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I guess we shouldn't have planes or cars either because they make noise. This is a massive step forward technologically for consumers. With every new technolog

I guess we shouldn't have planes or cars either because they make noise. This is a massive step forward technologically for consumers. With every new technology I've noticed that there's always that croud of people that oppose it, talking nostalgically of the good old days when we didn't have phones or the internet. Just for a second can we marvel at what has been accomplished here? Deliveries aside, ordinary people can buy, or even make, devices that _fly_. Actually fly. How anyone can just take it for granted and then dismiss it by saying it makes noise is beyond me.

DSingularity 10y ago
We as technologists need to also learn to think beyond the technology. We need to think about broader impact of our tech. Especially social and psychological impacts. Why not? We have the tools. The only barrier sense to be our ego. We view something as net positive and as a technical marvel and become upset at any suggestion that there maybe be done undesirable consequences. I know this won't be the popular opinion here. But the least we can do is learn to engage these kinds of thoughts. Perhaps middle ground can be found. Dismissing them helps nobody.
stinkytaco 10y ago
> I guess we shouldn't have planes or cars either because they make noise. But we've adapted our cities to accommodate this. We have zoning rules, traffic engineering, sound barriers, and so on to accommodate or redirect this noise and those solutions have been developed over the last century. We had the same problem with cars when they were first on roads [0]. You can't expect people not to have a problem with drones until we are able to adapt our planning and design to their existence. [0] For more on this, I recommend Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City by Peter Norton.

3 ms·

I guess we shouldn't have planes or cars either because they make noise. This is a massive step forward technologically for consumers. With every new technolog

by libeclipse 10y ago

DSingularity 10y ago
We as technologists need to also learn to think beyond the technology. We need to think about broader impact of our tech. Especially social and psychological impacts. Why not? We have the tools. The only barrier sense to be our ego. We view something as net positive and as a technical marvel and become upset at any suggestion that there maybe be done undesirable consequences. I know this won't be the popular opinion here. But the least we can do is learn to engage these kinds of thoughts. Perhaps middle ground can be found. Dismissing them helps nobody.
stinkytaco 10y ago
> I guess we shouldn't have planes or cars either because they make noise. But we've adapted our cities to accommodate this. We have zoning rules, traffic engineering, sound barriers, and so on to accommodate or redirect this noise and those solutions have been developed over the last century. We had the same problem with cars when they were first on roads [0]. You can't expect people not to have a problem with drones until we are able to adapt our planning and design to their existence. [0] For more on this, I recommend Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City by Peter Norton.