IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 38

INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE

CHRISTINE
PERAKSLIS

JEREMY PITT

KATINA
MICHAEL

Drones Humanus

ome years ago, a sweet grandma in my
(Christine's) neighborhood was convinced
that one of her neighbors was involved in illegal activity. Although my husband and I tried
to assuage her overactive mind, she insisted we purchase and deliver binoculars to enable her to perform
her civic duty as a self-appointed sleuthhound.
If it had been this year, she could have placed an
order on-line and a drone could deliver the packaged
binoculars to her front door [1]. Perhaps next year, she
can trade in the binoculars for a perching air drone
that will not only fly, but also perform a controlled
stall with actuators allowing the feet to grip the
branch of the tree in her neighbor's yard. The bird-like
drone, with motors that can shut down to avoid energy
depletion, can sit for long periods of time, recording
lots and lots of data [2].
The current environment in which these technologies are emerging causes even the more openminded members of society to face considerable
misunderstandings, exploitation, abuse, and even
physical danger as was evidenced during The Burning Man festival this past year [3]. Not surprisingly,
a plethora of issues arose at the festival pertaining to
drones; many of which related to privacy. It is apparent, there are still fragmented, few, or no regulations.
Yet advances in technology allow for more easily
concealed devices [4], revolutionary capabilities of
remote sensing and capture technology (e.g., LIDAr
chip) [5], and decreasing costs to acquire devices [6].

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2014.2319951
Date of publication: 4 June 2014

What will we become? We can now buy devices to
wear 24/7, logging everything we see, and sending data
to our lifelog storage device in the cloud. Perhaps we
are now the bird-like drone, but we move from the sky,
to the branch, to the inside of people's homes, into their
workspaces, and alongside them on roads, trains, and
planes. We can capture their interactions, their facial
expressions, and the intimate aspects of their everyday
experiences [7]. There are seemingly no limits [8].
Much like peer-to-peer security that has proven to
be effective in society to reduce disorderly conduct
in crowds [9], perhaps people will be paid for dronelike behavior [10]. Perhaps, the sweet, civic-minded
grandma in the neighborhood, who lifelogs to pass on
a heritage to her progeny, will utilize the same device
to capture peer-to-peer data and thereby subsidize her
pension. What is the trajectory for society?
If the digital realm plays an ever-increasing role in
developing and transmitting social norms, we must consider the many values at stake [11]. The older as well as
the younger generations may perceive this as an opportunity to become as fearless as the desert explorers who
traversed unknown lands. Only today, the point-of-view
#explorers are demonstrating their mean feats to a global
theatre using social media in real time to their legions of
online followers [12]. Suppose lifelogs lead to an environment in which we are fact-checked against the recorded
medium [13]. Your interpretation of an event could be
refuted; you would be told, "You were never into jazz."
or "That wasn't such a good time, was it?" [14]. Can synthesized data, capture the spirit behind the poetic license
one takes when telling a story to achieve a desired effect?
Can an algorithm discern the varied contexts within which
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

SuMMEr 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014