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Tiny Spies in the Skies



Here’s a follow-up on a topic which I have been watching for months with great dismay. Scientists have figured out a way to electrically manipulate “smart paper” so that it can basically flap like a wing.

The material raises the prospect of swarms of tiny lightweight aircraft carrying sensors that act as the eyes and ears of a surveillance network. […]

“This new material opens up a whole range of possible applications,” says Djamel Azzi, a robotics researchers at Portsmouth University, UK. “Lightweight flying robots would be ideal for surveillance – they could carry cameras, microphones or other sensors around.”

It makes me sad how all these super cool advances in technology are primarily used to do evil stuff. It totally ruins that thrill and excitement that science stuff had for me when I was a kid.

[found via TDG]

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4 Reader Responses

  1. slomo Says:
    July 5th, 2006 at 6:13 am

    The purpose of a technology is what it does.

    I’m as fascinated as the next geek by shiny new toys. That doesn’t change the fact that almost all technology is in the service of power. In fact, the basic principle of technology is the concentration of power (in both the physical and sociological senses of the word). I have some posts that touch on this, though not explicitly.

  2. Ant Says:
    July 5th, 2006 at 11:09 am

    I’m reminded by the memos at the Ministry of Magic in the Harry Potter series. ;)

  3. Tim Boucher Says:
    July 5th, 2006 at 11:29 am

    I really like that point about the purpose of technology being to concentrate power. That’s really “powerful”

  4. Gnomely Says:
    July 5th, 2006 at 5:30 pm

    I hope this technology doesn’t fall into the hands of teenage boys. No female locker room would be safe. Anyways all this technology is for the birds! Where are all the luddites?



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