OK, I swiped the title of this thread from the NOVA program I am recording. It has an awesome title, and can also be watched online at PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/militar...he-drones.html.
I am recording this because I saw an interview with MIT Professor Missy Cummings about the show and became very interested. Meanwhile, this morning I read background information about drones at the NYT: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/refere...les/index.html and checked out the DIY site and discovered that, yes, I could build one, too: http://www.diydrones.com/.
Two weekends ago over lunch with friends we briefly pondered the implications of the police using drones domestically, and it made every one of us nervous even though we are some the most boring, non-criminal types on the planet. Now I am thinking about drones a little bit more, the implications when used by the military as well as the implications of anybody, anywhere, being able to build one. I could be flying my drone around the neighborhood right now taking pictures of anything in plain site, whether behind a window or not. It is bothering me.
Anyway, here are the questions I've been thinking about, and I broke them down into military and domestic categories:
Military use
Are targeted killings lawful? If so, who can be targeted? Are drone strikes necessary? Do strikes in other countries violate their sovereignty? Can targeted strikes be justified by Article 51 of the UN Charter, as is being asserted at this time? ("Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.")
Domestic use
Should there be restrictions on where drones can fly and collect data? Can existing privacy laws protect us or does the rapidly expanding domestic use of this technology require new laws? Are we comfortable with police use of drones for anything other than data collection with a warrant?
I am recording this because I saw an interview with MIT Professor Missy Cummings about the show and became very interested. Meanwhile, this morning I read background information about drones at the NYT: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/refere...les/index.html and checked out the DIY site and discovered that, yes, I could build one, too: http://www.diydrones.com/.
Two weekends ago over lunch with friends we briefly pondered the implications of the police using drones domestically, and it made every one of us nervous even though we are some the most boring, non-criminal types on the planet. Now I am thinking about drones a little bit more, the implications when used by the military as well as the implications of anybody, anywhere, being able to build one. I could be flying my drone around the neighborhood right now taking pictures of anything in plain site, whether behind a window or not. It is bothering me.
Anyway, here are the questions I've been thinking about, and I broke them down into military and domestic categories:
Military use
Are targeted killings lawful? If so, who can be targeted? Are drone strikes necessary? Do strikes in other countries violate their sovereignty? Can targeted strikes be justified by Article 51 of the UN Charter, as is being asserted at this time? ("Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.")
Domestic use
Should there be restrictions on where drones can fly and collect data? Can existing privacy laws protect us or does the rapidly expanding domestic use of this technology require new laws? Are we comfortable with police use of drones for anything other than data collection with a warrant?
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