new-aesthetic: Tagged animals carry more than human technology; they carry human ways of visualizing
new-aesthetic: Tagged animals carry more than human technology; they carry human ways of visualizing the world. They are hybrid beasts that perfectly fit our modern conception of the planet as an environment under constant watch, where eyes in the sky track animals moving from one country to another and plot them on a map just as they do moving ships and aircraft; a world where Defense Department researchers are working on autonomous flying robots that mimic the flight of hawks and insects, where scientists fit electronic backpacks on giant flower beetles that enable them to be flown and steered by remote control. Early pioneers in the remote tracking of animals sought military funding for their efforts and suggested that bird migration studies could be used to improve navigation and missile-guidance systems: The development of technology suitable for animal surveillance came from a microelectronics industry with strong early links to the military. In our age of drone warfare, it is hard not to see each animal being tracked across the map symbolically extending the virtues of technological dominance and global surveillance.Flight Paths - NYTimes.com -- source link