EG2401 Engineering Professionalism

Final Report

Project 3: Global Positioning System (GPS) and their

Technologies

For: Dr. Md Raisul Islam

Done by Group 2: Liew Yan Bob A0112518N Seran Karikalan A0112490R Oon Jun Long A0111839E

Table of Contents

Introduction...........................................................................................................................................1

Field 1 – The Telecommunications (Mobile Phone) Industry................................................................2

1.1 The effects of GPS (Global Positioning System) Technology on the Mobile Phone Industry2

1.2 Ethical Dilemma(s) raised by the Implementation of GPS into Mobile Phones.....................3

1.3 Possible Solution(s) to such Dilemmas..................................................................................4

1.4 Impact on Future Generations when New Conditions are introduced....................................5

Field 2 – The Civil Aviation Industry....................................................................................................6

2.1 The effects of GPS Technology on the Civil Aviation Industry.............................................6

2.2 Ethical Dilemma(s) raised by the use of GPS in Civil Aviation Industry..............................7

2.3 Possible Solution(s) to such Dilemmas.................................................................................8

2.4 Impact on Future Generations when New Conditions are introduced...................................9

Field 3 – The Unmanned Vehicle Systems Industry............................................................................10

3.1 The effects of GPS Technology on the Unmanned Vehicle Systems Industry....................10

3.2 Ethical Dilemma(s) raised by the Implementation of GPS into Unmanned Vehicle Systems.........................................................................................................................................................11

3.3 Possible Solution(s) to such Dilemmas...............................................................................12

3.4 Impact on Future Generations when New Conditions are introduced.................................13

Field 4 – The Agriculture Industry......................................................................................................14

4.1 The effects of GPS Technology on the Agriculture Industry..............................................14

4.2 Ethical Dilemma(s) raised by the use of GPS the Agriculture Industry..............................15

4.3 Possible Solution(s) to such Dilemmas...............................................................................16

4.4 Impact on Future Generation when New Conditions are introduced.................................17

Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................18

References...........................................................................................................................................19

Introduction

The Global Positioning System, or otherwise known as GPS, is a form of technology such

that it encompasses various satellites (at least four or more) in space for which it forms a

navigation system that accurately provides information relating to time and location in all

types of weather conditions, regardless of any obstructions on the surface of the earth.

The GPS is a crucial system for which it provides vital information to those in the military, as

well as commercial and civil consumers around the world. However, as a matter of fact, it

was actually intended for the sole purpose of military applications only before being made

available to the public in the early 1970’s.

Today, anyone with a GPS receiver could access the system; and thanks to its function of

providing real-time, three-dimensional positioning and navigation, it is now used all over the

world in a multitude of applications. Such applications will be discussed in the subsequent

sections of this report, for which this report will also discuss how such fields have

successfully reaped the benefits of the GPS and how it has applied these advantages to its

convenience.

Furthermore, while the fact that the implementation of GPS into various fields have definitely

improved the way we live our life in one way or another, however, introducing a new

technology into a field would most often bring about uncertainties in the beginning, as well as

cultivating stark differences in opinions (disagreements) between several different parties.

As such, this report also aims to uncover some of the ethical issues which may be brought

upon by the enforcement of GPS into such field(s), with the intention of highlighting possible

solutions which may bring an end to these ethical dilemmas through some of the analytic

methods which we have learnt throughout the course (e.g. the decision-making chart), and

also to accentuate the implications it may have on future generations when new conditions

are introduced into the scene.

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Field 1 – The Telecommunications (Mobile Phone) Industry

1.1 The effects of GPS (Global Positioning System) Technology on the Mobile Phone Industry

The introduction of the GPS into the world of telecommunications back in the early 70’s was

responsible for the evolution of the current generation hand phones and have also changed the

role for which mobile phones play.

Several decades ago, hand phones were extravagantly priced, poorly supported, bulky, and

out of the reach of many. Nevertheless, mobile phones today are so popular in such a way

that you can never run into a single person without one. Landline phones are also increasingly

abandoned in favour of having cell phones instead, which are deemed cheaper and more

convenient. Over time, hand phones accumulated several new features which included digital

cameras consisting of a few megapixels (e.g. 2 Megapixels), along with wireless internet

access technology (e.g. 3G) and subsequently, the GPS too was soon added into hand phones.

The introduction of the GPS technology has affected mobile phones in such a way that it

created many beneficial advantages which were not present back in the days when Nokia

3310 was still popular. An example which explicitly highlights the advantage of using the

GPS in hand phones include the fact that that the traditional 911 system, which often used

house phones to identify the location of the victim, was becoming increasingly inconvenient

as more and more people continued to discontinue their landline in favour of using hand

phones. As such by having cell phones to contact the 911 system instead, operators had to ask

the victim of their location and this was an unnecessary risk to take as location verification

could take a very long time, and to add fuel to flames, life jeopardizing if the victim is in

shock, unable to speak.

Moreover, it is often the case where the victims are unaware of where they are, ultimately

defeating the entire purpose of the 911 system as no assistance would be able to arrive at

scene to help the caller. Nevertheless, with GPS installed into the hand phone, the caller’s

location can be tracked through GPS, and hence if the caller does not know specifically

where he is, or is incapacitated, emergency services will then still be able to track his or her

location.

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With such advancement in technology, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has

made it a mandatory requirement for the Global Positioning System to be implemented into

mobile phones ever since having seen the benefits of such implementation. However, with

such great advancements in technology always comes great responsibility, and having our

lives revolving around the use of GPS has also brought up a certain ethical issue (problem),

only to be questioned by many.

1.2 Ethical Dilemma(s) raised by the Implementation of GPS into Mobile Phones

While having the GPS technology implemented into the cell phone as a compulsory condition

has definitely made the lives of civilians more convenient, such enforcement also has its

drawbacks.

The most prominent ethical issue raised by the enforcement of GPS includes the fact that a

person’s privacy is indirectly being invaded as the GPS is capable of tracking an individual’s

movement, regardless of time and place. Many people are unaware of the fact that they are

being monitored continuously by various telecommunication services via satellites, and the

fact that a person can be monitored by something also means that an individual could be

tracked by anything else as well.

This issue of having to accept an unconsented risk can be perceived to be more risky as

this risk is involuntarily imposed onto the public. Having to accept such a risk also includes

the fact that a person is willing to have his or her information to be extracted from his or her

mobile phone via GPS.

Such abuse of technology is clearly highlighted in several modern day mobile phone

applications such as ToySpyApp, Phone Tracker & Glynpse allows an individual to track and

monitor a person’s activity, for such activity includes text messages, call history, photos and

even browser history (Fottrell, 2015). Thus, this scenario described here is clearly a violation

of several ethics such as rule –utilitarianism, as an individual’s freedom is illegally

constrained by another person (or an organization, for that matter). On top of that, GPS

tracking also violates rule utilitarianism in such a way that it infringes our basic rights in

terms of freedom, as a human beings.

To add on, government regulators too face a dilemma – while employing GPS technology

into a mobile phone can be a technological boon as it satisfies mainstream utilitarianism,

since the benefit of the society far outweighs that of an individual – whereby the

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implementation of GPS does in fact violates the freedom of an individual, but this exploit has

made the life of the society more convenient and saves many lives in the process (ease of use

by the 911 services department). Subsequently, it also difficult for the government to decide

on the limits and extent for which the Global Positioning System violates our freedom. Thus,

it is hard to justify such perception as GPS technology has already manifested itself as

something so integral in our lives.

To sum up, while the compulsory enforcement of GPS technology into mobile phones has

clearly brought about several impacts (such as the ability for relief services to track a person,

and the ability for a person to navigate his way easily), such implementation also has its

downsides, but nevertheless, such downsides can only be considered as a disadvantage if a

person perceives it as so.

1.3 Possible Solution(s) to such Dilemmas

Current solutions being employed to tackle such dilemmas include strict regulations which

limits to use of GPS to a certain extent, and such regulations (ethical codes) include:

I. The E911 Protocol – Where law enforcement agencies and emergency response personnel

can only use your phone data to triangulate your approximate location if and only if an

emergency call is initiated;

II. The Provider Compliance – Where the FCC mandates that as of 2011, all cell phone

service providers over an eight-year period provide information about coverage areas they

tend to exclude from location services;

Nevertheless, such regulations mentioned above are still considered insufficient and possible

solutions to the aforementioned dilemmas are described in the decision making chart next

page.

Some of the solutions which were included in the decision making chart would facilitate the

process of having to public to be aware of them being tracked, after all such issues will only

occur if and only if the risk of being tracked is involuntarily imposed onto someone who is

unwilling to do so.

Such solutions include having an individual to sign a terms and conditions agreement to make

sure that he or she has fully consented to such risk and thus clearly highlighting the fact the

risk of being tracked is absolutely voluntary

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START: The public is increasingly unhappy with the privacy issues imposed by the

implementation of GPS technology into hand phones; [The boxes below are diamonds]

Introducing a GPS toggle to turn the technology on or off at a person’s bidding may also

help, however, this is completely unreliable as unforeseen circumstances would render the

benefits of GPS useless (whereby a person forgets to turn on his or her GPS in desperate

times of emergency).

1.4 Impact on Future Generations when New Conditions are introduced

The introduction of the next generation GPS technology (or otherwise known as the GPS

Block III) starting from early 2016 will no doubt increase the efficiency of the current

generation ones by at least ten folds, thus rendering the technology much more accurate while

covering a larger range of areas (e.g. Mountainous regions). In addition, employing the next

generation GPS would enable enhanced indoor reception, thus allowing a person to be

tracked in a much more complicated manner.

As such, the advent of GPS Block III would allow future generations to use their mobile

phones in an exceptionally sophisticated manner, as further improvements include less

interference from radio signals, increased signal strength, and quality. These newly

introduced conditions here highlights the possibility that a mobile device may manifest itself

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Are the public aware that they are being tracked?

Will forcing the public to sign a terms and conditions form before buying a mobile phone make them consent to such risks?

Will disabling GPS in some devices solve the issue while still adhering to mainstream utilitarianism?

The public has agreed to accept the risk of being tracked while embracing the benefits of the GPS; and as such the implementation of GPS will not violate any ethics as the public are willing to do so. (Act Utilitarianism & Virtue Ethics Satisfied)

Continue to look at alternative solutions and compromises which are agreeable with the public; as well as defining a clear hard limit to what degree a GPS is able to track a personYes Yes Yes

NoNo

No

into an object of increasing importance, as the future will become a more dangerous place to

live in – and hence next generation will consider a mobile phone, with its enhanced tracking

abilities – to be a device of safety, no matter where they could be.

Nevertheless, its substantial improvement in tracking will also mean that mobile phones will

become more dangerous than ever – as a person will be easily and accurately tracked by

various people and organizations. As such, it is hard to justify a technology to be good or

evil, when it can be cut both ways by a double-edged sword.

Field 2 – The Civil Aviation Industry

2.1 The effects of GPS Technology on the Civil Aviation Industry

Many are aware of the GPS technology that is being used in cars and ships. However only a

handful know that aircraft was the pioneer batch to utilise GPS navigation. GPS in aviation

are used to give precise information on aircraft’s current location and its heading. It entered

into aviation industry in 1990, when the United States Air Force (USAF) tested out the GPS

aided combat system during the Operation Gulf Storm. Due to its efficacious guidance, it was

proved as a crucial instrument for warfare and soon installed in all of the aircrafts USAF

owned. It was only made available to civil aviation in the year 1993. Since its introduction, it

has proven its significant benefits to aviation industry at many instances. In September 1983,

Korean Airlines Flight 007 (KE007) which was scheduled from New York to Seoul was shot

down by a Soviet Union’s Su-15 Interceptor when it (KE007) accidentally veered off course

and flew over prohibited Soviet’s airspace. All of the 269 passengers and crew aboard were

dead. This very incident made Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) pronounce the use of GPS

in civil aviation to prevent such accidents from happening again.

The introduction of GPS into civil aviation industry brought numerous amounts of benefits to

Air Traffic Controllers (ATC), airline operators, as well as passengers. From efficient flight

route planning, relative ease of navigation and improved approaches to airport runways are

few of the many paybacks from using GPS.

Prior to the use of GPS, aircrafts used magnetic compasses and landmarks/infrastructures

(waypoints) on the earth’s surface to navigate to their destination. However, this has quite a

few disadvantages. Firstly, magnetic compasses were not very accurate especially when the

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aircraft is flying close to the poles of the earth. Moreover, magnetic compasses point to true

north rather than earth’s north. This allowed for the aircraft to veer off from its original path

which posed a set of its own problems. Secondly, using waypoints as a form of navigation

was very inefficient form flying as this did not allowed the pilots to take ‘shortcuts’ over the

sea. As such, journeys were relatively long and passengers had to pay more for the flight

tickets due to increased fuel cost.

Using the above mentioned triangulation method, GPS satellites communicates with receivers

fitted on the aircrafts and provides information on the altitude, space based position and

speed at all phases of the flight to the pilots, as well as to the ground crews. As such, it is able

to fly above oceans which made journeys shorter and eventually cheaper for passengers.

2.2 Ethical Dilemma(s) raised by the use of GPS in Civil Aviation Industry

Although the benefits provided by the GPS are abundant, the benefits itself pose problems to

the aviation industry. The first thing is over-reliance. GPS had been constantly improved ever

since it was first introduced in the 1960s. There are at a few instances, the reliability of GPS

is still questioned. Just like any other devices which use Radio Frequency (RF) are prone to

RF Interference (RFI), GPS is no exception. Most of the Civil Aviation Industry uses the

band L1 - 1575.42 MHz and L5 - 1176.45 MHz. There are restrictions on the intentional

broadcast of signals near the frequencies stated above. However, there are a few devices

includes but not limited to GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) Jammer (a privacy

protection device) which emits signal near to that of GPS. When these devices are within the

proximity of an airport (ultimately aircrafts), they tend to interfere with GPS signal from and

to the aircraft, affecting its reliability and eventually the safety of the taking off/landing. The

ethical issue here is the overreliance and its vulnerability.

On contrast with the old days where pilots are only allowed to land if the runway is visible to

their eyes, presently systems are available for even when the meteorological conditions

makes the visibility down to a few 10th of meters. It is called Instrument Landing Systems

(ILS) or CAT 1 (Category 1) Landing approach. These systems use multiple instruments

including the GPS to aid the pilot to land safely onto the runway when the visibility is bad.

Coupled with bad weather and the inference of GPS pose a great danger to the aircraft. Pilots

would be very busy preparing for ILS approach by monitoring instruments such as Artificial

Horizon and Air Speed Indicator during the bad weather that they often forget to see the flag

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(which comes in the instrument panel when it senses discrepancies in signal). In fact this is

what happened in 2004, where a plane crash near Benalla which put to death all six people on

board (Thomas, 2011).

Another vulnerability that aircraft GPS pose is the ability to shut them off intentionally by the

pilots. One example that happened in March 2014 that addresses this issue is the world

famous case of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. It is believed that the pilot was the main

reason for disappearance of the aircraft and he turned off the all the communications with the

ground control including the GPS. As a result, till date no one exactly knew what happened to

the state-of-the-art Boeing 777 as well as the 227 passengers.

Since practically anyone can jam the GPS signal intentionally (GPS, 2014), over-reliance on

GPS by the civil aviation around the world pose a great risk on the innocent people travelling

by air. Here right ethics is violated. Right ethics holds that people have essential rights such

as the right to life, liberty and freedom that other people have a duty to respect. Arguing from

this point of view, due to the flaws of the GPS, people lives are being risked. What makes it

worse is, as discussed earlier in field 1, the risk they are being posed is unperceived risk.

Common passengers are oblivious of the risk possessed from RFI (Ladkin, 1997) and even

they themselves could be the reason for GPS signal jam which might cost their lives.

However, if we just look at it from utilitarian grounds – which weighs the benefits of

something to its drawback, GPS may considered as virtuous thing as so far there are only a

couple of accidents involving failure of GPS compared to the thousands of safe flights

achieved by GPS.

2.3 Possible Solution(s) to such Dilemmas

Continuous improvements on the GPS proved to be very successful. Currently, the newer

generation of satellites are being used for transmitting signals. The highlight feature of these

satellites are the use of dual frequency channels to communicate with the GPS receivers such

as the one installed in commercial airlines. This particular feature directly addresses the

above mentioned ethical dilemma regarding the jamming of the GPS receiver’s signal

through GNSS systems. Instead of using just one frequency channel to transmit the data, it

now uses 2 channels – one high and one low. The data transmitted through one channel is

counter checked against the other channel. The use of this increases the reliability and

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minimises the interference by the nearby GNSS and satisfies the utilitarian and virtue ethics.

Even if someone wanted to sabotage the aircraft by using a jammer, the integrity of the new

system will not allow for it. As a bonus this technique also corrects the ionosphere

scintillations issue that causes radio signal degradation.

Another solution, proposed by our group is the use of location and speed indicating GPS

module that should be installed onto aircraft which could not be turned off by anyone during

a flight. Although one might argue that it seems to be disrespecting the pilot – not believing

his consciousness. We propose from point of view for which, in the event of the pilot

becomes incapacitated due to unforeseen circumstances, the passengers lives should never be

placed at risk. By using virtue ethics, duty ethics and utilitarian grounds, passengers believe

and trust that they will arrive their destination in safely and piece, it is the duty of the airline

operators and the pilots to transport them out of harm's way. It should not be made possible

where a single person could jeopardise the wellbeing of all passengers.

Moreover, passengers should also be made clear of the potential risks that might arise by their

own actions of using their personal electronic devices which might cause interference to the

GPS systems. Usually what happens in an in-flight briefing is the fact that passengers are just

told to switch off their devices to prevent interference. Most of the unreasonable passengers,

without knowing the extent of their actions, simply ignore the rules stated by the flight

attendant. Our group feels that it is the duty of airline operators to explicate the consequences

which would occur due to the RFI during the in-flight briefing, passengers would be more

mindful of their actions.

2.4 Impact on Future Generations when New Conditions are introduced

Indeed GPS has revolutionized aviation security and it remains to do so as FAA gears the

Next Generation Air Transportation System, (NextGen). The use of Interoperability Signal

systems enables a strong interlink between satellites and GPS transponders located in

aircrafts as well as ground control units. Another channel of communication known as L1c

(an upgraded form on L1 channel) used for communication between A-GPS (American GPS)

and satellites systems developed by other countries such as Galileo (European Union) and

Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QNSS) (Japanese). Coupled with other added features like

advanced Terrain Awareness and Warning Systems (TAWS) and Wide Area Augmentation

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System (WAAS) makes sure the aircraft is always at link to the ground support system, gets

complete information on its heading as well as the safe altitude to fly at a given coordinates.

With all these in place, a passenger’s safety and the flight’s efficiency becomes unbounded.

As GPS allows more direct routes between destinations, lesser fuels will be burn which

eventually leaves smaller carbon footprint increasing environment and economic

remunerations. People will have more confidence in flying which satisfies the utilitarian

grounds.

Field 3 – The Unmanned Vehicle Systems Industry

3.1 The effects of GPS Technology on the Unmanned Vehicle Systems Industry

Unmanned vehicle systems, specifically unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) is a type of aircraft

with no passengers or on board crew (pilotless) on, and are capable of flight either through

the use of on-board computers or by remote control. It can be classified into two types,

namely remotely piloted vehicle (RPVs) and autonomous drones. In this article, we will

explore extensively on autonomous drones with the incorporation of the global positioning

system (GPS). Drones are commonly used by the military, however it is also implemented in

search and rescue operations and are also being utilised in other civil applications such as

policing and firefighting. In addition, the technology, albeit on a relatively smaller scale, also

allows hobbyists and other enthusiasts to become devoted drone operators.

The concept of unmanned aerial flight is not novel.

One of the earliest records of the use of an UAV for

military purposes took place on 22nd August 1849.

The Austrians, which had been developing this

systems for months, attacked the Italian city of

Venice with some 200 unmanned balloons loaded

with 33 pounds of explosives, set with a half-hour

time fuse. The picture on the left illustrates the

explosive balloon. When the wind is favourable, the

balloons will be launched and directed to Venice as close as possible. The bomb falls

perpendicularly, and explodes upon reaching the ground (Centre des technologies de

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l'information de l'Etat [CTIE], 2003). Even though the balloons are incomparable to current

standards, the concept was so strong that once the winged aircraft has been invented, the

effort to fly them unmanned for military purposes was not far behind. Fast forward forty

years to 1898, during the Spanish-American War, the Americans were found to be fitting a

camera to a kite, producing the first ever aerial reconnaissance photos (Ian & Shaw, 2014).

Most importantly, the first record of integrating GPS navigation into a drone was found in

1989. Whittle (2013) mentioned in his article that the aforementioned drone is known as

Amber, developed by Abraham Karem’s company Leading Systems Incorporated which was

funded by Defence Advanced Research

Projects Agency, the military’s research and

development department. The set-up of GPS

navigation allowed Amber to perform

autonomous missions up to 48 hours, and

housed infrared and low-light cameras in a

moveable sensor turret under its nose. At a

later stage, another drone, known as Predator,

was weaponised and equipped with Hellfire missiles which marked the start of drone warfare.

The picture on the left was the first drone to fire Hellfire missiles in combat when it was

deployed in Afghanistan to fight against terrorists (Bowden, 2013).

Furthermore, UAVs are becoming increasingly popular in the commercial and private market

recently. The largest online retailer, Amazon, stated in December 2013 that it was developing

their very own drone technology so that they can deliver mails autonomously one day.

Coincidentally, on the same year, Dominos, the pizza franchise, also demonstrated in a video

showing its unmanned “DomiCopter”, an autonomous drone delivering two pizzas in the

company’s signature Heatwave bags (Cable News Network [CNN], 2013).

Drones are also being developed for hobbyists and other enthusiasts as well. In reality, this

aircraft type have been common since the 1930s, when Reginald Denny mass-produced the

first radio-controlled aircraft for the hobby market (CTIE, 2005). While RC airplanes

remained popular through the decades, recent technology is now making them smaller, more

powerful and more useful – some adding cameras and GPS trackers, as well as making them

more affordable for everyday enthusiasts.

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3.2 Ethical Dilemma(s) raised by the Implementation of GPS into Unmanned

Vehicle Systems

Although drones with GPS presented several benefits, it created ethical dilemmas when it

was deployed as a weapon or as a privacy invader.

When drones are used to conduct attacks, it generates a different kind of ethical debate such

that the destructive nature is not the point of focus but rather its capability to conduct an

attack with virtually no danger to the attacking force which may leads to perpetual

asymmetric wars to a less technologically-inclined opponent. In addition, there is relatively

little domestic blowback against these wars due to the fact that there are a relatively low

number of troop casualties for a military that has turned to drones. This has inevitably created

a foundation whereby wars can be carried on indefinitely. Another problem is that is no one

exposed to any form of danger when drones are used, making an act of war too easy and far

too cheap. Wars should always be the last resort of diplomacy. Thus, the removal of human

element makes them by the very nature, unethical.

However, the use of drones satisfies act utilitarianism to a certain extent as there is nothing

intrinsically wrong with using such technology which will minimize deaths among friendly

forces, thus allowing unnecessary losses of lives. Yet rule utilitarianism cannot be satisfied

for the employment of drone attacks. Nevertheless the principle idea of utilising such

technology is to allow the elimination of friendly casualties and create a deterrent to military

action. This in fact, could lead to a new arms race and it may only be a matter of time before

the opponent develop their own drones. Using drones to attack also presents a psychological

distance between the operator and enemy, as well as the surrounding civilians. It may also

minimize the psychological impact of killing another human, rendering it less traumatising.

As the unmanned flight technology matures and grows ever cheaper, it will lead its way into

more private hands. However, there is also an increasing concern about privacy as well as the

violation of civil rights for using drones domestically. Some countries are using small drones

as a crime fighting tool for law enforcement officials. Unwarranted governmental intrusion

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through the use of these drone may too lead to the loss of individual privacy which is against

the rule utilitarianism – a human beings basic right.

3.3 Possible Solution(s) to such Dilemmas

If drones are to be effective, they needed to be part of a clearly defined strategy where non-

lethal measures are the priority, and drone strikes should be the last resort. Just because they

are easy to use and very effective at killing does not mean it should be used in lieu of other

options.

Therefore if potential risks are detected, alternatives should be carried out before resorting to

drone attacks. Example of alternatives could be stepping up intelligence gathering activities,

creating strategic partnerships with governments of other countries, freezing terrorists assets,

isolating terrorists to remote areas where their movement can be more easily tracked,

pursuing terrorists with local authorities to arrest them and gain valuable intelligence. In

addition, by limiting drone strikes to instances of imminent threat will lessen their frequency,

giving time for alternative mechanisms to work. Each unnecessary drone strike will

potentially undermine the effectiveness of nonviolent mechanisms as suggested above.

When using drones, it is imperative to ensure proper pilot training as it will be the most

empowering tool in dealing with these ethical issues. Teaching the drone operator to control

the aircraft is simply not enough. The drone pilots need a full and complete understanding of

the impact that their actions will have. They need to be constantly aware that they are not in

front of a video game. These pilots are indeed flying real aircraft with real missiles, capable

of killing real people. On top of that, the drone operators and commanders have to understand

that every person has natural rights, whether they are citizens of their country or any other.

How these rights apply to military operations needs to be further resolved in order to fully

comprehend the impact of targeted attacks en masse.

As for domestic drones, the government is encouraged to review regularly the existing laws

and regulations to ensure that citizen’s civil liberties are not violated. Enforce transparency in

the use of domestic drone and if necessary, add privacy protections to ensure the technology

cannot and will not be used to spy its citizen.

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3.4 Impact on Future Generations when New Conditions are introduced

One such possible new condition is the introduction of a full artificial intelligence (AI) to be

used in drones, especially if it can self-govern its weapons (Kibble, 2014). It may present

severe ethical impacts on future generation. Artificial Intelligence is a dual-use technology,

like nuclear fission, capable of great good or great harm. By automation, it increases the

system effectiveness and the reliability it offers. This also means that drones deployed in the

battlefield will be operated autonomously when it searches for the enemy and/or even engage

the target. However, who shoulders the moral culpability when the AI drone kills?

Field 4 – The Agriculture Industry

4.1 The effects of GPS Technology on the Agriculture Industry

With the ever-growing world’s population constantly meeting complications due to famine,

plague and skirmishes between borders, it is vital for changes to take place in the agriculture

industry to meet the demands and at the same time to sustain the natural resources. The name

experts gave to this is Precision Farming. The rewards offered by precision farming are

tremendous. Farmers are now able to continue their duty of seeding, irrigating, spraying

pesticides and fertilisers, weeding and eventually reaping of the crops without any

disturbances arising from bad weather conditions. The key element that is being the driving

factor behind precision farming is the GPS technology. The intervention of GPS into the

agriculture industry traces back all the way into the past decade. As the benefits of GPS

became more established, researchers and scientists started looking out for sectors in which

would be expanded more efficiently with the use of noble technology, GPS. And one of such

sectors was the agriculture industry. Over the past 10 years, more and more farming

machineries such as tractors and harvesters have had their GPS receivers installed, coupled

with automation, and are able to be far more productive than the conventional farming.

Previously it was not easy for the farmers to see the relations between crop yields versus

production methods which varies with land. Due to this problem, farmers suffered from the

lack of ability to attain a best effective plain/soil management strategies which could have

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improved their production. However, today, due precision farming and agriculture,

application of herbicides, pesticide and fertilisers, and improved control of the chemical

dispersion is achieved. In which it helps the farmers to reduce unnecessary cost, increasing

crop yields and ultimately crafting a more environmentally friendly and sustainable farm.

The intrusion of precision agriculture altered the way on how farmers and agriculture

industry utilised the land to reap profits. Precision agriculture is all about getting the right

geospatial information on the soil condition, crop maturity and animal attention at the right

time. Using this data, timely application of site-specific treatments to improve and increase

the crop production and at the same time, protecting the environment can be achieved.

Where initially farmers used the same treatment for all of their crops, land and animals

(respectively) equally, precision agriculture now enables them to use micromanagement

technique to treat each individually. This was possible due to the high technology

machineries, sensors, on-board computers and ultimately, the GPS which feeds the vital root

data required for processing. GPS enables them to map their farmlands accurately. It shows

the details on part of the crops needs water, the part needs to be applied with fertilizers and

part of the crops are ready to harvest.

Moreover, latest technology on automation together with installation of GPS allows tractors

to plough the land all by itself. This means, the farm can be in operation continuously all day

and all night throughout the year, increasing efficiency and productivity like never before.

4.2 Ethical Dilemma(s) raised by the use of GPS the Agriculture Industry

Many times, the advantages brought about by the GPS in the agriculture industry is so great

that we often neglect the negative impacts caused by it. Some use utilitarian grounds to argue

that it is alright that whoever suffers are the minority. However, the benefits attained are one

set of farmers and negative impacts are totally on another set of farmers elsewhere.

Conventionally, the only industry where automation was not involved is the agriculture

industry. It was not possible to use the automation there due to the inconsistency in the

response needed by the soil, crops and animals. Farmers or workers (in the context of large

farm) are needed to be physically present to analyse the on the part of the crops that needed

fertilisers, soil that need weeding and animals that needs attention.

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With the intervention of GPS, automation was made much more possible into farmlands.

However, all these comes with a great price. In Saudi Arabia, large part of the land is being

leased by the U.S. companies to grow crops for commercial purposes. They employ low

skilled workers from Less Developed Countries (LDCs) to work in their farmland. With

sensors embedded with GPS module, manual workers are not needed anymore to the routine

physical check of the crops. With GPS navigation, tractors and harvesters are able to drive on

their own. The people who were previously employed to do all these jobs go jobless. And

since they are low skilled workers, it is extremely difficult for them switch industry where

they can find new jobs. When an agriculture company shows financial report that it saved

10% of its total cost in labour cost, it subtly indicates that there were 10% of their workers

become unemployed. Therefore, there is a rise in unemployment of low-skilled workers

where they are sent back to their home countries (Roubini, 2014).

GPS aided precision farming is relatively expensive. Only the big players of the agricultural

industry are able to utilise and reap off the benefits from this technology. This makes them

more productive than before. As such, smaller farmers in the LDCs are unable to stay

competitive and often being thrown out from this industry where their livelihood is

completely destroyed. This also leads to the major players monopolising the industry, where

they become the price setters of the agriproducts. This has direct impact on the consumers

who especially lives in urban areas as since they (agribusinesses) are able to set the price of

the agriproducts, they can set it at a high price since there is no competition in this industry.

There will be a high inflow of income from the consumers to the business owners causing

greater inequity in the society.

“The power of farming data is insurmountable, and it is also dangerous” (Gilpin, 2015). This

is the discussion for another ethical dilemma. Since the data collected from the GPS

embedded sensors are first being send to some server before being sent to the satellite and

then to the computer screens of the farmers, there is a very high chance that someone might

hack into the system and steal the data or worse, manipulate the data before the legitimate

owner can see it. Previously only the farm owners know the exact information about their

crop yields, soil conditions and the number of livestock they have, now with the presence of

GPS sensors, the overwhelming fear is that if it lies into the hands of evil, be it a neighbour,

fertilizer company, , or a big agro corporation. Whereas data might be used against the farmer

by being sold to a competitor or undercutting the price by a neighbour on land prices for a

better deal.

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4.3 Possible Solution(s) to such Dilemmas

Technological advancement will no doubt boost productivity and efficiency, however it is

also unavoidable fact that it may lead to the unemployment of low skill labour in the

economy. This may in turn lead to social disruption and human hardship. On the other hand,

such technology will also produce jobs in the area that required higher skill. To increase the

employment rate for low skilled labour, workers are encouraged to pick up multiple skills as

it is a way of insuring themselves again income loss, though not necessarily job loss. Thus

empowering workers with a range of skills would facilitate the process of these workers find

a job. In many countries such as the United States and Canada, training schemes are in fact

implemented for low skill labours to upgrade themselves or to learn new skills so that they

can improve their employability, having the opportunity to earn more and adapt to change.

Nevertheless, due to the high-cost nature of the technology, only the big players will be

benefit from this technology. Large farms do in fact provide jobs for many people and

clearly perform an important role in the economy. However, they are not the only part of the

market and the need for small farms should not be simply ignored by those in the

government. One way to protect the small farms is to implement a tax system for the larger

farms and provide incentive for the smaller farms.

In addition, this technology works in two ways. Although it provides numerous benefits to

farmers, it is also vulnerable to cyber threat. It is imperative that farmers who uses such

technology take proper cybersecurity measure to ensure their business data remains secure.

The farmers should alert the authorities and file a report with the local law enforcement in the

event of a security breach.

4.4 Impact on Future Generation when New Conditions are introduced

With the global population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, agricultural production must

double if it is to meet the increasing demands for food and bioenergy. Given limited land,

water and labour resources, it is estimated that the efficiency of agricultural productivity must

increase by 25% to meet that goal, while limiting the growing pressure that agriculture puts

on the environment. Thus to meet 2050 agricultural production needs, robotics and

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automation play a significant role. Before long, farmers will employ more autonomous

systems that automate or augment farming operations such as pruning, thinning, and

harvesting, as well as mowing, spraying and weed removal. However, certain jobs in the farm

still require uniquely human characteristics such as empathy, creativity, judgment, or critical

thinking—and that jobs of this nature will never succumb to widespread automation.

Conclusion

The introduction of the Global Positioning System (GPS) has definitely brought upon several

positive changes for which it has completely changed the way for which the society has lived

their lives. Ease of navigation, the ability to track, and safety measurements are just some of

the many advantages introduced by the implementation of GPS into the various fields for

which we have discussed in this report.

Nevertheless, while having implemented the GPS in various fields did in fact result in a

multitude of advantages (of which most of them were beneficial to humanity), ethical

dilemmas were also raised in the process, for which these dilemmas include privacy issues

induced by such implementation, as well as the possible plotting of terrorist acts.

In addition, there goes a saying; “With great power comes great responsibility”, for which it

can be said the implementation of the GPS into the lives of civilians has resulted in an effect

so powerful, the GPS has now become responsible for how the society live their lives, but

such responsibility has not been sufficiently regulated by the authority to the point that ethical

dilemmas cease to exist.

In spite of that, a plethora of recommendations has been made and some of these suggestions

include the fact that the public is made aware of such ethical issues, and to consent to the

downsides before having to embrace such benefits. On top of that, a clear limit which defines

the extent of what the GPS is legally allowed to do will also facilitate the process of

eliminating such ethical issues.

In conclusion, it can be said that the GPS is a double edged sword which cuts both ways; for

which it has both pros and cons which needs to be deliberately contemplated. It can be a

valuable asset when it is used to maximise the general welfare of the society. Nevertheless,

many people utilize the GPS only to assuage their own selfish needs, and as long as such

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behaviour remains to be, ethical dilemmas concerning the implementation of the GPS will

continue to exist perpetually.

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