Technology Could Facilitate and Destroy Immigration Zoltan Istvan - Motherboard
go to original July 9, 2016

How do you take down an illegal drone? Here are 4 insane ways (Freeze HD)

Immigration - it’s one of the hot button topics of the 2016 election. Republican Donald Trump wants to build a huge wall between the US and Mexico. Democrat Hillary Clinton was to make it easier for immigrants to come to America. The presidential candidates’ opinions on immigration and its effect on America are essentially polar opposites.

Despite this, neither Trump or Clinton are talking about the issue that could redefine immigration more than anything else in the next quarter century: technology. Surveillance tech, facial recognition software, drones, and chip implants are all here - and becoming more commonplace. Their use in who we let into America - and how we let them in - will play a big part of immigration in the future.

For example, Trump’s wall between Mexico and the United States - designed to thwart illegal immigration - is estimated to cost upwards of $25 billion dollars. It’ll probably never get built, and even if it did, its effectiveness is highly questionable. Walls can be scaled, or tunnels can be dug underneath.

For a pittance of the money his wall will cost, American border patrol could buy and use thousands of drones that day and night monitor our borders. Drones can have loud bilingual speakers to talk to illegal immigrants trying to cross into America, and they can also have facial recognition software to see if immigrants are on criminal lists. A tight line of small camera drones at the nearly 2,000 mile long US/Mexico border seems much more practical than a wall - especially with coming AI that can simultaneously monitor and manage all the drones at once. Along the border, inexpensive charging stations could be set up where drones recharge themselves as needed.

Additionally, drones would be far better for wildlife and nature near the border than a massive concrete wall. A wall would require much construction equipment, human traffic, and newly built roads to create (and to maintain). Wildlife near the border would suffer because their feeding, living, and hunting grounds had been cut in half and disrupted. Drones and their occasional charging stations will disrupt far less and leave nearly no footprint.

Most importantly, drones can save lives too. They can spot children being trafficked, harmful drugs or weapons being brought across the border, or dehydrated immigrants who need immediate medical assistance. New unmanned passenger drones like those being created by Chinese entrepreneurs might help with medical evacuations.

Read the rest at Motherboard

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