Murmuration: A Festival of Drone Culture
June 15, 2013 11:11 AM Subscribe
OB298 — A Preliminary Atlas of Drone Strike Landscapes. This is part of the Murmuration Festival of Drone Culture.
Rorschach blots are occasionally helpful.
OTOH, cryptic nonsense is is often mistaken for depth.
So I don't know.
posted by Fists O'Fury at 11:34 AM on June 15, 2013 [1 favorite]
OTOH, cryptic nonsense is is often mistaken for depth.
So I don't know.
posted by Fists O'Fury at 11:34 AM on June 15, 2013 [1 favorite]
Imagine: roughly 100 years ago we were barely able to get off the ground. Yet, less than 50 years ago we landed on the moon. Now, we have flying dragons and soon-to-be-deployed-insect-sized drones guided by military and police personnel that can kill.
Add to that the eventual increased availability of drones (Google search result) - including information on how to build one's own drone - to the general public.
Add to this the terrible mix of bio-cocktails that will be constructed and deployed, based on specific genetic markers (selective bio-weaponization - enabling one group to use bio-weapons to selectively kill only those it hates). [might this be another good reason for not having everyone's genome available in some giant worldwide database that can be hacked by a bio-terrorist?]
All said, I tend to agree with Steven Pinker's hypothesis that overall violence is decreasing, based on the above I would postulate that the capacity for mass violence has increased - i.e. the "hair-trigger" that can lead to massive destruction carries a more violent payload..
I don't know where all this is leading. My hope is that the networks and learning-from-those-networks that are made available from modern communications technologies can help our new "world-brain" figure out solutions for "getting-along" in ways that preclude the use of the aforementioned weapons, which are sure to come.
posted by Vibrissae at 12:17 PM on June 15, 2013
Add to that the eventual increased availability of drones (Google search result) - including information on how to build one's own drone - to the general public.
Add to this the terrible mix of bio-cocktails that will be constructed and deployed, based on specific genetic markers (selective bio-weaponization - enabling one group to use bio-weapons to selectively kill only those it hates). [might this be another good reason for not having everyone's genome available in some giant worldwide database that can be hacked by a bio-terrorist?]
All said, I tend to agree with Steven Pinker's hypothesis that overall violence is decreasing, based on the above I would postulate that the capacity for mass violence has increased - i.e. the "hair-trigger" that can lead to massive destruction carries a more violent payload..
I don't know where all this is leading. My hope is that the networks and learning-from-those-networks that are made available from modern communications technologies can help our new "world-brain" figure out solutions for "getting-along" in ways that preclude the use of the aforementioned weapons, which are sure to come.
posted by Vibrissae at 12:17 PM on June 15, 2013
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Galatians 6:7
These suckers are going to get smaller and cheaper and within my lifetime I expect the terrorists will be going nuts with them and the President of the United States will live in a bunker.
posted by bukvich at 12:21 PM on June 15, 2013
Galatians 6:7
These suckers are going to get smaller and cheaper and within my lifetime I expect the terrorists will be going nuts with them and the President of the United States will live in a bunker.
posted by bukvich at 12:21 PM on June 15, 2013
These suckers are going to get smaller and cheaper and within my lifetime I expect the terrorists will be going nuts with them
I imagine so too; but it's not as if this is a case of highly specific military technology being developed and then being turned on its inventors as you seem to be implying; drones are a pretty self-evident technological outcome of technological developments which are occurring ubiquitously all over the world. The age of terrorists wielding drones made from off-the-shelf parts they bought at the local equivalent of Amazon.com is coming regardless of whatever the US does or doesn't do with the technology.
posted by yoink at 12:29 PM on June 15, 2013 [1 favorite]
I imagine so too; but it's not as if this is a case of highly specific military technology being developed and then being turned on its inventors as you seem to be implying; drones are a pretty self-evident technological outcome of technological developments which are occurring ubiquitously all over the world. The age of terrorists wielding drones made from off-the-shelf parts they bought at the local equivalent of Amazon.com is coming regardless of whatever the US does or doesn't do with the technology.
posted by yoink at 12:29 PM on June 15, 2013 [1 favorite]
Watch Police Shoot Down a Drone Flying Over Istanbul
posted by homunculus at 12:31 PM on June 15, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by homunculus at 12:31 PM on June 15, 2013 [3 favorites]
Amazing journalism, we need much more of this. We live totally isolated from this in the US.
Interesting piece. Not great photojournalism to sex up some guessed satellite shots with Instagram, but it's mostly a good collection of research elsewhere else. It's useful to see a line drawn from the calm, peaceful military-industry complexes in the US to war-torn regions overseas. Not often done, certainly.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:01 PM on June 15, 2013 [1 favorite]
Interesting piece. Not great photojournalism to sex up some guessed satellite shots with Instagram, but it's mostly a good collection of research elsewhere else. It's useful to see a line drawn from the calm, peaceful military-industry complexes in the US to war-torn regions overseas. Not often done, certainly.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:01 PM on June 15, 2013 [1 favorite]
The closest US people come to understanding the desolation our military and CIA are inflicting are the pictures of natural disasters such as the recent tornadoes and floods. Even then, if it is not in our backyard we shrug and maybe send a check to the Red Cross.
Is the only alternative letting anti-American forces attack us?
Are drones the logical response to improvised explosive devices? IEDs also accomplish remote killing/maiming without actually identifying or facing the victims.
posted by Cranberry at 1:17 PM on June 15, 2013
Is the only alternative letting anti-American forces attack us?
Are drones the logical response to improvised explosive devices? IEDs also accomplish remote killing/maiming without actually identifying or facing the victims.
posted by Cranberry at 1:17 PM on June 15, 2013
Excellent piece that adds a lot of global & local context to military drone use, thanks.
This is an interesting (and at times contentious) panel on drones between Chris Csikszentmihalyi and Missy Cummings at Triple Canopy/PS1 a few weeks ago: http://edgyproduct.tumblr.com/post/52283476115/drones-panel-on-livestream-com-part-of-the
Cummings is an engineer and ex-fighter pilot, and focuses on the imminent revolutionary civilian uses of drones while acknowledging the problematic aspects of military drone use. Csikszentmihalyi sees everything other than the issues of military use of drones as a distraction.
I thought Csikszentmihalyi's idea that the left needs to get involved more in technology is particularly interesting. His own work includes really great examples of this, like FreedomFlies, a drone designed to do surveillance of right wing and ant-immigrant groups near the US-Mexico border.
posted by jjwiseman at 1:25 PM on June 15, 2013 [1 favorite]
This is an interesting (and at times contentious) panel on drones between Chris Csikszentmihalyi and Missy Cummings at Triple Canopy/PS1 a few weeks ago: http://edgyproduct.tumblr.com/post/52283476115/drones-panel-on-livestream-com-part-of-the
Cummings is an engineer and ex-fighter pilot, and focuses on the imminent revolutionary civilian uses of drones while acknowledging the problematic aspects of military drone use. Csikszentmihalyi sees everything other than the issues of military use of drones as a distraction.
I thought Csikszentmihalyi's idea that the left needs to get involved more in technology is particularly interesting. His own work includes really great examples of this, like FreedomFlies, a drone designed to do surveillance of right wing and ant-immigrant groups near the US-Mexico border.
posted by jjwiseman at 1:25 PM on June 15, 2013 [1 favorite]
Watch Police Shoot Down a Drone Flying Over Istanbul
Not so easy to shoot journalists and get away with it (though the US almost did during the Iraq conflict). But it is much easier to shoot a drone documenting conflicts between protestors and police, which makes covering up atrocities much easier. It is easy to imagine a legal framework in the US and elsewhere that outlaws drones for use by journalists or civilians, while protecting their use by the state.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:38 PM on June 15, 2013
Not so easy to shoot journalists and get away with it (though the US almost did during the Iraq conflict). But it is much easier to shoot a drone documenting conflicts between protestors and police, which makes covering up atrocities much easier. It is easy to imagine a legal framework in the US and elsewhere that outlaws drones for use by journalists or civilians, while protecting their use by the state.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:38 PM on June 15, 2013
"A recent history of protest drones, from Zuccotti Park to Taksim Square".
posted by jjwiseman at 1:41 PM on June 15, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by jjwiseman at 1:41 PM on June 15, 2013 [2 favorites]
As a law student, I am fascinated by drones’ existence in a post-legal world. Architecture can adapt, and this project clearly aims to show just those adaptations, but American jurisprudence is simply not capable of making clear, comforting adjudications on drones and the sorts of crimes they have been created to deter.
If this guy is writing this density of opaque prose, how's he passing?
posted by Ironmouth at 2:08 PM on June 15, 2013
If this guy is writing this density of opaque prose, how's he passing?
posted by Ironmouth at 2:08 PM on June 15, 2013
But it is much easier to shoot a drone documenting conflicts between protestors and police, which makes covering up atrocities much easier. It is easy to imagine a legal framework in the US and elsewhere that outlaws drones for use by journalists or civilians, while protecting their use by the state
Drones biggest potential danger is a collision hazard with aircraft.
posted by Ironmouth at 2:18 PM on June 15, 2013
Drones biggest potential danger is a collision hazard with aircraft.
posted by Ironmouth at 2:18 PM on June 15, 2013
Drones biggest potential danger is a collision hazard with aircraft.
If an aircraft is flying at the height of, say, one of the radio-controlled quadcopters shown in the Vimeo footage, then it is more likely that it is already in violation of FAA laws. It's more likely that any coming laws about civilian drone use will not be done to protect aircraft passengers, but to restrict civilian surveillance of public and private space.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:38 PM on June 15, 2013
If an aircraft is flying at the height of, say, one of the radio-controlled quadcopters shown in the Vimeo footage, then it is more likely that it is already in violation of FAA laws. It's more likely that any coming laws about civilian drone use will not be done to protect aircraft passengers, but to restrict civilian surveillance of public and private space.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:38 PM on June 15, 2013
I don't think so, Blazecock. The FAA is very concerned about safety, and specifically about sense-and-avoid (making sure drones and other aircraft don't collide). I'm not sure they even have the authority to pass regulations related to privacy.
posted by jjwiseman at 2:50 PM on June 15, 2013
posted by jjwiseman at 2:50 PM on June 15, 2013
Of course, regulation could (and probably eventually will) come from somewhere besides the FAA, but everyone's waiting for them to figure out the new rules that Obama asked them to come up with last year.
posted by jjwiseman at 2:55 PM on June 15, 2013
posted by jjwiseman at 2:55 PM on June 15, 2013
Which of the links have the best pictures of New York?
posted by cjorgensen at 4:28 PM on June 15, 2013
posted by cjorgensen at 4:28 PM on June 15, 2013
The part I liked best was this description of the pilots and gunners:
More is known about the conditions under which their compatriots in the Army and Airforce work. Their bases are spread over the world, most famously in Nevada. The command stations are essentially airconditioned trailers with several screens connected to joysticks, targeting systems, a mouse and a keyboard. Two people work in tandem to fly the drone—a pilot and a payload operator. They use a mixture of radio and instant messenger clients to connect with spy plane pilots, field commanders, headquarters, and troops in combat (presumably, the CIA pilots don’t have to worry about that last group). Information overload is said to be a significant problem, leading to exhaustion and pilot error.
Many commentators have compared the command stations to videogame platforms and have worried that this disconnects the pilots from combat and dehumanizes their targets. Many drone operators say it’s the opposite. Because they often surveil a target for days or weeks during operations, they develop a strange intimate relationship with those they kill. They watch targets eat with their families, sleep with their partners, and go about their daily lives. Then they watch them die.
The transition from being at war as a day job and moving seamlessly into civilian home life is said to be incredibly jarring. Unlike soldiers in the field for whom war is the current normal, drone operators are expected to navigate between bombing suspected terrorists and picking the kids up from soccer practice over the course of an afternoon. This represents a significant context shift.
posted by bukvich at 5:21 PM on June 15, 2013 [2 favorites]
More is known about the conditions under which their compatriots in the Army and Airforce work. Their bases are spread over the world, most famously in Nevada. The command stations are essentially airconditioned trailers with several screens connected to joysticks, targeting systems, a mouse and a keyboard. Two people work in tandem to fly the drone—a pilot and a payload operator. They use a mixture of radio and instant messenger clients to connect with spy plane pilots, field commanders, headquarters, and troops in combat (presumably, the CIA pilots don’t have to worry about that last group). Information overload is said to be a significant problem, leading to exhaustion and pilot error.
Many commentators have compared the command stations to videogame platforms and have worried that this disconnects the pilots from combat and dehumanizes their targets. Many drone operators say it’s the opposite. Because they often surveil a target for days or weeks during operations, they develop a strange intimate relationship with those they kill. They watch targets eat with their families, sleep with their partners, and go about their daily lives. Then they watch them die.
The transition from being at war as a day job and moving seamlessly into civilian home life is said to be incredibly jarring. Unlike soldiers in the field for whom war is the current normal, drone operators are expected to navigate between bombing suspected terrorists and picking the kids up from soccer practice over the course of an afternoon. This represents a significant context shift.
posted by bukvich at 5:21 PM on June 15, 2013 [2 favorites]
Hate Obama's Drone War? Blame the bleeding-heart human rights crusaders.
In essence, both the human rights community and the U.S. counterterrorism community increasingly view sovereignty -- and the accompanying right to be free of foreign intervention -- as a privilege states can earn or lose, rather than an inherent right of statehood. (I have discussed this issue in my more academic writing, and the following discussion draws both on a previously published journal article and a forthcoming article; anyone interested in seeing either piece can contact me by email.)posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:19 PM on June 15, 2013 [1 favorite]
Ironmouth: "If this guy is writing this density of opaque prose, how's he passing?"
His spelling is also atrocious (no pun intended), or he's in dire need of an editor, at least. If your final published piece spells Obama's first name with two Rs, you're not doing your job.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 12:47 AM on June 16, 2013
His spelling is also atrocious (no pun intended), or he's in dire need of an editor, at least. If your final published piece spells Obama's first name with two Rs, you're not doing your job.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 12:47 AM on June 16, 2013
"...In the story, God intervenes, replacing Ishmael with a lamb...."
I thought everybody knows: God doesn't live there anymore. He's on our side now.
".... used ‘signature’ strikes to select and destroy targets. Unlike ‘personality’ strikes, where the target is a positively identified terrorist leader or some other high value individual, signature strikes involve looking for behaviour patterns to identify groups of men who appear to be behaving like terrorists, whether or not their identities are definitively known...."
Okay, it was either a water buffalo or else a cow and two goats, and about that other, it was either a group of terrorists, or else a birthday party.
Can I at least get an ooops out of somebody?
posted by mule98J at 1:17 PM on June 16, 2013
I thought everybody knows: God doesn't live there anymore. He's on our side now.
".... used ‘signature’ strikes to select and destroy targets. Unlike ‘personality’ strikes, where the target is a positively identified terrorist leader or some other high value individual, signature strikes involve looking for behaviour patterns to identify groups of men who appear to be behaving like terrorists, whether or not their identities are definitively known...."
Okay, it was either a water buffalo or else a cow and two goats, and about that other, it was either a group of terrorists, or else a birthday party.
Can I at least get an ooops out of somebody?
posted by mule98J at 1:17 PM on June 16, 2013
On the Limits of the Visual to ‘Speak Security’ or There is More Than One Way to Imagine a Drone
In the award-winning film Five-Thousand Feet is the Best (2011), video artist Omar Fast offers us,the viewers, his drone imaginary. Weaving testimony from a former US military Predator drone operator together with a fictionalized interview, a series of sequences acted on the ground, and the corresponding view from 5,000 feet above, Fast brings to the fore and ‘over here’ some of the troubling politics that have prompted so much discussion around the growing use of drones.posted by the man of twists and turns at 6:17 PM on June 17, 2013
Is it ethical to watch and then kill from ‘five thousand feet’? What is the effect of ‘drone vision’ or a‘drone’s eye view’ on those who watch and on those watched? Is it safer for pilots? For civilians?In short, do drones deliver security and for whom?
What is the effect of ‘drone vision’ or a‘drone’s eye view’ on those who watch and on those watched?
From Chris Csikszentmihalyi's 2007 article "Automatic Rumor":
From Chris Csikszentmihalyi's 2007 article "Automatic Rumor":
One particular cockpit video that swept the web in 2004 portrayed the obliteration of a large group of men in Fallujah, an obliteration based on no apparent information other than that they were men, and walking out of a mosque. Do the millions of dollars of imaging equipment used to make such film present a neutral image? Is the suspicion inherent in the taking of these images not transmitted through the apparatus to the viewer? The novelist Max Frisch once said, “Technology is the knack of so arranging the world that we don’t have to experience it.” After seeing the real-time video of the Fallujah bomb destroying a score of anonymous pedestrians, the overwhelmed weapons operator simply sighed, “Oh, dude.” He was flying blind.posted by jjwiseman at 7:44 PM on June 17, 2013
US Drone Operator says, ‘I became a sociopath’, regrets 1626 Killings (Lest we forget)
posted by homunculus at 6:20 PM on June 19, 2013
posted by homunculus at 6:20 PM on June 19, 2013
Drone Obscura - "Our drone fiction denies the presence of human operators; it renders drones autonomous. The consequences of this are significant and significantly troubling."
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:46 PM on June 23, 2013
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:46 PM on June 23, 2013
Drones As Folk Art: A Pakistani artist reimagines America's death machines.
posted by homunculus at 4:42 PM on June 25, 2013
posted by homunculus at 4:42 PM on June 25, 2013
Drone art: James Bridle poses questions in White House's shadow
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:26 PM on June 27, 2013
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:26 PM on June 27, 2013
Sky Fighter: Meet the Man Who Wants to Drone-Proof Your Home
posted by homunculus at 6:24 PM on June 28, 2013
posted by homunculus at 6:24 PM on June 28, 2013
Drone Demonology: Flying Robots, Cop Mustaches & Resistance in the End Times
posted by homunculus at 2:27 PM on July 13, 2013
posted by homunculus at 2:27 PM on July 13, 2013
« Older Animals Instincts: birthing and nurturing. | Go nuts for Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by ZenMasterThis at 11:29 AM on June 15, 2013 [10 favorites]