Posted on 02/21/2013 7:31:48 PM PST by Seizethecarp
In this animated satire, a former K.G.B. agent welcomes a future in which Americans live under the watchful eyes of drones.
When I began thinking of this animated Op-Docs video, I had two things in mind. The first was the adoption of drones by the Seattle Police Department. (The program has since been scuttled.) The second was Yevgeny Zamyatin’s 1924 novel “We,” which was a forerunner to dystopian novels including George Orwell’s “1984,” Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Player Piano.”
“We” is set in a futuristic city that is constructed almost entirely out of glass. This total surveillance state is reminiscent of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, a prison designed so that inmates could be watched at all times — without their being able to tell whether they were, at any moment, actually being watched. I suspect domestic drone use will eventually have a similar effect: allowing the state to dominate the public through pervasive eyes in the sky.
How will these machines be regulated? Will they be weaponized? Will the National Rifle Association insist on the right of every American to have a drone to protect his or her family and home? None of this has been decided yet, but American lawmakers are pushing for drones to be in the skies over your head very soon.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Even the NY Times is allowing pointed Op-Eds questioning the Obama Admin drone program in Pakistan and its implications here at home.
The technology isn't evil. Someone might put the technology to bad use, but there are many, many legitimate uses for rc aircraft with cameras, and limiting their use to the government won't stop the bad guys from using the technology for bad purposes.
Like a gun, if you outlaw it, then only law-abiding people will be kept from obtaining it.
Be way cool when anonymous grabs one and sends it home.
:)
Last week I saw an article about a camera they had built with an array of 360 cell phone camera chips that could capture high-definition satellite video and store it. They could basically zoom in anywhere and watch people walking around parking lots and driving around in cars. The power of such a technology is staggering. Does anybody have a link to that article?
I have been waiting for some time for such a thread to rant about the new cameras on the interstate. In Tennessee during 2012, cameras were installed at intervals along the interstate. I couldn’t tell what they were at first and it took a long time to figure it out.
Recently in Virginia, the cameras popped up on trailers with solar panels. I suppose that Virginia failed to get the permanent cameras installed by the deadline and resorted to the portable fix.
The cameras are on 40 foot poles and dangle down with a gray hemispherical bud like protuberance. I hunted up cameras on line and there are tons of them by everybody in the business. They are a wireless device. They can be installed at what ever interval or location is desired and powered with batteries. If a hunt is on, they can be wirelessly activated and provide video over the internet.
I have not looked at other states but assume that all interstates are now under surveillance when necessary
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