General Atomics MQ-1 Predator

The Predator Drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) used by the United States Air Force and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It became the primary UAV used for offensive operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Offensive uses of the Predator are highly classified.

Of what is known, the Predator can remain suspended in mid altitude for long hours, follow a subject or convoy, and launch weapons such as directed missiles and bombs. It is virtually commanded from an operations center by men staring at a screen and moving a joystick.

When we study cyborgs in digital cultures, we ought to be discussing the restructuring of power that cyborgs represent. We ought to be analyzing the reconfigurations of war and the changes in the armaments industries. These are the most sensitive and delicate subjects that should be challenged and often go unquestioned in academia.

If humans establish a cybernetic relationship with weapons of war, the last barrier of decency will be lost. War will be reduced to a virtual, distant game. Killing, murder, destruction will be the corollaries of a joystick.

The human capacity to take a moral distance from war comes from the direct, tangible engagement with it: the sounds, smells, heat, dead bodies and blood are all warnings that war is something unholy and unequivocally horrific. If those boundaries are erased by distance, if we cannot see the direct consequence of our actions, we will grow indifferent and war will become the effortless, indifferent pushing of a button.

Last week I learnt that the American military is manipulating real insects through biotechnology, flying bees via remote control and making them sting when wished. This is yet another example in which cybernetic weaponry constitutes an irresponsible disengagement with reality: let the bees destroy while we watch.

War cyborgs are the reflections of our childlike state. They reflect our incapacity for responsibility, bravery and honor. To relegate actions to a machine is to forfeit what it means to be human –the capacity for conscience. Nothing is more important. It’s up to us to challenge these new developments. I leave you with the following question: what would happen if a ruthless dictator or government, of which there have been plenty in the past, got its hands on these kinds of weapons? How could the people ever fight back?