Jwz: Robot war dogs hunting migrants now | Hacker News Reader

Jwz: Robot war dogs hunting migrants now

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26 pointsjka18 comments

"The Mechanical Hound slept but did not sleep, lived but did not live in its gently humming, gently vibrating, softly illuminated kennel back in a dark corner of the firehouse. The dim light of one in the morning, the moonlight from the open sky framed through the great window, touched here and there on the brass and the copper and the steel of the faintly trembling beast. Light flickered on bits of ruby glass and on sensitive capillary hairs in the nylon-brushed nostrils of the creature that quivered gently, gently, gently, its eight legs spidered under it on rubber-padded paws.

Montag slid down the brass pole. He went out to look at the city and the clouds had cleared away completely, and he lit a cigarette and came back to bend down and look at the Hound. It was like a great bee come home from some field where the honey is full of poison wildness, of insanity and nightmare, its body crammed with that over-rich nectar and now it was sleeping the evil out of itself.

"Hello," whispered Montag, fascinated as always with the dead beast, the living beast.

At night when things got dull, which was every night, the men slid down the brass poles, and set the ticking combinations of the olfactory system of the Hound and let loose rats in the firehouse area-way, and sometimes chickens, and sometimes cats that would have to be drowned anyway, and there would be betting to see which the Hound would seize first. The animals were turned loose. Three seconds later the game was done, the rat, cat, or chicken caught half across the areaway, gripped in gentling paws while a four-inch hollow steel needle plunged down from the proboscis of the Hound to inject massive jolts of morphine or procaine. The pawn was then tossed in the incinerator. A new game began."

Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

For those newer to HN: This posting links to the Internet Archive, rather than to jwz's site directly, because jwz uses a referrer-based redirect to serve direct links a picture of a testicle in an eggcup.

jwz was my hero when I was first learning the code and exploring the internet. It's so sad to see what a cranky, feckless old man he's become. I often wonder if he had to go back, if he would've prefered not making FU money at a relatively young age. Since then, he's basically just owned a pizza shop and shitposted about hackernews, Bitcoin, and modern internet culture. Seems like such a waste.

"It's so sad to see what a cranky, feckless old man he's become."

He's always been grumpy.

"I often wonder if he had to go back, if he would've prefered not making FU money at a relatively young age. Since then, he's basically just owned a pizza shop and shitposted about hackernews, Bitcoin, and modern internet culture. Seems like such a waste."

He's owned a nightclub, and I'll forever be grateful to him for hosting VNV Nation there in the late 90's, and for making DNA Lounge a home for EBM, synthpop, goth and industrial -- one of the only clubs that had that sort of dark electronic music in the entire city.

For the curious(nsfw if your user agent sends the referrer header)

https://www.jwz.org/blog/2022/02/robot-war-dogs-hunting-migr...

When I right click and select open in new tab (browser is FF), I still get the ball in a cup picture. This is annoying because I thought that would get me the same behavior as copying the URL and pasting it in a new tab.

Why does he hate HN? Kind of weird, since he appeals to the same sort of people.

I think his criticisms are pretty much spot on. Here's a taste:

https://www.jwz.org/blog/2017/02/an-annotated-digest-of-the-...

Those aren't criticisms. It's a caricature.

It's a quote from n-gate's "Webshit Weekly", a very openly adversarial (and at this point somewhat optimistically named) recap of HN top submissions. It's not to be taken at face value, sure, or at least not wisely - but what on the Internet ever is?

Alternative reading of the same information: "US monitors border using novel technology."

Nations have the right to restrict entry, which entails checking if someone is coming in. That's not hunting.

What purpose is served by ignoring any example of dehumanization?

What purpose is served by even attempting to downplay the "jury-less execution" aspect of armed drones, and pretending that it matters at all that these drones are not armed yet?

A few different purposes are served but no valid ones.

The robo-dogs aren't shooting them, only being used for surveillance. Basically, they are high-tech cameras. Saying "well, they could eventually mount guns on them" is like saying the same for the cameras in stores used to help prevent shoplifting.

This is a far better idea than a border wall, anyway. I don't see the big problem other than in the imaginations of people who have read or watched a lot of dystopian science fiction.

>Saying "well, they could eventually mount guns on them" is like saying the same for the cameras in stores used to help prevent shoplifting.

The US government and law enforcement have the monopoly on violence and a long bloody history of exercising it against foreigners and people of color, whereas Wal-Mart does not (abuse of employees notwithstanding.) The last President wanted a wall across the southern border with barbed wire, snipers, a moat full of alligators and electrified spikes. You think a government that xenophobic wouldn't also put a gun on a drone? Or that Biden and the Democrats are that different?

> You think a government that xenophobic wouldn't also put a gun on a drone?

When they do, I'll complain. They aren't doing that now. I don't think guns on drones at the border with Mexico will happen in my lifetime.... I'd put money on that.

> Or that Biden and the Democrats are that different?

Yes. Yes I do.

We have had guns on drones already for years.

There is no valid excuse for pretending there is no problem.

Not to enforce border patrol. They are used against enemy combatants. If you are against weapons that kill at a distance, you might as well complain about the invention of rock throwing. Regardless, that is an entirely different situation.

I don't see a problem here. There are remote controlled cameras surveilling the border. That's a long way off from remote controlled guns patrolling the border. And an even longer way off from autonomous guns patrolling the border.

The only reason guns have been legally used at the border is when an agent's life is in danger. Agents can't just shoot a migrant to stop them from crossing the border. So what good is a gun going to do on a drone dog? You're just making up non-existent problems.

Moreover, this is a much better way to monitor the border than to build and maintain walls. These dogs and the drones are largely out of site. I do envision one kind of gun being put on these drones: a flare gun. This provides migrants with the information they've been spotted and provides them the opportunity to go back. You can also imagine text-to-speech speakers being mounted on the dogs capable of translating to Spanish.

I can also see these dogs being used for rescue - capable of bringing badly-needed food and water. We needn't loose sight that these are human beings, regardless of their legal status.

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