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The Resident: Drone pilots are anti-drone


by
02 September 2013



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A new report by Air Force Colonel Bradley Hoagland indicates that the US is having trouble recruiting volunteers for the drone pilot program. The report poin…

Reno J. Tibke‘s insight:

Drone “pilots.” That’s an important word here.
And an excellent segue into starting a nomenclatural geekfight. Here goes:

Drones, while they have some autonomous robotic features, are not in and of themselves robots. No more than like, you know, commercialy available cars – complete with cruise control and automatic windshield wipers and auto-dimming headlights. If current military drones, those in use – not the U.S. Air Force’s & U.S. Navy’s research platforms, if those are robots with pilots, then so is a Toyota Corolla.

So where’s the distinction?

Probably this:

“Killer Robots Watching and Raining Death from Above”
[click, click, click, click, click…, reshare, click, Like, Tweet]

Disingenuous hyperbole sure does get the pageviews, and the ajournalistic bandwaggony rhetoric is likely to continue, but it’s irresponsible, misleading, and inaccurate – and should be called out and made fun of at every possible juncture.

Reno J. Tibke
www.anthrobotic.com
www.akihabaranews.com

See on www.youtube.com




Reno Tibke Reno J. Tibke is a generalist researcher and commentator on robotics, cybernetics, and nonbiological intelligence. He is the founder of Anthrobotic.com, a contributor at Robohub.org, editor at AkihabaraNews.com, and co-founder of Tokyo-based multimedia production firm DigitalHub.JP.
Reno Tibke Reno J. Tibke is a generalist researcher and commentator on robotics, cybernetics, and nonbiological intelligence. He is the founder of Anthrobotic.com, a contributor at Robohub.org, editor at AkihabaraNews.com, and co-founder of Tokyo-based multimedia production firm DigitalHub.JP.





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