It didn’t work in Jurassic Park; I have less faith that it will work in Arizona.

By David Mantey, Editor, PD&D

"While the article didn’t mention the number of engineers that will be deployed to oversee the installation, the virtual fences are at least providing some critically needed work in a sunny location."

Ah yes, it’s just what this country needs in a time of economic strife – a $400 million electronic gatekeeper that will keep those pesky drug runners and illegal immigrants out of the United States. After reading the description, Michael Crichton would have been proud of the project.

If only Dr. Hammond had such innovation, those Velociraptors never would’ve migrated off the island, and the dinosaur population in Jurassic Park would’ve been under greater scrutiny and more controllable.

Plans for two projects call for 29 towers outfitted with sensors and cameras along the Arizona desert – one with 17 towers along 23 miles of border near Sasabe and another with 12 towers along 30 miles of border in southwestern Arizona south of Ajo.

I’m not familiar with the caliber of sensors and cameras, but I refer back to the work of fiction that seems more relevant to draw upon than anything else right now. Jurassic Park was outfitted with electrified fences, sensors and moats that failed to contain and even keep track of multi-ton genetic clones.

Granted, the park’s engineering crew had software failures that magnified the population control situation. I’m sure that with today’s technology, the same issues wouldn’t arise when tracking drug runners.   
 
While the article didn’t mention the number of engineers that will be deployed to oversee the installation, the virtual fences are at least providing some critically needed work in a sunny location.

The project isn’t without its critics though. According to a recent report, Christopher Bronk, a research fellow at Rice University said, "To keep economic migrants out of the United States, wouldn't $400 million be better spent elsewhere, such as doing economic development in Mexico?”

I’m not sure how to answer that question. Right now, the census seems to be ‘spend and spend now’ without much stock in what we’re spending it on. Everyone has faith that the economy will be jumpstarted and we’ll all return to multi-credit card haven. I’ve found that the faith is more of a result of an overall distaste in reading up on economic policy and relying on blind faith in lawmakers. Sounds like a plan.

As America, the land of the free, continues to build a new-age virtual wall, it is good to hear that the project isn’t plummeting into the pitfalls of earlier fence projects that used “off-the-shelf technology” that was “strung together” and “expected to work.”

If we’re going to flex our tech-savvy pectorals to the rest of the world like the pony-tailed gym rat in Zubaz and tight Under Armour, it better work correctly for a long time. We don’t want to be seen as innovation slouches.

I also hope that we are using the latest advances in cameras and sensors that are available to us. We may need quite a few of them though; I wonder where they’ll be manufactured.

Also, the latest technological advances are pretty much outdated as soon as they hit the shelf. While we may be making an initial savings by not constructing an actual wall, I think it would be more cost effective to erect an actual wall. Concrete is concrete, brick is brick, and their structural integrity won’t change at the same rate that a camera or sensor will become obsolete.

Technology can be hacked.

Concrete can be vandalized, but it’s still a bit of a chore to get through it.

There is always a bright side though. After Crichton’s sensors and towers failed, he wrote a sequel that was a national bestseller, the movie rights were optioned, a lot of people made a lot of money and the world was entertained by strategic water-rippling once again. It was an American dream.

What's your take? Send comments to david.mantey@advantagemedia.com.