Drones: Cool Technology or Invasion of Privacy?

When one thinks of drones, many things come to mind, such as autonomous drones that may compete with humans like some Cyborg from Battlestar Galactica or attack drones that may be used to kill innocent people. What I am getting at is that many people think of drones in a very negative light due to the seriously harmful applications that can or may be currently be used. Many of these applications go against humanity and are very fearful in their nature. Sure there is no getting around it these days as the news is hard to escape and rumors of drone armies attacking people may have real relevance to them, and if this become the case of drone versus humans its up to the populace at large to do something in more than just voice to get this type of action to cease and desist.

I think most people have at least once thought of the idea of  ‘’what if” the government starts to attack innocent lives right on their own front lawn and how frightening any scenario of that type would be if played out by our supposed ‘’Home Team”. Just imagine the military testing out young people on simulators that could control these drones and actually conduct a war from the comfortable chairs of some safe place whilst bombing and killing in real time thousand of miles away. These people would never even see this supposed enemy that they were killing and it would all just seem like another round of BF3 or Counter Strike and with about as emotion emotional attachment as well. This would be a giant win from the government’s eyes as this would almost certainly cut down on all the new PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) cases that have happened in recent wars to our troops.

Obviously the openings are there for this type of thing to happen and if you want to read a really awesome book about this situation in a possible circumstance, read the book Ender’s Game and see how a situation like this may arise one day. Only sheer determination and motivated people will have any real impact on what and how our future unfolds for us and if things become too heated we may find ourselves with backs to the wall by way of military drones.  Does this sound way too Star Wars? Maybe that type of thinking borders on paranoia, but perhaps a bit of good old fashioned fear will keep people involved enough to keep our reality to be one that does not involve any drones that take harmful action towards humans or animals unless there is no other option left on the table. Drones have been around now for quite some time and many people have been using them in connection with some sort of flying device to film video and movie scenes with and these have been harmless interactions.

No laws have been properly established that govern the use of flying drones as until recently they were mainly the products of hobbyist who were just having fun, but things are changing fast and with today’s mobile technology you could literally fly a plane with an app on your phone. This makes things much more complicated and adds another dimension to what used to be a just for fun market, as now things have gotten to the technological point of no return. There is so much room to maneuver in now that a could be criminal could stalk, terrorize or invade the privacy of their entire neighborhood while walking their dog down the street oblivious to everyone around them knowing what they were doing.  This is why the people need to make sure that laws get established and put in place that distinctly point out the guidelines the will pertain to another’s personal space and privacy. Drones however are not instinctively bad as just like a gun is just a tool, one that could be used to save or take a life, but in one persons hands it’s a tool for good in the other a dangerous thing.

For one thing, Drones could have a great place in society and be used as tools to help others not hurt them. Applications like monitoring traffic on a freeway to help get an ambulance faster to the accident scene could save lives. Weather drones could fly the skies giving us 100% real time data on how the weather is and help get better future weather predictions as well. For older folks Drones technology could help monitor them when in public or private by allowing a Drone to monitor them in case of an accident or heart attack and alerting medical personnel to get to them much faster than having to call someone when you are the person involved. I would love if my parents had this technology available to them, then if anything were to happen they would have a better chance of survival as the faster they get medical attention, the better off they are. Drones can also be used for exploration here on Earth as well as in Space as an unmanned Drone is not prone to the things that would hinder a human being in a variety of circumstances.

The possibilities of Drone technology are pretty limitless, as anything someone can think up can now almost become realty if they put enough effort into it and its not too unrealistic to be a quantifiable end result. I can think of many really cool ways just to have fun with this technology, from filming family events and concerts to making home movies of places you visit. Maybe even have a Drone that is used for tourism and showing you all the cool things there are to see. I know that many people fear Drones as a total invasion of their privacy and this will be the biggest hurdle to get over as laws do need to be outlined to make guidelines to insure that Drones are used for fun and helping the human condition, not making it worse by allowing Drones to be used as tools against us. So it seems that all of us have a lot of things to think about in this new age of Drone technology and we need to really make sure we establish that this technology is not abused or misused. So how do you feel about this? Do you think that Drone technology is a totally cool thing, or do you feel it’s just an invitation to an invasion of your privacy? You know that I highly value the input from my readers and I would really appreciate some thought out answers in the comments below. Thanks for reading friends, the future is upon us now!

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