area too heavily populated with them. In the past, our military made blind attacks. They had an idea of where their missiles were going to land but now thankfully, with drones, we can see exactly who and where we’re attacking.

Now, we don’t condone war or death, but we know we live in a world where war is inevitable. If war is going to happen, we may as well do it right. Drones are necessary for military defense i.e. scoping the land and avoiding sneak attacks, they give our soldiers a chance to focus on other duties and/or catch up on much needed rest, and they help execute safer attacks on our enemies without hurting (as many) civilians. So yes, drones can be dangerous when put in the wrong hands, but when used properly in the military, they can help a great deal.

Ho Ho… Oh No!

And if you need more convincing…here’s a good read on more things that are wrong with Amazons drone delivery system

Why Amazon Delivery Drones Don’t Work

See for yourself! Amazon’s delivery drones are impractical, expensive, and dangerous…

Truthful Tuesday: Watch Out For That Flying Amazon Package

“We must cut labor” – That’s the dreadful phrase we’ve all heard from our bosses at some point no matter where we’ve worked. In every business, the number one goal is to make money and the second goal is to save that money. What’s the best way to do that? To cut labor. Nowadays, more companies are turning to technology to replace workers in order to cut labor costs. Amazon has recently turned to drones. Sure, this seems quick, efficient, and way less costly, but it can’t be that easy, can it? No, it can’t.

Daniel Johnson lists nine ways how Amazons drone delivery tactic could go wrong in his article, Amazon Drones: Nine Ways it Could go Horribly Wrong and we’ve got to  agree with him. Johnson lists several safety issues such as the possibility that a package could become loose from a drone and fall. Not only would it suck for the person who ordered the package, but it could fall on a pedestrian and cause serious injuries. Technology isn’t perfect and trusting a machine to fly large (or even small) packages above our heads doesn’t strike us as the greatest of ideas.

Johnson goes on to describe some possible security issues with industrial drone use such as hacking and theft. His point here is that if people can hack phones and computers, what’s to stop them from hacking drones carrying expensive packages? Not to mention, people are more likely to steal packages from a machine than from a person so if we eliminate the human deliverer, more packages are susceptible to theft. If a person is determined enough, they could break the drone and steal the package. So basically, Amazon would be saving money on labor costs, but probably spending twice that amount replacing stolen packages and their own drones. Seems a little counterproductive if you ask us.

Johnson’s simplest, yet most practical argument is the weather. It wouldn’t be sensible to seize deliveries every time thunderstorms arrive. Human deliverers can drive in rain, but it would be difficult for a drone to fly in rain or even protect a package from the weather. Humans are absolutely necessary for the safe delivery of packages. Drones can’t guarantee this type of safety so cheaper doesn’t always mean better. The industrial use of drones can seem quick and cheap but the negatives quickly outweigh the positives.

Truthful Tuesday: It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane! Oh Wait…It’s a Drone

As the idea of drones are becoming more and more popular in todays culture, it is easy to get excited about wanting to own your very own. What we don’t take into consideration is exactly how dangerous the recreational use of drones actually is. In the article, Rogue Drones A Growing Nuisance Across the U.S. by Craig Whitlock, Whitlock addresses various incidents that have occurred because of recreational drone use. One of the major dangers with recreational drones is the danger they pose on other commercial aircrafts. Yes, that means helicopters and airplanes. As if people don’t already have enough to worry about when on a plane, we have to start worrying about irresponsible and/or inexperienced drone users causing visual issues for our pilots.
Drones must be registered, but there are no required classes for users to operate drones. This poses a huge threat because, really, anybody can use a drone! How terrifying is that? In his article, Craig writes about an incident involving an inexperienced drone user running his drone into a woman at a gay pride parade. The impact of the drone knocked the woman unconscious! Now, we have to worry about drones while we’re in flight as well as on the ground. In another incident, a drone outside of a bar stalked a woman in Tampa before it crashed into her car. Bam, there’s another issue – security. Since drones are so easily accessible to use recreationally and anybody can get their hands on one, recreational drones pose a huge privacy issue. An individual who is pissed off or creepy enough could easily obtain a drone to spy on or stalk their victim. Granted, drones are fairly easy to spot, but being followed by a flying object without knowing who is operating it is a terrifying feeling nevertheless. Even Michael Huerta, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration has been quoted saying, “I’m definitely getting much more concerned about it” when asked to speak about the issues revolving around drones. There may only be a small percentage of people who use drones irresponsibly, but that small percentage pose enough of a threat to society to ruin it for everybody. Stricter rules need to be placed in order to regulate who can and cannot use drones. Perhaps people should be required to attend classes and acquire licenses to own and operate drones. OR we could just stop letting civilians purchase drones and leave drone operations to the experts. Why even take the chance if we don’t have to?