Re: [drone-list] Let's see if this works!
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Gregory Foster
Feb 10, 2012, 1:24:53 PM2/10/12
to drone...@lists.stanford.edu, publicla...@googlegroups.com
Nice to see the drone list spinning up, so to speak.
My interest in drones and UAVs is manifold, but primarily based on concerns about transgression of civil liberties by domestic law enforcement agencies (LEAs) deploying drones. Longer term, I'm also interested because I believe heedless embrace of this technology clears the path to autonomous robotic warfare, as explored in the linked essay by Shane Harris [ @shanewharris ]. That's a conversation most folks will need to be gradually introduced to as it's still too easily dismissed as science fiction. The most recent terminology for the practice is "lethal autonomy" though signifiers are quite flexible, as evidenced by the tendency of military representatives to preference the term Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPAs) rather than the mechanophobia-inductive "unmanned" or "drones."
I'm eager to begin working with members of this list to exchange information that we encounter, and suggest coordination on public record inquiries into local LEA solicitation for drones across the country. I'm based in Texas, and am very concerned in particular about the Montgomery County Sheriff's acquisition of a Vanguard Defense Industries weaponizable drone. Vanguard---based within Montgomery County in Conroe, Texas---is creating a law enforcement package of less-lethal armaments for their Shadowhawk UAV. So Texas, perhaps unsurprisingly, appears to be on the forefront of sophisticated LEA drone deployment within the US.
On a much more encouraging tangent, I am friends with the promising young geniuses at Public Laboratory (cc:ed here), who pioneered a low-cost, high-resolution balloon mapping technique on the Louisiana beaches inundated with oil by the Deepwater Horizon. I've been encouraging/pestering the group to prepare for the emergence of DIY drone-based mapping. Towards that end, and inspired by the early drone journalism efforts in the Occupy movement, I'm starting up a local grassroots activism group in Austin to, in part, explore balloon/dirigible/drone-based mapping and journalism. Our first outing is going to happen at the end of the month. Here's a similarly nascent email list for that subject:
http://grassintel.com/mailman/listinfo/gia-unmanned_systems
Public Laboratory has organized a SXSW panel on citizen science and balloon mapping; if you happen to be headed to Austin this year, hope to see you there:
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP9516
gf
My interest in drones and UAVs is manifold, but primarily based on concerns about transgression of civil liberties by domestic law enforcement agencies (LEAs) deploying drones. Longer term, I'm also interested because I believe heedless embrace of this technology clears the path to autonomous robotic warfare, as explored in the linked essay by Shane Harris [ @shanewharris ]. That's a conversation most folks will need to be gradually introduced to as it's still too easily dismissed as science fiction. The most recent terminology for the practice is "lethal autonomy" though signifiers are quite flexible, as evidenced by the tendency of military representatives to preference the term Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPAs) rather than the mechanophobia-inductive "unmanned" or "drones."
I'm eager to begin working with members of this list to exchange information that we encounter, and suggest coordination on public record inquiries into local LEA solicitation for drones across the country. I'm based in Texas, and am very concerned in particular about the Montgomery County Sheriff's acquisition of a Vanguard Defense Industries weaponizable drone. Vanguard---based within Montgomery County in Conroe, Texas---is creating a law enforcement package of less-lethal armaments for their Shadowhawk UAV. So Texas, perhaps unsurprisingly, appears to be on the forefront of sophisticated LEA drone deployment within the US.
On a much more encouraging tangent, I am friends with the promising young geniuses at Public Laboratory (cc:ed here), who pioneered a low-cost, high-resolution balloon mapping technique on the Louisiana beaches inundated with oil by the Deepwater Horizon. I've been encouraging/pestering the group to prepare for the emergence of DIY drone-based mapping. Towards that end, and inspired by the early drone journalism efforts in the Occupy movement, I'm starting up a local grassroots activism group in Austin to, in part, explore balloon/dirigible/drone-based mapping and journalism. Our first outing is going to happen at the end of the month. Here's a similarly nascent email list for that subject:
http://grassintel.com/mailman/listinfo/gia-unmanned_systems
Public Laboratory has organized a SXSW panel on citizen science and balloon mapping; if you happen to be headed to Austin this year, hope to see you there:
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP9516
gf
-- Gregory Foster || gfo...@entersection.org @gregoryfoster <> http://entersection.com/
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