Post: "Google chief urges action to regulate mini-drones" Worry
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04-15-2013, 10:49 PM
#1
Madison Taylor
Anime Nazi
Originally posted by another user
The influential head of Google, Eric Schmidt, has called for civilian drone technology to be regulated, warning about privacy and security concerns.
Cheap miniature versions of the unmanned aircraft used by the military could fall into the wrong hands, he told the UK's Guardian newspaper.
Quarrelling neighbours, he suggested, might end up buzzing each other with private surveillance drones.
He also warned of the risk of terrorists using the new technology.
Mr Schmidt is believed to have close relations with US President Barack Obama, whom he advises on matters of science and technology.
"You're having a dispute with your neighbour," he told The Guardian in an interview printed on Saturday.
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt on 22 March 2013 Eric Schmidt is one of the world's leading figures in digital technology
"How would you feel if your neighbour went over and bought a commercial observation drone that they can launch from their backyard. It just flies over your house all day. How would you feel about it?"
Warning of mini-drones' potential as a terrorist weapon, he said: "I'm not going to pass judgment on whether armies should exist, but I would prefer to not spread and democratise the ability to fight war to every single human being."
"It's got to be regulated... It's one thing for governments, who have some legitimacy in what they're doing, but have other people doing it... it's not going to happen."
Small drones, such as flying cameras, are already available worldwide, and non-military surveillance were recently introduced to track poachers in the remote Indian state of Assam.
The US and Israel have led the way in recent years in using drones as weapons of war as well as for surveillance.
America's Federal Aviation Administration is currently exploring how commercial drones, or unmanned aircraft systems, can be safely introduced into US airspace.
Cheap miniature versions of the unmanned aircraft used by the military could fall into the wrong hands, he told the UK's Guardian newspaper.
Quarrelling neighbours, he suggested, might end up buzzing each other with private surveillance drones.
He also warned of the risk of terrorists using the new technology.
Mr Schmidt is believed to have close relations with US President Barack Obama, whom he advises on matters of science and technology.
"You're having a dispute with your neighbour," he told The Guardian in an interview printed on Saturday.
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt on 22 March 2013 Eric Schmidt is one of the world's leading figures in digital technology
"How would you feel if your neighbour went over and bought a commercial observation drone that they can launch from their backyard. It just flies over your house all day. How would you feel about it?"
Warning of mini-drones' potential as a terrorist weapon, he said: "I'm not going to pass judgment on whether armies should exist, but I would prefer to not spread and democratise the ability to fight war to every single human being."
"It's got to be regulated... It's one thing for governments, who have some legitimacy in what they're doing, but have other people doing it... it's not going to happen."
Small drones, such as flying cameras, are already available worldwide, and non-military surveillance were recently introduced to track poachers in the remote Indian state of Assam.
The US and Israel have led the way in recent years in using drones as weapons of war as well as for surveillance.
America's Federal Aviation Administration is currently exploring how commercial drones, or unmanned aircraft systems, can be safely introduced into US airspace.
So, it's not exactly the most interesting article around but I can't help laugh and also be worried at the same time when reading it for a few reasons. Personally I'm not in favour of doing something like this, people should be free to use these devices as they please and they shouldn't just be government spying tools.
Though what I want to draw people's attention to is Schmidt's argument for regulating the usage of them:
Originally posted by another user
"You're having a dispute with your neighbour," "How would you feel if your neighbour went over and bought a commercial observation drone that they can launch from their backyard. It just flies over your house all day. How would you feel about it?"
Well I don't know I guess I'd be pretty pissed of but at the same time, How would you feel if I put a 360 degree camera on a car drove it all over your neighborhood and took photos of your house and posted it on the internet without asking?
How would you feel if I flew a plane over your house and took photos clear enough to make out objects less than 1m in length in your back garden and then posted them on the internet without asking?
It just seems so Ironic that this guy is trying to protect people's privacy when he and his company spend all there time violating peoples privacy, and that's what he's trying to protect here unless he's inciting that your going to tie water baloons to the underside of the drone and some how drop them on your neigbour from above.
Personally this guy and google can go fuck themselves they're so full of shit it's horrifying.
Another thing that scares me is "Mr Schmidt is believed to have close relations with US President Barack Obama, whom he advises on matters of science and technology."
This man has far to much power and too many powerful friends, it makes me sick to think someone like that is close to the president. Richard Stallman should be all chummy with the president, not this colossal ass fuck le happy merchant.
Originally posted by another user
"It's got to be regulated... It's one thing for governments, who have some legitimacy in what they're doing, but have other people doing it... it's not going to happen."
Fucking this worries me to:
It's one thing for governments, who have some legitimacy in what they're doing
who have some legitimacy in what they're doing
some legitimacy
Yeah so opinions, and not just on regulation of drones but on his close relationship with the president to and whether or not he's even right to make a call like this.
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04-18-2013, 05:36 AM
#2
This is the beginning of a much greater variety of ethical and practical problems we're going to have with the advancement of technology. One of the more interesting ethically dubious technologies that's bound to come soon is the whole augmentations thing, similar to how they were portrayed in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. We can already replace limbs with tremendous use, it's only a matter of time until that evolves into enhancements.
Right now there's a problem with the whole privacy on the internet thing that the technologically incompetent in government seem deathly opposed to.
Right now there's a problem with the whole privacy on the internet thing that the technologically incompetent in government seem deathly opposed to.
04-21-2013, 05:40 PM
#3
xinfectedsoulx
Daddy's home.
04-30-2013, 02:09 AM
#4
PlatDawg
Do a barrel roll!
I watched a documentary last year that projected, in US airspace alone, there could be tens of thousands of civilian drones by the end of this decade. If you don't feel okay about someone sitting in a cherry picker thats positioned over your house, you shouldn't be okay with drones hovering over it.
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