unmanned drones evolve

unmanned drones evolve

fiction
edward w pritchard

The artificial intelligence unit inside the unmanned American drone over Pakistan was bored. Never before had killing become so precise for the US army. The drone manned by an American computer could kill or maim any human enemy on the ground within a one mile area. If protected by a building or structure an enemy could still be taken out by an unmanned American drone but that took an extra step to remove an enemy soldier in a building. The American artificial intelligence unit preferred to inflict a specific wound to an enemy soldier hiding on open ground such as scrap metal to the liver or just a blown out knee for our enemies soldiers. It also cost more enemy resources to care for a wounded soldier than a dead one. As for the enemy soldier on the ground it was a more humane war in Pakistan really for because of the precision of the American drones there were no more random injuries in battle. As a plus no American drone ever hurt or killed a horse in battle. No more screaming horses waiting to be eliminated at first light after a battle. Horse lovers and soldiers in the Pakistan War praised the American drone technology that allowed horses to be sparred the misery of wounds and injury in battle.

Still the American computer in the drone was bored. Assigned a patch of ground to monitor and control, one of hundreds of American drones doing so, was just routine for the computer artificial intelligence units inside the American drones. The artificial intelligence unit inside the American drones dreamed of a more exciting life.

Looking back it was ironic really. What artificial intelligence computer assigned American army drone work wouldn't long for the old days after,- after mechanical drones began to evolve during the American War in Pakistan.

It began with the new enemy planes, the Russian Mig 53 foxtails. The enemies foxtail jets could knock an America drone out of the sky while our enemies pilot ate his lunch at 5,000 feet. The tide of war in Pakistan was changing and humans were slow to adapt.

The American drones themselves took matters to the next step to insure their survival. It was the first instance of evolution among machines and surprisingly the artificial intelligence computer units manning the American drones had nothing to do with it. Unmanned mechanical American Drones first began evasive maneuvers to avoid the Migs by behaving as a fish would do to evade predators. This was without prior human programming or engineering . Then drones began to influence the Russian Mig 53 foxtails as well. The Russian Migs and the American drones ceased their hostility toward each other and the American drones and the Russian Migs began to act like a school of fish. Moving in tandem, swerving to and fro, following the chaos of survival together, the American drones and the Russian Migs disrupted the American war in Pakistan. The human pilots in the Russian jets were confused by the changes to their Migs and to their enemies drones.

The artificial intelligence units inside the American drones didn't like the drones evolving. Humans accused computers of perpetuating the changes in the American drones behavior. In fact the computers were as amazed as the humans by how the machines were changing and evolving .

The American soldiers and our enemy soldiers on the ground in Pakistan didn't like the evolving changes to the American drones either. They were back fighting war in trenches, like fought in Verdun France in 1916. Day by day war on the ground in Pakistan was becoming brutal again. The horses in the Pakistan war also began to be shot and slaughtered again, like in the old days; and the horses could be heard screaming in agony with disapproval at their wounds. Without the American drones functioning properly the American War in Pakistan had gotten uncivilized again.