As you will see, these drones would have the ability to launch on their own, identify intruders (from facial recognition databases?), and coordinate a response.
Yesterday, I covered an announcement by the U.S. Navy that they are planning to enhance the swarm capabilities of their drone patrol boats to include decision making without human input. In the video demonstration from that article, called Swarm 2 – Mission: Safe Harbor, various researchers and officials make it clear that swarms of autonomous vehicles are the future of seaborne security.
As we know, airborne drones have been employed longer and presumably are further along the developmental path. In fact, as the global drone arms race continues, there is now a burgeoning industry that has to not only create the drones of tomorrow, but to thwart the drones that are bound to be created by adversaries in response. This is a perfect scenario for the military-industrial complex … not so much for those of us who desire a world free of war and surveillance.
These concerns and more were addressed at the recent Countering Drones Conference, held in London, UK December 6-8. One of the emerging developments can be seen in the video below: autonomous security patrol drones. As you will see, these drones would have the ability to launch on their own, identify intruders (from facial recognition databases?), and coordinate a response.
All of this is to say that yet another sector of the human economy is set to be replaced by automation. Moreover, the erasure of human freedom is now a very profitable endeavor indeed.