In future, a little drone with a loudspeaker and voice-recognition will follow everyone, correcting a person’s use or misuse of personal pronouns. It sounds a little Orwellian, but it has the potential to prevent huge amounts of trauma and – since words are violence – could help to save lives.
Ray Mullan
2 years ago
I wonder how long before Americans start taking pot shots at the things. I certainly would if I had legal ownership of a gun.
Has anyone else ever had a perfectly fine walk ruined by some gapshite’s drone buzzing overhead? I guess I’ll just have to work on my aim with rocks.
Any that come too close might be within range of one of the better water pistols, even.
Prashant Kotak
2 years ago
There is a way to fight this – and it’s both: incredibly simple and nigh on impossible. The answer is going to sound glib, but it truly is the way out: master the tech, become a tecchie. As the experience of the American Indians shows, you cannot use bought in tech to fight superior tech. You need to participate in the creation of tech. And if you can do this, if you can create tech, in most circumstances, you can still fight, still compete even if you are fighting superior tech. But you cannot do this if you are a mere user – you will lose even with superior tech.
How do you stop yourself getting sucked in to the inevitable temptation to use your tech to consolidate your power and dominate others who lack mastery of it?
If the question is directed at me individually, I meditate: Ohm, munny, munny, munny…
If it’s a general point about human behaviour, well, you don’t stop yourself, you do the domination.
Richard Hopkins
2 years ago
As Philip K. d**k observed, “Reality, by itself, becomes a story by Philip K. d**k.”
Leon Shivamber
2 years ago
Mary, your headline is technically correct, but essentially fear-mongering hyperbole. Yes, a few jurisdictions have been adopting the use of drones in supporting public-safety, but a proper reading of how technology gets adopted by law enforcement in the USA would suggest a long complicated road ahead before the kind of privacy-busting Chinese-type surveillance becomes common.
Indeed, many local regulators have been writing laws to limit drone use generally, and for law enforcement specifically. Technology adoption nation-wide is much easier for federal agencies, such as the FBI and DEA, but not so when one considers the state and local jurisdictional law enforcement. Just ask those who have been interested in adopting speed cameras, for example, across America. Has not been easy or fast, and unlikely to accelerate unless an event occurs which acts as a catalyst to promote the technology.
But, such an event is bound to happen. The assassination of a beloved President, massive anti-war protests, various riots, horribly destructive terrorist attacks, a pandemic. Throughout my long-ish life there’s been a constant stream of them.
There will always be subsets of people who want the opposite of what you and I want; worry-worts, hypocondriacs, busy-bodies and tech-heads, providing cover for the politicians and, long before they can be voted out of office, the drones will already be up.
Al M
2 years ago
I can just imagine what Derbyshire Plod were up to: Put down your coffee … you have 20 seconds to comply!
Samuel Turner
2 years ago
Wait… Is this article anti-post-liberalism? I thought Unherd was a post-liberal magazine…
In future, a little drone with a loudspeaker and voice-recognition will follow everyone, correcting a person’s use or misuse of personal pronouns. It sounds a little Orwellian, but it has the potential to prevent huge amounts of trauma and – since words are violence – could help to save lives.
I wonder how long before Americans start taking pot shots at the things. I certainly would if I had legal ownership of a gun.
Has anyone else ever had a perfectly fine walk ruined by some gapshite’s drone buzzing overhead? I guess I’ll just have to work on my aim with rocks.
Any that come too close might be within range of one of the better water pistols, even.
There is a way to fight this – and it’s both: incredibly simple and nigh on impossible. The answer is going to sound glib, but it truly is the way out: master the tech, become a tecchie. As the experience of the American Indians shows, you cannot use bought in tech to fight superior tech. You need to participate in the creation of tech. And if you can do this, if you can create tech, in most circumstances, you can still fight, still compete even if you are fighting superior tech. But you cannot do this if you are a mere user – you will lose even with superior tech.
Or master the pump action shotgun, like Kyle Rees in The Terminator.
How do you stop yourself getting sucked in to the inevitable temptation to use your tech to consolidate your power and dominate others who lack mastery of it?
If the question is directed at me individually, I meditate: Ohm, munny, munny, munny…
If it’s a general point about human behaviour, well, you don’t stop yourself, you do the domination.
As Philip K. d**k observed, “Reality, by itself, becomes a story by Philip K. d**k.”
Mary, your headline is technically correct, but essentially fear-mongering hyperbole. Yes, a few jurisdictions have been adopting the use of drones in supporting public-safety, but a proper reading of how technology gets adopted by law enforcement in the USA would suggest a long complicated road ahead before the kind of privacy-busting Chinese-type surveillance becomes common.
Indeed, many local regulators have been writing laws to limit drone use generally, and for law enforcement specifically. Technology adoption nation-wide is much easier for federal agencies, such as the FBI and DEA, but not so when one considers the state and local jurisdictional law enforcement. Just ask those who have been interested in adopting speed cameras, for example, across America. Has not been easy or fast, and unlikely to accelerate unless an event occurs which acts as a catalyst to promote the technology.
But, such an event is bound to happen. The assassination of a beloved President, massive anti-war protests, various riots, horribly destructive terrorist attacks, a pandemic. Throughout my long-ish life there’s been a constant stream of them.
There will always be subsets of people who want the opposite of what you and I want; worry-worts, hypocondriacs, busy-bodies and tech-heads, providing cover for the politicians and, long before they can be voted out of office, the drones will already be up.
I can just imagine what Derbyshire Plod were up to: Put down your coffee … you have 20 seconds to comply!
Wait… Is this article anti-post-liberalism? I thought Unherd was a post-liberal magazine…