An upcoming issue of Time Magazine is titled "Rise of the Drones" and juxtaposes a low-flying Predator over a suburban American home. Time (Feb 11) - "Drone Home" by Lev Grossman: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2135132-1,00.html HT @MaryMad, who took umbrage at Chris Anderson's "don't worry be droned" article (emphasis mine), also in this issue. http://twitter.com/marymad/status/297346778217451521 Time (Jan 31) - "Why We Shouldn't Fear Personal Drones" by Chris Anderson: http://ideas.time.com/2013/01/31/why-we-shouldnt-fear-personal-drones/
...soon civilian drones will be flying commonly overhead here at home. What will they be doing?
The usual assumption is that it will be police surveillance and general snooping. Interestingly, thatbs just what people feared when the computer, which had also been introduced as a military technology, started to be used commercially in the 1960s. The worry then was that computers would be used primarily to spy on us, as an arm of Big Brother. Only decades later, once we all had one, did we figure out that they were better at work and entertainment, communicating with each other and generally being welcome additions to our lives.
I wanted to take a moment to explain how Mr. Anderson is attempting to take some liberties with the history of computation here. The concept and prototype of personal computers first emerged in the late 1960's amongst a small group of academics and innovators on the west coast, so I'm not really sure how folks could have had a more open-minded view about the potential uses of computers at that time. Up to that time and into the mid-70's computers took the form of bulky mainframes and mini-computers, only accessible to government agencies and very large corporations. I myself have not encountered much in the literature that talks about people fearing computers in the 1960s, other than some amusing IBM public relations efforts. So I can only conclude that Mr. Anderson has constructed a straw man through unsourced assertions. For facts, I recommend reading about the emergence of the idea and implementation of personal computers in John Markoff's _What the Dormouse Said: How Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry_: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_the_Dormouse_Said And as @MaryMad said, someone should remind Mr. Anderson that computers *have* proven remarkably good at spying on us. I suppose we could be gracious and say the qualification "that computers would be used *primarily* to spy on us" let's him off the hook, but I'm afraid this article is too obviously biased by Mr. Anderson's desire to service and profit from the DIY drone community through his company 3D Robotics. http://store.diydrones.com/ gf -- Gregory Foster || gfoster@entersection.org @gregoryfoster <> http://entersection.com/ _______________________________________________ drone-list mailing list drone-list@lists.stanford.edu Should you need to change your subscription options, please go to: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/drone-list If you would like to receive a daily digest, click "yes" (once you click above) next to "would you like to receive list mail batched in a daily digest?" You will need the user name and password you receive from the list moderator in monthly reminders. Should you need immediate assistance, please contact the list moderator. ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE