😮 hi all. my interests in robotics go back many years and its much to my dismay and chagrin over the last decade to see them evolve/ advance most rapidly for lethal military uses! oh and the worlds greatest tech/ geek company that can otherwise do no wrong, googles motto “dont be evil” seems to be coming into serious question with their new foray into military robotics with the acquisition of Boston Dynamics.[i17][i20]

our US military is the best and envy of the world, but its also feared the world over. is this the international reputation we really want to have?

the CIAs attitude seems to be that if there is low media coverage, then they are a useful tool. but the diplomatic fallout of drone warfare cannot be underestimated. our international image is in shreds due to the use of this highly controversial (to say the least) “style” of attack. and many would say its outright illegal and unconstitutional.

so all these amazing technologies have a shadow/ dark side used by the “shadow government”. big data is used for surveillance, code is used to analyze it and run/ operate/ guide highly streamlined autonomous weaponry (aka “flight control/ avionics”), and robotics is used for “vaporizing targets.” the near-clinical, sanitized language of the military bordering on propaganda creeps into the news reports, the few that are ever reported.

there was some “debate” on this in congress during the Brennan CIA confirmations. also Obama has come out publicly around the time of the 2012 elections, and possibly around the time of the brennan hearings. he announced some policy change, but it seems that an idea to move it out of the CIA and into the pentagon jurisdiction was pretty much “dead on arrival”. hey, it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling when he announced it, at least.[c]

also somewhat on the admission that 4 american citizens have been assassinated, there has been some glimmer of debate in congress, the courts, and the public.[d] another new development is a lot of insider info on pilots and the stresses in that area.[g]

alas, domestic use of drones cannot be that far away.[j] and it seems only a matter of time before terrorists start experimenting with them. am rather surprised it hasnt happened already myself. there is also news the US is now exporting drones to other countries.[k] oh, they surely wont end up in the hands of our enemies like millions of dollars of US funded military equipment did with ISIS, right?

my hope is that this new insider leak will focus some attention to the use of drones and their spread.[a] someone is taking a massive personal risk at the level of snowden, manning, or assange to bring this information forward. the public is not well informed on the issue, intense secrecy surrounds it. however after manning, snowden, assange, et al, the mass public definitely has “scandal fatigue”.

this is a big pile of a few years of links organized into sections.

this blog is my small lighting of a candle in this dark world. it is with heavy heart that its posted.

military robotics is a pandoras box that got opened many years ago and sees no end in sight. one would like to think its being rationally pursued, but isnt it also easily seen as an epitome of the madness/ insanity/ “systematized” psychopathy of our age? (warning: near sacrilegious sentiment follows…) how much different is the abstract intent behind killer drones from murderous, suicidal terrorists? isnt there some sort of weird karmic/ (anti)social symmetry on display here? aka “two sides of the same coin”?

on all this, awareness is half the battle. be informed! dont cower from this issue! its not a pleasant topic (which reminds me of the old aphorism that politics, religion and sex should never be discussed in polite company—does that apply also to blogs?), but ignoring it is not a solution!

⭐ ❗ 💡 ❤ non sequitur/ a celebratory note. today is the 3rd year anniversary of this blog. overall its been a very successful and productive project. not every hope has been realized but many others have. thanks so much for reading! 🙂