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Thread: Drones

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    Default Drones

    With drones technology becoming more sophisticated in the future, do you see advantages, impractical transportation or a threat?




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    I see low-cost assassination machines. The game changer here is low cost (which is the same reason nuclear weapons were game changers), along with the difficulty of defending against fast single drones or swarms of drones. Note that EMP has worked against drone attacks in Syria, but drone electronics can be hardened against that by more sophisticated players.

    As drones become smaller and smaller, they can get to the size of mosquitoes and, eventually, dust, at which point they can deliver diseases to their targets, or can dust an area with radioactive materials (themselves) which will render an area uninhabitable or, better yet, seriously sicken but not kill people. (This takes out additional people for every sick person, because the well have to care for the sick.)

    It is likely that the manufacturers of the silicon chips which make these drones possible will have to comply with new traceability laws, so the purchasers can be tracked in the event of any "incidents". Right now, the markets are wide open and lots of opportunities exist which will close in the next few years.

    Drone component manufacturers are much more likely to be regulated than gun manufacturers, because drones don't look like penises.

    The best defense against wars between countries is mutual trade. You aren't going to start a war against the people who supply you with food or energy or technology. However, groups or individuals can be targeted to gain economic or political advantages, which is why I think drones have their best opportunities in assassinations in the near future.

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    I met a street entrenched guy, good guy, schizophrenic. He thinks there are drones everywhere spying on people.

    Nah man, those are just airplanes and they are flying really high up they can't see anything.

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    I think they are pretty neat. Give people eyes in the sky everywhere.

    Pizza delivery though? Packages?

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    divine, too human WVBRY's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Adam Strange View Post
    I see low-cost assassination machines. The game changer here is low cost (which is the same reason nuclear weapons were game changers), along with the difficulty of defending against fast single drones or swarms of drones. Note that EMP has worked against drone attacks in Syria, but drone electronics can be hardened against that by more sophisticated players.

    As drones become smaller and smaller, they can get to the size of mosquitoes and, eventually, dust, at which point they can deliver diseases to their targets, or can dust an area with radioactive materials (themselves) which will render an area uninhabitable or, better yet, seriously sicken but not kill people. (This takes out additional people for every sick person, because the well have to care for the sick.)

    It is likely that the manufacturers of the silicon chips which make these drones possible will have to comply with new traceability laws, so the purchasers can be tracked in the event of any "incidents". Right now, the markets are wide open and lots of opportunities exist which will close in the next few years.

    Drone component manufacturers are much more likely to be regulated than gun manufacturers, because drones don't look like penises.

    The best defense against wars between countries is mutual trade. You aren't going to start a war against the people who supply you with food or energy or technology. However, groups or individuals can be targeted to gain economic or political advantages, which is why I think drones have their best opportunities in assassinations in the near future.
    Vril-ya, the power of a cold war to bring peace and a balance of power.


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    Arms race next generation... has started...
    maybe we'll see some technologies that prevent people from real dangers from outer space...
    ...there is still no effective defense against asteriods approaching earth.
    Deflect them is much better than nuke them, in most cases.

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    threats appear from incorrect usage of possibilities

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    I became a little passionate about this topic today and made my own research. There is no overarching train of thought to the parts. Pick what interests you or read the tl;dr.

    Tl;dr:Like any other new technology that was hyped when it was still in its infancy (Gene Research (See Jurassic Park), AI, Big Data, 3D-Printing, Industry 4.0(Germany), Artificial Meat) drones suffer from the “look, cool- this-will-change-everything”-syndrome where people overestimate the possibilities by closing their eyes to what is realistically doable.
    They news media, companies and investors hype new tech while the people who are responsible for making laws and keeping people safe, shake their heads. There is still a mountain of issues related to security, infrastructure, construction, and privacy before, in public spaces, drones become more than a noisy annoyance, let alone a delivery service.
    In the military however, it helps the US, especially through the US air base Ramstein(Germany) to kill civilians in sovereign countries.


    Why are Drones an Important Topic?
    “The advent of new and emerging technology undeniably has broad economic, social and personal impacts. Most commonly, they influence practice, the way we do things, perform tasks, achieve goals while creating new capabilities and possibilities of action.” [2]

    Example: The Internet

    • Allows to share information faster and cheaper
    • Changed the way we conceive and use information
    • P.S. look up the Thread: The Internet Was a Mistake


    The use of new technology affects our perception of safety, security, privacy, ownership and individual/commercial liability, and our behavior. [2] Drones are a global industry that Goldman Sachs expects to be worth $100bn by 2020 [7].

    General Info about Drones:
    “Drones (Unmanned Aerial Systems [UAS] or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles [UAV]) are aircrafts which are able to fly without a pilot and passengers on board. Drones Controlling is performed remotely by radio waves or autonomously with a predetermined route”.
    Drones don’t have a specific size or type of drive and don’t need additional infrastructure for registering or monitoring an area of object.[1]

    The best table for Classification of different drone types can be found in [5]: Table 1 & 2

    A drone is composed of the movement system and the control system.
    The movement system contains the (maximally light) frame and is classified by the number of arms and engines (Bicopter: two engines - Tricopter: three engines - etc.), and the propellers and engine which determine the strength, lift capacity, weight of the entire construction and mechanical durability.
    The size of the wings determines speed (large diameter => low speed & reduced drone volatility). Large wing blades => greater aerodynamic lift => but stronger engines need.
    Drone control deals with the speed of the motors and control algorithms stabilize the machine in the air.[1]

    Who Uses Drones?
    They are primarily used by the armee and the police. Military drones differ from civil drones in size(bigger obv.) and drive (internal combustion engines). Civil drones are smaller, driven by electric motors and are mainly used for photography and filming. [1]
    Military drones with accurate infrared cameras were widely recognized as useful asset in the broad rescue effort in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. [2]
    [note: I could find no evidence that a drone in 2005 helped to save lives [12]. Some people started a drone, let it fly around a damaged house and said “oh cool”. And that’s it. Unless I find evidence for actual help I call BS.]

    Civil Drone Example: DJI Phantom Vision 2
    1160g (that’s 2lbs in the US), 25min of flight and record, Control Range: 300m (that’s 984ft in the US), WiFi synchr. With phone or tablet. GPS receiver provides standalone return to starting point, Camera: live recording during flight, 14Megapixels, filming 1080px (that’s 1080px in the US).

    Military Drone Example: MQ-1 Predator
    Unmanned Aerial Combat Vehicle (UCAV) for observation. Cameras with very high resolution. Thermal imaging and infrared. Four cylinder engines (115 horsepower), communication and GPS antenna, GPS navigation system, fuel cells, communication with ground control and other drones possible.[1, For more info look up Table 1]

    The Development of UAV is in the military research. Initially as a weaponized vehicle for the purpose of reducing the risk of human operations in hostile territory and for surveillance and collection of data. [2]


    What Are the Possibilities (If We Close Our Eyes to What Is Realistically Doable)?
    (1)Drone-Related Services: for surveillance may be used in agricultural industry. Companies providing these services own a fleet of drones and need a license from the FAA to fly in domestic air space. They can perform similar functions as helicopters without endangering people while costing a tenth of the price. [2] These services claim to increase crop yield, information on the water-holding capacity of soils and basic surveillance. However, “many of the promises being made to farmers, drone service provides simply couldn’t deliver, and isn’t backed up by proper research yet”[4]

    (2)Smart City Concept (Futuristic Idea): Integrates technology that provides services more efficiently and quickly to residents. Advanced infrastructure may improve quality of live for residents in urban cities.
    Ideas for a smart city:

    • Package delivery
    • Traffic Monitoring % Smart Police Systems (Drones for criminal investigation)
    • Drone Taxi and Ambulance
    • Pollution Control
    • Firefighting and ambulance [3]


    (3) Military, Police, others:
    Patrol large areas, protect property and state borders, aerial photographs. Models with night vision and infrared can be used in rescue operations by transmitting images in real time.

    • Fire Brigade: Thermal imaging, detection of fire sources
    • Police: Communication, patrolling, documentation of traffic jams, monitoring mass events, support for pursuit actions, obtaining evidence
    • Border Guards: Monitor Border, Tracking moving targets
    • Army: Surveillance, direct support for fighting [Note: Bombs] and training tasks, tracking moving targets, fight against terrorism
    • Geodesy Companies: Visualization and mapping of aereas [1]
    • Package Delivery: Amazon Air, DHL and Google Pioneers are exploring new types of package delivery mechanisms. Amazon declared, once their system matures, they will be able to deliver more than 80% of their goods in the air. [2?]
    • Wildlife Research: Drones offer a relatively risk-free and low-cost option to systematically observe natural phenomena at high spatiotemporal resolution. Drones are a trend to wildlife research. [7] [Note: That means they scare birds and observe animals fucking.]


    Influence on Security, Privacy, Ownership and Regulations:
    Privacy and Ownership:
    Drones provide monitoring capabilities that are not yet regulated by law (US). Privacy can no longer be defined by physical boundaries. [2]
    Most countries now have or will soon have rules in place for small drones capable of carrying out surveillance or deliveries. But rules on how and where people can fly drones differ from country to country.[7]

    Security:
    For commercial drones, small mistakes can result in crashes and threaten the public infrastructure, electric poles and protected airspaces. They are vulnerable to attacks on their GPS Systems (Spoofing, manipulation, hijacking). Risk of attacks on civilian population. Logistical Challenges (Amazon). [2]

    The New York Civil Liberties Union calls the coming NYPD deployment of flying surveillance bots a “serious threat to privacy”. The city police acquired 14 drones for surveilling large grounds and hostage situations. The drones are equipped with 4K resolution cameras. The NYPD is currently not permitted to also use facial recognition unless in situations of “public safety concern”, a term that can be easily abused.
    One of the NYCLU’s biggest concerns is drones spying on protesters legally exercising their constitutional rights which enables the police to keep a permanent record of political activity and intimate private behavior visible from the sky. [6]

    Meanwhile in the UK, there have been reports of the west midlands police grounding drones; they are at risk of falling from the sky even when there is still battery charge left. There have been no reports of injuries or damaged properties until the publication of the article. [8]

    Hurdles for delivery and air taxis:
    Drones in the US are not allowed to fly over most federal facilities or over people, at night or within five miles of an airport without permission. They must fly below 400ft(120m) and less than 100 miles per hour(161 km/h) and must weight under 55 pounds(25kg). But a delivery service like Amazon Prime Air that needs to be capable of carrying one or more packages can become the size of a military drone ( about 5000 pounds, 2268 Kg).[9]
    Alphabet’s (owns Google) delivery service started a fast-food delivery trial. The locals could hear the drones even with windows closed. Noise pollution limits the use of drones. Furthermore, rogue drones are a safety risk for people on the ground and helicopters. Regulations try to implement registration schemes to identify the pilot and place charges. [7]
    “Uber Elevate” is pursuing the vision of human transport with drones but large drones carrying one or more passengers at the times raises the risk factor of drones failing and crashing, destroying buildings and threatening anyone in its way. [9]

    Technological Challenges:
    Procedural Bottlenecks: Massive volume of data collected from sensors needs to be stored, processed and analyzed. Computer vision and machine learning should automate such tasks.
    Traditional pixel based algorithms are inefficient and require new approaches like object-based-image-analysis (OBIA) and deep learning techniques. New affordable hyperspectral miniaturized sensors require new analytical approaches not currently implemented. “The confluence of big data, networked drones, artificial intelligence and sensors will bring new unforeseen perspectives but these are still in infancy.”[5]
    [Note: That’s babble for “you need massive computers and massive money. “Unforseen Perspectives” means “we don’t know what we’re doing but neither do you.”]

    “Detect and Avoid”-Technology to avoid crashes between autonomously flying commercial drones still has to be approved by regulations. [7]

    To prevent crashes, especially when delivering passengers via Air Taxi (Uber Elevate) is figuring out how to raise drone design reliability standards to be more akin to those of commercial aviation, in which a system failure is tolerated every billion hours of flight. [9]


    War on Terror:
    In his first year former President Barack Obama oversaw more drone strikes that former President George W. Bush carried out in his entire presidency. Altogether ten times more.
    “A total of 563 strikes, largely by drones, targeted Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen during Obama’s two terms, compared to 57 strikes under Bush. Between 384 and 807 civilians were killed in those countries” challenging what the Obama Administration describes as “exceptionally surgical and precise”. The overall estimates of killed civilians reported by U.S. Intelligence Officials contrast greatly with the six times higher number records by the Bureau (64 - 116 vs. 380-801). [10]
    Read the entire article here for more details: https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2017-01-17/obamas-covert-drone-war-in-numbers-ten-times-more-strikes-than-bush

    As part of his effort to be more transparent about his drone program Barack Obama signed a policy in 2016 that required U.S. Intelligence Officials to report on the numbers of killed civilians with drones outside of active war zones. On March 6th 2019, President Donald Trump signed an executive that revoked that policy. Administration Officials argue that superfluous reports would “distract our intelligence professionals from their primary mission. [11]

    Ramstein:
    Ramstein is mainly used as a hub for US military transportation. But apart from those carrying out activities at and through the air base, there is little public information available about what else takes place there. [...] From the US, the distance to directly control drone missions in Pakistan, Afghanistan or Yemen is too far. This is why the US depends on the Ramstein base to forward data from the US on to its intended destination.” [13]
    [Note: There is not much mystery about Ramstein and its connection to drone strikes as this article or our government claims. Fact is, the US needs Ramstein as a hub the control drones in the near east. The public does not want that but we have no democratic power to vote against it.]

    Sources: ([Nr] Title of Article; Year Published; Where to find)
    [1] Drones and Possibilities of Their Using, 2016, Research Gate
    [2] The Societal Impact of Commercial Drones, 2016, Research Gate
    [3] Drones for Good in Smart Cities: A Review, 2018, Research Gate
    [4] Rise of Drones in Agriculture, 2015, Research Gate
    [5] Drones for Conservation in Protected Areas: Present and Future, 2019, Research Gate
    [6] Cities Call NYPD’s Drones Development A ‘Serious Threat To Privacy’, Dec.2018, Mashable.com
    [7] Why Your Pizza May Never Be Delivered By Drone, Dec.2018, bbc.com
    [8] Police Ground Drones After Reports They Fall From Out Of the Sky, Oct.2018, bbc.com
    [9] Why the Use of Drones Still Faces Big Regulatory Hurdles, Sep.2018, forbes.com
    [10] Obama’s Covert Drone War in Numbers: Then Times More Strikes than Bush, Jan.2017, thebureauinvestigatives.com
    [11] US Will No Longer Report How Many Civilians It Kills With Drones Outside War Zones, Mar.2019, cbc.ca
    [12] Small, Unmanned Aircraft Search for Survivors in Katrina Wreckage, sep.2005, nsf.gov
    [13] Drones and diplomacy: US Ramstein air base stirs controversy in Germany, Mar.2019, dw.com

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    they make incredible documentaries

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    They're kind of like annoying sadistic insects tbh. I know a guy who got in trouble at work for flying them over the building and he got pissed that they told him to stop, but what do you expect? It would be like saying its okay for me to wear a leather leotard and dance shirtless on top a prestigious Te facility.. of course somebody is gonna ask u to stop. They're like annoying and in-your-face.

    I guess it could have practical implications. The government would just use them to spy on ppl more than they already do, but they could be good for transportation yeah.

    You can sleep peacefully & innocently on a pillow... or you can take said pillow and smother somebody's face with it. So like any physical object it can be 'good' or 'evil' depending on the ppl involved. They still remind me of sadistic flying insects tho.

  11. #11

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    To be honest, for me now, drones are only a means for video shooting beautiful landscapes with their help. Therefore, it would be interesting for me to see how drones will develop in this direction, and I would like to believe only in the best. I often read various news on WeFlyWithDrones about drones, and I don't remember reading anything threatening. Still, of course, I wouldn't want people to make a killing machine out of such technology. Therefore, I will only hope that in the future, I will be able to enjoy new technologies and even better video quality thanks to new drone models.
    Last edited by MarilynDutil; 04-01-2022 at 08:51 PM.

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