Drone Jaegers are the main use of networked communications in the movie
As previously mentioned, they are remotely controlled Jaegers controlled either by a single pilot or autonomously.
The movie mainly highlights the dangers of powerful networked communications without proper safety checks
Jaeger designs are a collaboration between several nations, shared freely between them
Shao Corporation drones are proprietary, however their ownership never comes into question because they are all destroyed 5 minutes after being activated
Nothing specific to IP and there are no disputes over the ownership of technology
The Drift shares memories between the two pilots, allowing each person to see the other’s main memories (usually traumatic in the movie)
Both pilots consent to this beforehand
This is information that is usually private to the person, who can share it if they feel like it
The movie mainly highlights the depth of private memories shared, but does not talk about the ramifications of it
Despite being a military contractor, neither the Chinese government or the PPDC seems to have heavily observed the design and construction process of the drone Jaegers, otherwise they would have caught the “Kaiju surprise” (yes that is a literal quote from the movie) that Dr. Geiszler added
The movie does not comment on this theme
Backdoor in drone programming allows for remote override, used by Dr. Geiszler to cause the drones to re-open breaches in the Pacific, and by Dr. Shao to destroy them
The movie comments on the dangers and the benefits of having holes in the security of applications (though more focused on the dangers)
Making sure the software is bug-free is incredibly important in Jaegers, especially the Drift system
As mentioned before, the Drift system is a neural interface between two pilots to let them share the work of controlling the Jaeger and when used, their memories are shared
If the connection between them is severed or unstable, then it’s almost impossible for the remaining person to control, and will potentially cause severe neural damage
It would be very dangerous for the pilots if bugs existed in the software linking them if it could randomly break the connection while the pilots were operating the Jaeger
The movie does not really comment on the dangers of the Drift system, this is just inference by us
Shao Industries is heavily automated
38% of Shao Industries is fully automated
This allows Newt to appropriate funds, resources, and materials for his nefarious projects without anyone human noticing
Shao Industries has become so successful as a result of this automation that it doesn’t notice that Newt took roughly hundreds of billions of dollars to build Obsidian Fury
Drone Jaegers are semi-automated
Drone Jaegers are controlled remotely by a single pilot, and the pilot does not need to be drift-compatible, as the drone’s AI handles the Jaeger’s complex processes as if it was a copilot.
Additionally, the movie suggests that the drones are able to operate independently if the need arises
Manned Jaeger supporters claim the drones are not as reliable as crewed systems. They are indeed correct, as the drones try to go on a murderous rampage
It turns out the drones are controlled by “wetware” CPUs which were grown from bits of Kaiju flesh and merged with Jaeger technology
When the drone plot is revealed, the drones rapidly mutate to become a horrible Jaeger-Kaiju blend
The movie comments on the dangers of automation allowing for misappropriation of funds and resources for other projects, as well as the controversy over unmanned killing drones, taking a negative stance towards both