Do you ever get the feeling
you’re being watched?
What if every move you make
is recorded?
"Ohhh!"
You didn’t see any security cameras,
and that’s the point.
What if the military deployed
a million nano drones?
Insect-sized surveillance robots
capable of watching your every move.
Drones are remotely piloted aircraft.
They belong to the broad category of
unmanned aircraft systems,
or UASs.
Depending on the mission they’re built for,
they can be as big as airplanes
or as as tiny as insects.
Enter the Black Hornets.
Each Black Hornet drone weighs about
33 grams (1 oz)
and is about 17 cm (6½ in) long.
That’s 5 cm (2 in) longer than a dragonfly.
A Black Hornet can fly
up to 21 km/h (13 mph)
and has a 2 km (1.25 mi) range
during its 25 minute flight time.
And for these tiny spies,
their missions are all about
surveillance and reconnaissance.
So what would it be like
if the military unleashed a million of these?
Well, if they see military action,
they could be used for
safer reconnaissance missions.
You could send in the drones
without having to put humans at risk.
It would also give the military
the upper hand when it comes to
situational awareness.
Using the tiny spy drones,
military personnel will be able
to see around obstacles,
or peek inside windows,
before getting near a target area.
They would be able to get
all relevant information
before confronting a situation,
and in doing so,
they could save a lot of lives
that could potentially be lost
due to lacking data.
But what about using nano drones
in noncombat situations?
Well, you’d be looking at
a huge upgrade in surveillance.
This could be helpful in stopping crime
in large event areas.
Let’s say the drones are able to
identify everyone who is at an event.
If things go south
and something bad happens,
they would be able to
identify potential suspects.
The goal would be
to prevent horrible situations
like mass shootings from happening.
Could these little guys be our silent guardians?
Well, you could also use
a swarm of nano drones
to help find missing people.
If someone is lost,
or even worse, kidnapped,
the areas that they were in
could be searched much more quickly
and effectively.
Instead of having mobs of people
scouring the area,
several drones could be
given a chunk of territory to search.
If they launched
a 1 million nano drone search party,
it would cover a lot of ground.
Imagine a locust swarm,
but it's live cameras instead of insects.
And that’s the thing.
While a million undetectable
surveillance cameras could be useful,
do we even want them around?
What if the line between security
and stalking
got a little blurry?
Would you want a camera
the size of a dragonfly
to be streaming a live feed
of your daily activities
to military operatives?
It’s very possible that some groups
would form to resist military surveillance.
People might start to try and take them down,
fighting a George Orwell-inspired
surveillance state.
"Ohhh!"
"GET OUTTA HERE!"
"No Grandpa!"
"No, chill!"
So, could we really be looking at a world
with a million nano drones
watching our every move?
Well, yes
and no.
While it might be plausible
that the military would have
one million nano drones,
it’s a lot less likely that
they’d release them all at the same time.
A swarm of drones
kind of defeats the whole point
of being stealthy.
As for drone technology,
it’s only going to get better
and better.
Think about how much cell phones
have improved in recent years.
"Now everyone can enjoy the freedom
of a personal cellular phone."
(Ringing)
"You can make a call anywhere."
Contrary to the fears of people
who believe the military would use drones
to surveil the public,
the current use for these drones
would be reconnaissance missions overseas.
But only time will tell
how these tiny spies get used.
That amount of information
is a little too much for me,
but what about you?
What if you had access to more
than just the feeds of the nano drones?
What if you held the Holy Grail
of information in your hands?
What if you,
in all your wisdom,
controlled the internet?
Well, that’s a story for another WHAT IF.