Reducing the concept of free will, determinism and compatibilism to a half-page word count would be tantamount to trying to fit all your weekend break essentials in one piece of hand luggage (always sounds good, but it never works in real life). But let’s just say that, given any object, you have the choice to use it for a good or a bad purpose – again, let’s not go into the ethical and moral brow-knitting of what is good and bad.
So, let’s say that you have a smartphone (of course you have one). You can use it to call your mum or to play loud music on the bus, ignorant to the fact that not everyone enjoys your taste in music. The same goes for a car: you can drive from the proverbial point A to point B, or speed down some village core street, scattering old ladies like a fox in a chicken coop. Or a €20 note: buy something with it and it’s a gift, but throw it away and it’s litter.
Have you ever seen one of those films where a force of UFO spaceships hovers over the horizon, crosshair fixed on humanity? It’s the same with remotely piloted aircraft, better known as drones. True, they’re not as deadly as fictional UFOs, but they’re as popular. You might dismiss them as big boys’ playthings, but they’re not because drones are being used to do some wonderful things.
On Youtube, there are thousands of videos showing drones dancing, juggling, building things and interacting with people. The videos posted by the ETH Zurich Flying Machine Arena are pretty spectacular. And do watch roboticist Raffaello D’Andrea as he pushes the boundaries of what can be achieved using drones and complex algorithms. D’Andrea, a professor of dynamic systems and control at the Swiss federal institute of technology, does some wonderful things with drones. And in the process, he has made a lot of money: he co-founded Kiva Systems, which in 2012 was acquired by Amazon for $775m.
No one wants a drone filming their private property without their consent
So that’s the good. But there’s also the potentially bad and ugly. First of all, there are privacy and security issues. No one wants a drone filming their private property without their consent. Locally, authorities have proposed draft regulations on the use of drones, following a series of incidents. On one occasion, a drone was reported flying directly in the approach of one of the airport runways. The proposed regulations would limit drone use to designated areas.
Apart from privacy concerns, drones also have the potential to be used for vandalism. Recently, graffiti artist and tagger Katsu used a hacked drone to scribble on a giant Calvin Klein billboard in New York City. Of course, with graffiti, there is always the heated discussion of whether it’s art or vandalism. In this case, it’s definitely not art: it’s just a giant red squiggle on model Kendall Jenner’s face. But beyond that argument, what Katsu has done is show that potentially, drones can be used for acts of public vandalism in previously inaccessible areas.
When Orson Welles broadcast an adaptation of HG Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds on American radio in 1938, it allegedly caused mass panic as listeners feared impending doom from the skies. Drones will not have the same effect. True, there will be debates, incidents and concerns, but eventually, as always, life will catch up with technology.