Eyes in the Sky: The Secret Rise of Gorgon Stare and How It Will Watch Us All

Featuring the author Arthur Holland Michel; with comments by Jenna McLaughlin, National Security and Investigations Reporter, Yahoo News; Sean Vitka, Policy Counsel, Demand Progress; moderated by Patrick Eddington, Research Fellow, Cato Institute.
The ancient Greeks believed that the mythical Gorgon could turn those who stared at it to stone. The Pentagon’s surveillance technology named after this creature, Gorgon Stare, has used its aerial near-panopticon surveillance capabilities to turn Salafist insurgents into targets. But should such a powerful, virtually all-seeing aerial spying system be allowed to operate over American communities? Arthur Holland Michel, Deputy Director of the Center for the Study of the Drone, tackles this question in his new book, Eyes in the Sky: The Secret Rise of Gorgon Stare and How It Will Watch Us All.
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[@marynelson4445]

This reminds me of the book “1984”about our furture

[@stevengill1736]

Gosh, it's so far beyond Orwell's book, including the fact that we voluntarily aid and abet the monitoring every time we pick up a smartphone. (and to a lesser extent a tablet or a laptop, etc) At 70, it doesn't really bother me, not because I have nothing to hide, but because there's really not much I can do about it.

[@afifahhamilton8843]

The comment, at about 35 or 36 mins in, about the people who'd worked on this being 'horrified' by what they'd created, reminds me of the comment of Robert Oppenheimer, on being part of the making of the Atom Bomb, which was "Now I am become death. Destroyer of worlds". And then I think of the late, great Barry Long, spiritual master, who used the phrase "Now we don't know what to do to undo what we've done" in his latter years.

[@DOOMJESUS]

WTF DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS?

[@nufosmatic]

I can assure you that the people who worked on this were not "horrified", but thrilled to help the warfighter by working to minimize the number of deaths from IEDs.

[@christinecortese9973]

@@nufosmatic it never stays with the military. Governments like ours have no hesitation to use it against its own citizens.

[@nufosmatic]

@@christinecortese9973 Up until recently, you could regularly see the Persistent Surveillance Systems plane circling downtown Baltimore on flightradar.com. PSS is not that much different from GS. Baltimore decided they didn't need PSS (which was being paid for by a grant) in January 2021. They are on track for a record number of homicides in 2021. The families of these dead people may feel differently.

[@marynelson4445]

Yes evil people use things like this for their own personal gains

[@JefrreyMitchell-Rojas-p2l]

Not just governments either. I’m more concerned about ex military and other entities with giant networks and capabilities to use it on their own neighbors. None of us trust the government but when the threat is right next in your neighborhood. Utter insanity. Power is a drug.

[@Eric_McBrearty]

This was a very interesting, very informative talk. I was literally pausing the video so that I could take notes. It's hard to see the negatives of this technology when there are so many positives.

[@williebeamish5879]

Try living it.

[@bethlast1296]

Thanks for the hard work and great video to keep us informed. This is shocking and we need to know. 🇺🇸

[@MakerInMotion]

Every technology is a double edged sword. Aerial surveillance could be used to track a political dissenter, but also to track a kidnapper with a child in his trunk. The thing is the political dissenter already has a GPS enabled smartphone in their pocket and has already been identified. It's redundant. The technology is more useful for saving the child.

[@dowskivisionmagicaloracle8593]

So let me get this genius plan straight .... take parts made by a giant, foreign, communist superpower .... use them to build a cyber panopticon which domestically tracks and records the most minute details about everybody's words & actions from military and public service to private sector and civilian .... then threaten said superpower by engaging in a reckless trade war by assuming that, for some reason, they have no capacity for spying, infiltration, or sabotage to access or even take control of this monstrocity? Sounds like sheer genius! Good going US government and CIA/NSA in architecting your own downfall.

[@nicktrice4921]

@Maker In Motion That's a good point. But the next comment is even better. Relying on the world's largest and most advanced totalitarian technocracy (China) to build your own panopticon in America is a contradictory enterprise. If America must become an all-seeing, all-knowing police state, let it be one NOT dependent on China!

[@deepseathriver6400]

No.. just no

[@pipjersey8303]

Dont know if thats a fair trade, having something that can surveil everything about everyone, and saving a kidnapped child that happens rarely, i know there may be stats to make it seem like kidappings happen alot but its just not a practical trade off

[@HHWyld]

How could the FBI not be using this for counter-espionage purposes in the USA, right now?

[@williebeamish5879]

They are. And NSA...

[@Sonu-tz2js]

I haven't watch this since I lack time right now. But looks like it will be an interesting topic to explore. Will watch later. Cato Institute came up in my search results few days back, so I got interested by KZbin's recommendation for this video. Sounds like Superior Sapiens of the World have done one more spell-bounding thing!

[@marynelson4445]

Has google gave this information to China?

[@nicktrice4921]

That and so much more...

[@stevengill1736]

The Chinese have similar technology no doubt - heck, so do a number of other countries....

[@WR3ND]

Geostationary orbit is way out there. No practical optics are that good yet, so less of a stare and more of a peep as Gorgon the Destroyers pass in orbit.

[@ghollisjr]

Big Data = Government and business have been very naughty peeping toms and are now looking for a way to capitalize.

[@kimhansen8720]

the guy in the front row has his own upskirt radar going

[@tomd2833]

I think you mean he has the Gorgon Stare.

[@kennyg5538]

@@tomd2833lol underrated

[@comicrebel]

Should it be allowed to watch over ANY community anywhere in the world, especially during "peacetime"? The assumed perspective of American centrality can be received as being highly arrogant by others in the world community.

[@nicktrice4921]

Because it is. And I'm a patriotic American! America needs to stop creating its own enemies. Hard to do, I know, when the backbone of economic growth is the MIC and High Finance.

[@neverendingjourneystilllea5271]

Thanks

[@literatious308]

The myth of freedom

[@AntQuick1102]

Those who support it should call it Acteon's Dogs

[@legionofyuri]

Bet this would have been a lifesaver during the height of the pandemic.

[@voranartsirisubsoontorn9010]

Choose to believe or not as they are, I am certain about this for over two decades haha

[@williebeamish5879]

Yup

[@densealloy]

56:22 maybe you shouldn't predetermine a person's behavior based on what color that persons skin color is. Not all black people think the same way. There's a word for stereotyping a person based on characteristics they just happened to be born with...

[@DOOMJESUS]

NOT ALL, NOT ALL, NOT ALL. BUT MOST.

[@kennyg5538]

I would have to agree most yeah but not all of course

[@janj0n]

Judas Priest "Electric Eye" Up here in space I'm looking down on you My lasers trace everything you do. You think you've private lives, think nothing of the kind There is no true escape, I'm watching all the time. I'm made of metal, my circuits gleam I am perpetual, I keep the country clean.

[@jamoandb8470]

Exactly !

[@joshingaboutwithjosh]

Human resources is happening or am I mistaken?

[@blaquentgruppe6547]

Bagdaddyo peeping Tom Lurking for a new kinda kick

[@augreich]

That was some scary shit. They all endorced it's use while pretending to criticize it. Pathetic human beings

[@andrews3642]

In a song or movie there is only a certain amount of time given to catch and maintain attention. This pompous idiots disclaimers turned me off before I could give this a chance. :/

[@nameremoved4010]

The smart phone simply wants to be part of the discussion, so don't shut it down, just listen in reverence to its message as it hears so much and it knows so much. And at the end, the Nutritional Serenity Agency will bake everyone a cake packed with special goodness. Or perhaps the Food Better Institute will come for a visit with the intent of bettering the neighborhood by giving out special vacations to many of its more interesting citizens.

[@stevengill1736]

Don't forget the Candy Ingestion Administration 😊

[@nufosmatic]

01:12:00 we can see through clouds...

[@thomaswood7495]

The right to refuse testimony….. wow. How un-Patriotic

[@Only60GamesPlayed]

This is creepy!

[@artoffugue333]

Creepy only to those who have surreptitious motives and sinister intents. Liberating to those who are moral, law-abiding citizens who are fearful of the former.

[@veralto3411]

@@artoffugue333 A modern day philosopher said, "No system of mass surveillance has existed in any society, that we know to this point, that has not been abused. "

[@veralto3411]

@Joe Ellerbrock Here is another quote, "Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide, is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say. "

[@veralto3411]

@@artoffugue333 The common argument that we have "if you have nothing to hide ...you have nothing to fear" -- The origin's of that are literally nazi propaganda. It literally came from the pen of their minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels.

[@williebeamish5879]

@@artoffugue333 see comments regarding abuse of power. Don't be naive.

[@marshallhicklin1471]

forget what i said, i'm a looser !

[@marshallhicklin1471]

and when our second amendment is violated ! Billions of human lives lost to restore our Government, if at all pos. Time travel & Cloaking must be !

[@DOOMJESUS]

IF YOU'RE NOT DOING ANYTHING WRONG AND YOU ARE NOT ASSOCIATING WITH KNOWN CRIMINALS, THEN WHY WOULD YOU CARE WHO IS WATCHING YOU? MORE SPECIFICALLY, EXACTLY WHAT ARE THE ACTIVITIES THAT YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN, OUTSIDE OF YOUR HOME, THAT YOU DON'T WANT ANYONE TO SEE YOU DOING? IF YOU WANT NOT TO BE SEEN THEN YOU SHOULD STAY BEHIND THE CLOSED DOORS OF YOUR PRIVATE DWELLING. YOU CARRY YOUR SMART PHONE WITH YOU, EVERY PLACE THAT YOU GO, YET YOU THINK THAT YOU ARE AFRAID TO BE SEEN. LOL I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU. BUT PERSONALLY, MY CONSCIENCE IS CLEAN.

[@Sonu-tz2js]

I don't like your profile pic nor your CAPS writing. Please use lower case to write your comments. What you write makes an interesting area to explore. However, your CAPS is a big nuisance. Please edit your comments case. Thanks so much!

[@tombrunila2695]

You are seen entering a cafe in which a known terrorist is sitting. You have absolutely nothing to do with this terrorist, you drink a coffee and leave after about fifteen minutes. The following week you are pulled in for interrogation because you are suspected of being a contact man between terrorists as you have been observed entering a building where a member of the same terrorist organization has been observed entering a few minutes earlier. Your friends have also been questioned about you as has your employer and the people you work with. And the cops don't believe you, they think you are guilty and go on following you. You are forced to hire a lawyer to help you in the interrogations. What do you think about that?

[@DOOMJESUS]

@@tombrunila2695 I THINK THAT'S ABOUT THE DUMBEST THING I'VE EVER HEARD.

[@DOOMJESUS]

@@Sonu-tz2js YOU'LL JUST HAVE TO AVERT YOUR EYES, I GUESS.

[@stevengill1736]

Well, it's creepy - but OTOH there's so many security cameras running 24/7 in every city and every town, what's one more camera?