The drone guide starts off with explaining
what a drone is and its sole purpose. The guide reads "As robotic birds
will become commonplace in the near future, we should be prepared to
identify them. This survival guide is an attempt to familiarise
ourselves and future generations, with a changing technological
environment."
Instructions in the second section tell
people how to hide from drones, such as taking cover in shadows of
buildings or trees. The manual also warns of not using flashlights or
spot lights as drones can easily find these during missions when the
entire region is pitch dark. Avoiding good weather is also recommended
as these unmanned units cannot work during high winds or rainstorms. If a
person decides to use a cellphone or device with GPS capabilities, this
may give up their location making the drone's job less difficult.
Photo: (c) dronesurvivalguide.org
In
the last section, the short but informative guide goes into how to hack
a drone. Three different ways are listed as to how a drone can reach
confusion— interception, interference, and GPS spoofing. All methods are
suggested as a way of detracting a drone from a targeted region.
For
the most part, the use of the term drones forces people to realize that
nations that own unmanned drones perceived as innocent in fact
participate in invisible assassinations on foreign soil. Pater said that
accepting more blandly descriptive terms like UAV diminishes this
impact. "When the public has adopted a name like that, it's impossible
to change it to something 'less scary,'" Pater mentioned, "That's why I
use the word. My Afghan translator said that even in Afghanistan they
also use the English word 'drone'. The whole point of military acronyms
is to make dangerous technologies sound less scary."
Even
though one of the items on the poster is considered a hobby-like item
for the time being, the creator of the guide claims that it was done
because of future possibilities. "A Parrot AR Drone, which is sold on
Amazon and electronic stores everywhere for an affordable price, could
easily be outfitted with weapons, spyware, or whatever else people can
think of. Because there is so little oversight, I think most people
should be more aware of those than the large UAVs that the military
uses."
Though, the guide is not deemed to be a
specifically functional "the fact that people are not sure whether it's
an artistic project or something else is interesting for me, especially
because I notice people find it scary that it is translated in an Arabic
language" according to Pater. So far, the poster has been translated
into a multitude of languages including but not limited to Arabic,
Chinese, French, Russian, Turkish, and Spanish.
Free copies
of the poster are available for download but the reflective ones are
sold online. The creator claims that he is speaking with groups in
Pakistan and Afghanistan so the guide can be used for education and
activism.
Voice of Russia, Theverge.com, Dronesurvivalguide.org
