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happytoexplain

The sub-headline:

> Researchers developed a drone-carried acoustics system to find people calling out for help

Quite a contrast!

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Yup. And a great example of the clickbait dystopia we live in. Dishonesty reigns in the public sphere.

It's interesting, the difference is only in the intent, the technology itself doesn't express any preference between these headlines.

But, intent is everything. "Man forces widespread epidemic of cutting on society at large" vs. "Biden advocates for nationwide vaccination" are similarly not particularly distinct at a technical level but quite different headlines.

Well, unless you're an anti-vaxer then I suppose they are identical in multiple ways.

What does "Man forces widespread epidemic of cutting on society at large" even mean?

Man encourages people throughout society to be jabbed with pointy things?

My two examples are meant to be alternative ways to describe the vaccine rollout but one with the intent removed and replaced with a sensationalized headline. You could describe getting vaccinated as being cut, it isn't entirely incorrect, it's just extremely misleading.

In case of technological progress, intent is nothing.

The kindest thing I could say about the clickbait version is that it has the ring of a riddle. I'm sure I'm not the only one who took a moment to consider what it could really mean. Although, that in-and-of-itself is making it effective at garnering attention, just via a different psychological route!

That said, the verb phrase "hunt down" is an important part of the "color" that, if you were describing it to a computer you'd leave out.

Assuming the technology will not be used for nefarious purposes seems incredibly naive

What's the nefarious use of finding someone who is already screaming?

Locating winning lottery tickets?

Eliminating survivors

There needs to be a name for comments that are so sociopathic and terrifying that I jump in my seat. HN seems to do this more than Reddit, which is also disturbing.

Isn't one of the hottest movies right now about monsters that kill anything that makes a noise?

Suppression of dissent.

More generally, listening and detecting human speech and intent has plenty of military uses, and they are the main buyers of drones. It seems quite common for technologists to come up with humanitarian justifications for what is really new military hardware.

More generally, sure. But it's not like you'd derive that from this tech, you'd just create it from some of the generic pieces that are already laying around. Finding people that are hurt and trapped and most importantly trying to be found is really useful in non-combat situations; on a battlefield, not so much, as far as I can see.

I don’t know, it seems likely that this tech could be easily repurposed. Recognising screams implies recognising other things that aren’t screams. Do we know that there’s already generic technology for drones to pick up accurate ground audio?

Replying to myself because I can't edit the comment.

As someone who has spent time in a combat unit, I can't come up with tactical or strategic advantages that this would create, even if you fully set morality aside. There are so many easier ways to suppress dissent or eliminate survivors that worrying about weaponizing this particular technology is like worrying about dropping toilets out of bombers; yea, you can kill people that way, but it's so impractical you have to ask if anyone is really going to try.

I was asking this as a serious question, in case I was missing something. But I still don't see it. This feels like it's so specialized that it'd be a dead end for anyone trying to weaponize it.

Not to pick on this comment too much, but people's quick trigger to label something "dystopia" contributes to this dishonesty. Editors write headlines like this for the same reason people like "dystopia" -- it's usually inaccurate, but it gets attention.

Thank goodness.

For second there I thought terminator was becoming real in my lifetime.

Or that military drones may be equipped with this sort of tech to find civilians/soldiers then deliver an explosive payload just for kicks.

Glad we are starting to use it for good. For now at least.

I thought my wife was about to get swarmed.

>The sub-headline:

The sub-sub-headline: Researchers develop military tech to hunt down targets that have only been wounded!

That's a relief! If they teach them to replicate themselves, many more people could be rescued.

But they might not be able to reach people who are hidden under the rubble of a collapsed building, for example. Ideally the drones would be built using nanotechnology, allowing them to be so small that they're almost invisible. Of course, coordinating their movements would require quite a powerful AI...

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