Greetings, Future Tensers,
The increasing ubiquity of drones makes it easy to forget that they’re relatively recent additions to contemporary life. That novelty helps explain why we haven’t quite figured out how to properly discuss them yet. As Kristen Thomasen writes in Future Tense this week, none of the metaphors we’ve used to describe drones are entirely accurate. Thomasen argues that if we want to understand these devices properly—and regulate them well—we’ll need to think about them more broadly, refusing to treat them as if they were simply akin to aircraft.
While the language we use to discuss drones will carry great significance as we move ahead, it’s also important that we think carefully about how we’re actually using them today. We may not yet have comprehensive legislation regulating drones, but that doesn’t mean there’s an excuse to be a jerk when you’re flying one. With that in mind, Faine Greenwood has drawn up an etiquette guide for both established and aspiring drone pilots. Greenwood suggests that droners avoid buzzing over private property without permission, take the time to read the operating instructions, and otherwise avoid disturbing the peace, among other things. Given that drones are clearly here to stay, it’s ultimately on their users to determine whether they’re “creepy.”
Here are some of the other articles we read while we were puzzling over Jack Dorsey’s Twitter bio:
- Education: A program called BlocksCAD lets kids design virtual objects that can then be fabricated by a 3-D printer.
- Privacy: Just because you can access personal data about individuals doesn’t mean you should. Woodrow Hartzog argues that we need to rethink the way that we understand what counts as “public” data.
- Facebook: In the wake of accusations of bias, Mark Zuckerberg met with conservatives. Will Oremus was surprised to find that he agreed with much of what Glenn Beck had to say about the resulting conversation.
- Law enforcement: The FBI claims that the program it employed to track anonymous users on a child porn site isn’t malware, even though it meets some of the ordinary criteria for malicious software.
Events:
- Curious why artificially intelligent digital assistants are so hot right now? Join Future Tense for a happy hour conversation in Washington, D.C., at 6 p.m. on June 8 to discuss the technology behind our new helpers and their implications for society. For more information and to RSVP, visit the New America website.
Chatting up a bot,
Jacob Brogan
for Future Tense
P.S. The newsletter is a little late this week because Future Tense is on a retreat discussing what we should cover in the year ahead. Got ideas for us? Hit me up on Twitter or send me an email at jacob.brogan@slate.com!
