When I was a senior in high school, I was addicted to re-runs of the original Star Trek series. Every episode seemed to draw me into an ethical dilemma and spurred me to learn more about current events and the world around me. A number of episodes are indelibly etched in my memory, and one stands out more vividly than some of the others. A Taste of Armageddon (originally aired on February 23, 1967) features the crew of the USS Enterprise involved in a computer-simulated war between two planets. At the end of each “battle”, citizens reported to a disintegration booth to be executed to meet the proscribed casualty numbers.
What struck me when I first viewed the episode (and what still strikes me now–I just watched it again) is the terrible, clean logic behind it; an antiseptic manner in which to fight a war. Although the series is somewhat dated, the moral of this episode is chillingly current. Indeed, when Leonard Nimoy (the original Spock) died last week, CNN’s website published an editorial by Penn State professor, Andy Lau, entitled “Why I Teach Star Trek in My Classes”.
For over 5 years, the CIA has carried out drone strikes, primarily in Pakistan, but also in Yemen and Somalia. The US drone program has drawn harsh criticism for both its secrecy and the unintentional killing of civilians; an estimated 2400 civilians have been killed since the program’s inception. A UN report released in September 2013 warned that using drone strikes as a form of global policing would undermine security and encourage more states and terrorist groups to use unmanned weapons.
The questions raised for me are: How can we justify the killing of innocent people (including children)? What happens to us when unmanned weapons take over and we kill “from a distance” ? Are we headed towards a kind of warfare depicted in Star Trek’s A Taste of Armageddon ?
On Friday evening, March 6, we invite you to the Central Square Theater for a performance of Grounded, a riveting play about a hot-shot fighter pilot and how her career takes an unexpected turn when she is “grounded” and re-assigned as a drone pilot. Following the performance, we invite you to a discussion with actress Celeste Oliva and MIT alum, Jason Ryan. Jason’s research focuses on the human factor issues of unmanned vehicles and systems safety.
