Special Reports & Tweets - 20130312_SpecialReport_Alex
Aired: 2013-03-12
Duration: 03:26


=== Remote Warfare Questions (03:26) ===

[00:00:00]  Transcribed by ESA, translated by — My name is Brian Anderson, and I produced a film called Drone
[00:00:11]  On.
[00:00:13]  Basis of the film was to figure out what the hell a drone is, and what it isn't, what it can do, what it can't do.
[00:00:23]  0.99% of drone activity is the weaponized sh** that you see going on throughout the Middle East and the Horn of Africa.
[00:00:32]  The rest of it is civilian use.
[00:00:35]  Non-lethal.
[00:00:36]  My name is Jesse.
[00:00:37]  I'm with DJI Innovations.
[00:00:39]  I'm the lead technician for the company.
[00:00:41]  This right here is an introductory type model, good for a beginner.
[00:00:45]  It's called the Phantom.
[00:00:47]  If a robot could take out the trash, that gives me five more minutes to spend with my kid at night.
[00:00:51]  That would be a good thing.
[00:00:53]  Of course, we're not looking for the good in robot technology.
[00:01:00]  We're looking for a way to do harm with it.
[00:01:04]  If you look at the trajectory of warfare throughout history, you know, when people put down the sword for a gun, folks said, you know, well, there's no honor in that.
[00:01:15]  You know, there's no honor in killing someone from a distance.
[00:01:20]  You know, my personal belief, there really is no honor in killing at all times.
[00:01:25]  But, you know, remote warfare is just the most recent incarnation of that, like, distance phenomenon in warfare.
[00:01:36]  We do not have any types of contract with the military or any type of things like that so far.
[00:01:41]  I believe in defending your country, but, I mean, when it comes to unmanned airplanes striking against targets that we can't really see from hundreds of miles away, There's gotta be some questions asked about that.
[00:01:59]  But in terms of them being used, you know, here in the States, I think for surveillance, absolutely.
[00:02:07]  You know, recently, Christopher Dorner, the fugitive cop in Los Angeles, there was a rumor that started that a drone was going after him to search for him.
[00:02:17]  Didn't turn out to be true, but a lot of folks said, you know, Why wasn't it used to find a guy, you know?
[00:02:24]  I have a neighbor who is a senior police officer with APD and he asked me about it and I showed it to him.
[00:02:32]  I flew it for him.
[00:02:33]  He was very impressed.
[00:02:35]  He wants me to set up an interview with my boss and so forth to possibly see about getting a contract with the city.
[00:02:44]  I think it's something that shouldn't not be done, but I also think that foreign drone strikes are probably a little off base, too.
[00:02:53]  It's like any technology, as it democratizes, you're going to have to confront these problems, or these concerns and these issues, you know, privacy.
[00:03:03]  You know, a small personal drone that you can buy off the shelf for $300?
[00:03:10]  That's just a tool.
[00:03:11]  And there's been issues, too, with people thinking that you could spy with these.
[00:03:15]  It's bright colored, has flashing lights, and it's loud.
[00:03:19]  Well, not really loud, but you can hear it.
[00:03:21]  I can hear it about 30 feet up, so I don't think that'd make a very good spy tool.