Les inquiétudes de #Chomsky sur « L’ère du #drone » :
▻http://www.satellitemagazine.ca/2013/09/noam-chomsky-on-the-era-of-the-drone
Just driving in this morning I was listening to NPR news. The program opened by announcing, very excitedly, that the drone industry is exploding so fast that colleges are trying to catch up and opening new programs in the engineering schools and so on, and teaching drone technology because that’s what students are dying to study because of the fantastic number of jobs going on.
And it’s true. If you look at the public reports, you can imagine what the secret reports are. It’s been known for a couple of years, but we learn more and more that drones, for one thing, are already being given to police departments for surveillance. And they are being designed for every possible purpose. I mean, theoretically, maybe practically, you could have a drone the size of a fly which could be buzzing around over there [points to window] listening to what we’re talking about. And I’d suspect that it won’t be too long before that becomes realistic.
Meanwhile…
#3DRobotics Announces $30 Million Series B Financing
▻http://3drobotics.com/2013/09/3d-robotics-announces-30-million-series-b-financing
L’industrie du drone se porte effectivement bien. La boîte de drones DIY open source de Chris Anderson (ex Wired) a annoncé le 26 septembre avoir trouvé 30 millions de dollars d’investissement. Pour la propagande dronesque, c’est l’occasion de redire que c’est à la fois l’avenir de l’écologie et de l’économie qui se joue. Bientôt, un paysan qui n’utilisera pas de drones sera considéré comme un dangereux pollueur.
As part of this funding round 3D Robotics will expand its development and deployment of advanced UAV applications, with a focus on agricultural crop mapping and other commercial aerial survey technology. “The opportunity to bring ‘big data’ to agriculture through low-cost automated aerial crop surveys could be a game-changer for both farming and the UAV industry alike,” said Chris Anderson, CEO of 3D Robotics. “Adding UAVs to the precision agriculture toolkit of a 21st Century farmer gives them the power to use imaging data to not only increase yield, but decrease water use and the chemical load in both food and environment.”
Starting in 2015, AUVSI, the UAV industry trade group, estimates that the first three years of integration of commercial drones into the national airspace will create more than 70,000 jobs in the United States with an economic impact of more than $13.6 billion. International prospects are much larger. ”We’re building out a world-wide sales, service and support model that will help us build long-term relationships with local resellers that can in-turn support their local community requirements for mapping and imaging,” said John Cherbini, 3D Robotics VP of Sales.