That's from the NYT article, "Visions of Drones Swarming U.S. Skies Hit Bipartisan Nerve."
[Rand] Paul’s soliloquy has tapped into a common anxiety on the left and the right about the dangers of unchecked government...
“It’s not merely the black helicopter crowd of the folks on the far right,” said Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups. “What Rand Paul had to say about drones absolutely fired up conspiracy theorists on the left as well as the right.”
Human Rights Watch plans to join other groups next month in starting an effort called the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots....
In Washington, Code Pink, a leftist group of antiwar activists, showed up with flowers and chocolates at Mr. Paul’s Senate offices on Thursday to thank him for standing up against abuses of power. Known around Capitol Hill mainly for disrupting Congressional hearings, the group had found a new champion.
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futuristic bee-size drone flying in an open window and taking out an enemy sniper
Or a conservative blogger.
This has been all over the science geek press for years.
Quadcopters can fly in formation and even toss poles and catch them in mid-air.
The police will use these things like crazy. Don't think for a second that they won't be armed. Lot of money to be saved by replaced human cops with flying robot birds. Just like eliminating check-out clerks in grocery stores. People will learn to prefer the robot to the human.
"fired up conspiracy theorists on the left as well as the right"
Um, how about plain thinking people who have valid concerns about vesting too much unchecked power in the hands of a few people who may or may not follow due process?
Those who find the restrictions of the Constitution bothersome and cumbersome are the very people we most need to worry about having such power.
In the future we'll all have our own personal swarms of microbots that will hover around us all the time. They'll all have cameras, biometric scanners, and motion capture capabilities. They'll be used for communication (Skyping, generating avatars ect) keeping track of our health and any number of other daily tasks.
I'd like to applaud Code Pink and give them the Robert Cook "At least you're consistent" award.
That's what window screens are fot.
Gives new meaning to the phrase, "Hit list".
"By Mohammed's beard, Ahmed, have you ever seen such a fucking big & ugly bug....?"
I'm more concerned about swat raids, which involve no drones at all.
The nightmare used to be a midnight knock on your door and the state comes to take you away.
That was the old days, in communist states.
The nightmare always included the propriety of a knock on the door.
Nowadays they've got mall cops breaking down doors of the wrong address.
Cats & dogs. Lions & lambs. Weird.
Can somebody do a lecture on the separation of powers before this drone meme tosses out the Constitution?
The remedy for war powers abuse is political, namely impeach and remove the President.
The remedy for swat team abuse is judicial, namely bring the Constitution back.
Perhaps in the future, aerial combats will feature drone dog fights over the Yemen peninsula. The human "aces" will be seated thousands of miles away.
Be afraid, John Boehner. Be very afraid.
Thanks Ann!
I Was Just Thinking About Posting a Drone Video, and Here Come Althouse With "A 4-minute video by the Air Force Research Laboratory on 'micro aerial vehicles'..."
In 2006, I was leading a group of students building a system to investigate drone swarms. It was funded by Boeing. We used an open source video game engine to depict drone interaction.
It's suck to be a celebrity some day when the paparazzi get these.
Invest in flypaper.
Donald Douglas said...
Thanks Ann!
I Was Just Thinking About Posting a Drone Video, and Here Come Althouse With "A 4-minute video by the Air Force Research Laboratory on 'micro aerial vehicles'..."
Next time, you'll have to get the Althouse app.
But you'll have to go through the Amazon portal on Althouse to get it.
Offhand, I'd say that beneficial spin-off technologies will be better and lighter batteries--no doubt lithium or proton based--because those things must be as power hungry as a hummingbird.
War is defined by ideology backed by machines and technology.
According to some of my ex military buddies down here in the racist south, items like this are already in use.
@bagoh20
It's suck to be a celebrity some day when the paparazzi get these.
No, it'll suck for all of humanity, when people get letters like this from their local corrupt constabulary:
Dear Mr Bagoh20,
We have video of your rendezvous with Mrs Abigail X at the NoTell Motel on 11/7/2012. Please leave a brown envelope with $2000 at the purple elephant in the play ground of PS 123, and we'll forget all about this.
" flowers and chocolates at Mr. Paul’s Senate offices on Thursday to thank him for standing up against abuses of power. Known around Capitol Hill mainly for disrupting Congressional hearings, the group had found a new champion."
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Whackos of the world, unite.
(In this case, in a pretty good cause.)
Mr. Paul. DO NOT EAT THE CHOCOLATE.
"We have video of your rendezvous with Mrs Abigail X at the NoTell Motel on 11/7/2012. Please leave a brown envelope with $2000..."
Ha, the jokes on them. Mrs. X was actually a man.
Wait, where do I send the money?
Love the way the New York Times still pretends the SPLC is a legitimate organization. Perhaps one day the New York Times will decide to become a legitimate organization.
Options, Options:
1) Ban the use of such technologies by our government. Other scary weapons like sniper rifles should be immediately re-thought.
2) More filibusters getting Eric Holder to write letters detailing the circumstances under which such technologies would and would not be used.
3) Assume that if we don't master such technologies our enemies will and trust to the separations of powers enshrined in the Constitution to act as a check and provide the remedies should abuses of power ever occur.
SPLC?
That's a hate group.
YoungHegelian, our defensive flying insects provided video of your spy insects and your cover insects entering space protected by AEI 24-429, section of the 2015 Anti Electronic Insect Act. Pursuant of this section you have been ordered to deactivate your beetles and your bees and your wasps for 30 consecutive days. Ants and termites may remain active, all flies of all species my remain active but must be disarmed for that same 30 day period.
I thought this video was going to show real robot insects and it's a cartoon. I like cartoons, a lot, but come on, the videos that show real ones doing real things are better.
And this makes me appreciate real hummingbirds even more.
Because they're such rare and precious living jewels. Except when they're not.
They're aggressive little SOB's aren't they?
I guess this will replace the "black helicopters" with the paranoids.
If I was Rush Limbaugh I would wear a beekeepers uniform everytime I left the house.
We are not the only military interested in these things.
Libertarians and liberals are often two sides of the same coin. Republicans should get in be with people who appeal to Code Pink at their peril.
It reminds me of War of the Worlds "machines."
But not to trust the government is ridiculous, the DC crowd keeps on saying over and over.
That Brit on CNN keeps saying that it is silly for Americans to have guns to oppose the Government/Queen because it has the atomic weapons. Hmmm.
"I'm more concerned about swat raids, which involve no drones at all."
A tool is a tool is a tool.
But we have a reality where no-knock raids have become the norm and mistakes about the address have also become the norm. Citizens have the right to be secure in their homes, and this isn't a fuzzy right or something not well defined. Citizens have the right to be secure in their homes and to assume that anyone coming through their door IS A BAD GUY.
People are going to be killed... cops are going to be killed and people defending their homes and families are going to be killed.
And we're supposed to believe that we're nut-bars for being concerned that our rights are in jeopardy or that our government (or education department) or local cops might misuse these new tools?
Really?
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