Nah... Not really. But it's just a matter of time
before something similar happens. Police robot
explodes terrorist bomb, injuring a half dozen
bystanders ----- or some such news report.

What will a world policed by robots look like? Even
if the most deadly robots are guided by well-meaning,
fully authorized civil servants, some "accidents"
are bound to happen, sooner or later.

As for me and my imagination, I'm waiting for a
hummingbird sized Raven Drone to go on sale to the
public. I'll fly my purchase onto Temple Square in
SLC and remote record apostolic conversations, etc.
Should be fun.

UD

Uncle Dale Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> What will a world policed by robots look like?


Klaatu barada nickto



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/2013 02:37PM by baura.

Isn't that what you say at the Magic Curtain??

(Naw, I'm kidding. I know where it comes from! And it starred Michael Rennie.)

" Four... three... two... one... I am now authorized to use physical force! "

/looking forward to the remake

grubbygert Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> " Four... three... two... one... I am now
> authorized to use physical force! "
>
> /looking forward to the remake

Imagine an "armed" flying drone so small that it could
be disguised as a butterfly or even a horsefly.

Such a drone alights on Dorner's neck, delivers a quick
bite, laced with some extraordinarily powerful drug, and
the guy never knows what hits him.

Sort of a miniaturized version of the flying poison
needles featured in the book/film Dune.

No physical force authorization required -- unless,
perhaps the drug thus delivered is an assassination tool.

Coming soon... to a war theater near you.

UD

Most realistically, the guy has already shot himself.

Actually, bomb disposal robots have a shotgun attachment that is used for exploding bombs, and there has been a case where one was sent in to a room containing a guy who was barricaded off from the police, the police then realized that the guy was a clear threat to others, though I am not clear why, and they took him out with the shotgun.

To be fair, police drones overhead are no more likely to be armed, then police helicopters, and I think it is silly for people to worry about them firing hell fire missiles or dropping bombs on people.

On the other hand, I used to work with a police department located in a coastal community. One dark rainy night, I responded to a water rescue call for a drunk who had decided to go swimming in the bad weather. When we got there, we could hear him calling for us to help him, but he was so far out we couldn't get to him. We tried to get a helicopter for a possible air rescue, but they were grounded because of the weather. The coastguard finally showed up, 45 minutes later, and by the time the guys body was located, he was dead. If we had an asset that could safely fly in the storm, he might still be alive.

That isn't to say we need laws to protect our privacy, especially with the really small stuff, but a lot of that is already covered under laws that control warrants and searches, and what isn't covered, can always be written in. Never ban the technology, just set up reasonable rules for how it can be used.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/2013 10:54PM by forbiddencokedrinker.

forbiddencokedrinker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
...
> To be fair, police drones overhead are no more
> likely to be armed, then police helicopters, and I
> think it is silly for people to worry about them
> firing hell fire missiles or dropping bombs on
> people.


I'm less worried about police departments doing such
things than I am about the Mexican Drug Lords, or some
other quasi-governmental groups using armed drones for
their own self-serving purposes.

I wonder... a terrorist drone, let loose from an
innocent-looking yacht cruising up the Chesapeake Bay
some dark and stormy night.

Would current US security defenses stop the thing before
it reached Washington, D.C?

And that's the big, old car-sized 2013 version -- not the
slimmed-down, faster flying, radar-deflective model of 2015.

UD

There were Secret Service agents, decades ago before 9-11, on the roof of the white house armed with stinger missiles. You can't go anywhere near DC without being on radar. There is a major Air Force base just outside of DC, it's where they keep Air Force One, but it has other assets. I think DC is safe.

Cool scenario for New York, which no longer has an adjacent air force base, or one of the other major cities, but you would do more damage chartering a large plane.

I hope it's like when a guy forgot his gym bag and left it at a bus stop in front of an empty field down the street from my old office. There was nothing within 100 feet. The police called out the bomb squad, and they used a remote controlled robot to nudge it a few times. Nothing blew up, so a man in body armor cut the bag open. Then he cut the guy's shoes apart with a knife. Nope, no explosives in his shoes either. There were about ten people involved in the operation, including crowd control. We watched the whole thing through our office window and just about peed in our pants laughing at the stupidity of it.

I imagine future reports of a $10 million dollar drone hummingbird lost after being eaten by a large frog or smashed against the windshield of a car passing through the area at 45 mph. A friend of mine moved out west to work on a "black project" years ago, and he said they were going to be doing something with fast, maneuverable small dirigibles. No kidding. Hey, whatever keeps tech people employed. I'm all for it. I think a lot of government secrecy has to do with embarrassing accidents.

The French just simply through a heavy lead blanket over the item, lined with explosives, hold everyone back, then blow up the suspicious package there and then. My father says he saw it done in a French airport. They didn't even bother to evacuate, just held everyone back a safe distance, then went on their way, while some tourist was left wondering what the hell happened to his carry on bag.

Of course the privately owned drones are already here.

http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_info.php/cPath/2_382_707/products_id/164533/n/Blade-SR-Electric-Micro-Helicopter-RTF?utm_source=Google-Base&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Product-Feeds&source=google_ext&gclid=CKG-uvzKrbUCFQjNnAod_jcABA

Now where is that nude beach I heard so much about?

Police drone kills man who claimed he invented a water powered car. Oil companies state he threatened terrorist activity.

A "water powered car?" Sorry, but that's a total load of BS if I've ever heard one.

Technology is getting more interesting. Here's a link to a MeCam Quadcopter that will follow you around... not sure why that's necessary.

http://myscienceacademy.org/2013/01/29/mecam-quadcopter-will-follow-you-around/

And here's a link to the worlds smallest RFID chip.

http://thefutureofthings.com/news/1032/hitachi-develops-worlds-smallest-rfid-chip.html

What will they think of next???

Personally I'm a big fan of law enforcement using unarmed drones to help out on difficult tasks that could save the lives of peace officers. For example, I remember about 2.5 years ago when a southern Utah police officer was ambushed in the middle of the desert by a cocky gun happy teenager. As a result the officer died leaving behind a wife and young children who now have to move forward in life. If a drone could've effectively located the teenager then the police could've taken appropriate measures to apprehend the kid without the loss of life.

Now about armed drones .... I think we ought to have a healthy respect for the advances in optics, ability to ID someone's DNA through drones, and other scientific advances that could make such tools even less error-prone than boots on the ground soldiers/police.

Now about dead drones .... rather than "rest in peace" I say we have them blown up into a million bits in order that their components become unusable by the bad guys if they meet their ultimate fate on the battlefield. We wouldn't do that to some mother's son fighting a battle overseas. But nobody loves a dead drone ;)

There was much public outcry, and the police couldn't come up with a plan for how they would use them without major invasion of privacy.
If I ever saw a drone hovering over my property, I think I'd be tempted to shoot it down. No thanks on the Orwellian society.

Peace officers? Uh, yeah.

Armed drones in the US would be a huge lawsuit waiting to happen. All it takes is one little "oops". Collateral damage isn't cheap like it is when you're blowing up little afghanis.

Bradley Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Armed drones in the US would be a huge lawsuit
> waiting to happen....

Yes, I believe you are correct on that score. But I
suppose that it will still happen, to some extent.

I guess that local, state and federal law enforcement
rarely makes use of helicopters for administering
lethal force -- but legal challenges probably could
not halt such rare and limited use. And I also
suppose that legal challenges to drone use would
be overcome by the same arguments that support the
use of manned aircraft in law enforcement.

But, going beyond law enforcement, the so-called
"War on Terrorism" has different goals and makes use
of different methods than regular police work.

I expect that the American public would generally
support the use of armed drones to stop a terrorist
attack on US soil, or to prevent some threatening
border incursion.

If THAT is where we see the technology first applied,
then an overlap into certain kinds of police work
might logically follow.

Despite using a faux headline for this thread, I am
genuinely concerned about these developments, and
wonder what surprises the near future has in store.

UD

The Onion has a great article on this:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/sweating-obama-admits-drone-strikes-have-been-happ,31219/

I hate it when people post lies in their title. Attention whore, you are.

Any situation where it would be okay to use a helicopter it would be okay to use a drone. As far as privacy, helicopters have all the same surveillance stuff a drone does, plus a couple guys right there, who are able to look around with their own eyeballs.

The advantage of drones for law enforcement is primary in large area searches, under conditions that would be unsafe for a manned vehicle, such as a search and rescue. There is also the possibility of drones eventually becoming cheaper to operate then helicopters, which is where the real advantage will come in.