I’ve enjoyed Mark Rober’s videos for a while now. They are fun, touch on accessible topics, and have decent production value. But this recent video isn’t sitting right with me
The video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrGENEXocJU
In it, he talks about a few techniques for how to take down “bad guy drones”, the problems with each, and then shows off the drone tech by Anduril as a solution.
Anduril aims to sell the U.S. Department of Defense technology, including artificial intelligence and robotics. Anduril’s major products include unmanned aerial systems (UAS), counter-UAS (CUAS), semi-portable autonomous surveillance systems, and networked command and control software.
In the video, the Anduril product is a heavy drone that uses kinetic energy to destroy other drones (by flying into them). Quoting the person in the video:
imagine a children’s bowling ball thrown at twice as fast as a major league baseball fastball, that’s what it’s like getting hit by Anvil
This technology is scary for obvious reasons, especially in the wrong hands. What I also don’t like is how Mark Rober’s content is aimed at children, and this video includes a large segment advertising the children’s products he is selling. Despite that, he is promoting military technology with serious ethical implications.
There’s even a section in the video where they show off the Roadrunner, compare it against the patriot missiles, and loosely tie it in to defending against drones. While the Anvil could be used to hurt people, at least it is designed for small flying drones. The Roadrunner is not:
The Roadrunner is a 6 ft (1.8 m)-long twin turbojet-powered delta-winged craft capable of high subsonic speeds and extreme maneuverability. Company officials describe it as somewhere between an autonomous drone and a reusable missile. The basic version can be fitted with modular payloads such as intelligence and reconnaissance sensors. The Roadrunner-M has an explosive warhead to intercept UAS, cruise missiles, and manned aircraft.
This reads as borderline schizoposting
Someone just being religious is “borderline acceptable?” Please go outside. People are often religious. It doesn’t necessarily make them bad people. “Keep your symbols of faith out of your videos?” What a thing to say to a religious person who isn’t trying to convert anyone with said videos. Like, I’m not Christian, I’m no fan of their bible, but I’m not about to give SmarterEveryDay a dislike and a block because he puts a bible verse at the end of each video.
I don’t take issue with personal beliefs, but religion is organized belief, telling people what and how to believe. Anyone who advocates for religion has no business in any education system whatsoever.
He’s not even in an education system he made a video on YouTube, but still you’ve got to recognize ‘ban all Christians from any form of education system’ is utterly wild?
“Ban all Christians from any form of education system” seems like a fairly accurate summary of “Christian, muslim, I don’t care what religion, these people should stay away from child education programs.”
Like, I guess we could give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you don’t want them banned, you just want them to voluntarily never educate children in any way, and that’s… Still utterly wild