Robotics and development issues

In today's world , robots are rife and are always on the increase, whether from military influence or from the demand from population. A robot is a system which executes computer demands for a specific job or a compilation of various tasks, for example a machine to package food or an unmanned aircraft to survey the ground with the capability to assassinate them. 

The major increase in robotics is from the military industrial complex who see that military tasks can perform better without the risk from human error but also because the equipment can execute tasks much quicker. We are in a age where everyone wants or is influenced to want tomorrow's technology today so it is no surprise to see this increase. In recent years America has invested a lot of money into surveillance aircraft such as Drones among other devices for it's own purposes but also for states such as Israel and it's allies but this does not mean America is alone in arms trading. "In 2005, Russia ranked first in arms transfer agreements with developing nations with $7 billion or 23.2% of these agreements. France was second with $6.3billion or 20.9% of such agreements. The United States was third with $6.2 billion or 20.5%. In 2005, the United States ranked first in the value of arms deliveries to developing nations at $8.1 billion, or 45.8% of all such deliveries. Russia ranked second at $2.7 billion or 15.2% of such deliveries. The United Kingdom ranked third at $2.4 billion or 13.6% of such deliveries".

A drone is a unmanned aircraft which fly miles above the ground surveying ground activity which it then sends back to the owner. Worldrobotics.org says "With about 6,000 units, service robots in defense (military) applications accounted for 45% of the total number of service robots for professional use sold in 2010. Thereof, unmanned aerial vehicles are the most important application".We can see that the key demand is for the military to obtain these robots. The website goes on to say "The number of service robots for professional use will increase to 87,500 units between 2011 and 2014". It seems robots are going to be growing on us. A worrying factor for America is that it seems they are looking to partly commercialize drones for private use. Arizona has recently been deemed fit for testing grounds for private drones. There is a growing concern that these drones will be used by individuals and companies for their own uses which infringes on Human Rights. The Washington Post says "The agency projects that 30,000 drones could be in the nation's skies by 2020.

Although there is an argument that say robotics reduces human error's, there is still an element of human control which still effects the use of the machine or sometimes down to bad software/hardware maintenance.
The Superdrone which recently had a test flight , ended premature as it crashed into the ground. This is a waste of money i think, and especially for the American taxpayers as a lot of financial aid has been provided to Israel, especially in a time of economic turmoil. Domestic needs tend not to be on the elites top priorities but surveillance does.

The issue with robotics is that these advancements often get used on domestic populations. A lot of autonomous machines get passed into law for terrorism. The worrying thing about this trend is that, too often these machines get drafted in to control,monitor and watch domestic population under the guise of terrorism. For example, President Obama who is the first President in history to pass a bill giving him the power to assassinate America citizens, used a drone to kill a America citizen Anwar Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric in Yemen. Obama used a CIA drone to take out the cleric. The obvious reasons used were that he was a terrorist. This is a obvious breach of human rights and various international laws but this was overlooked and the cleric was not brought to trial.

The UK is one of the most surveyed country in today's world. This may well be necessary to stop the act of terrorism happening, but again there are some issues when this infringes on the average citizens privacy and rights. In recent years, police forces have been using the "Eye in the Sky" to catch law breakers on the odd occasion but it would seem that the use of the UAV's(Unmanned Airial vehicle) are going to be increasing. As the Olympics get closer , the financial backing for law and order has increased dramatically since the first estimation. It has recently been found that for the Olympics the London police and military may be using UAV drones to keep an eye on human activity to help remain order and stability but also on grounds of terrorism. A growing concern is that the "eye in the sky" will be kept in use after the Olympics.