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Chinese Develop Remote Controlled Pigeons

Posted by kdawson on from the better-than-sharks-with-lasers dept.

Many readers sent us links to the story about Chinese scientists developing pigeons whose flight can be controlled remotely. The best coverage may be Wired's, both because they link to the English language version of the original Peoples Daily Online release, and because of the (disturbing) photos. The birds can be commanded to fly left, right, up, or down. Reader KDan writes, "A number of obvious uses jump out to me... the remote-controlled pigeons will finally allow us to create an efficient implementation of RFC 1149 and RFC 2549."

3 of 238 comments (clear)

  1. Re:RFC 2549 by MindKata · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "crap on specified targets"

    Why stop at crapping on targets?. I bet the American security services are worried. Now there's a real risk of using one of these Pigeons as a remote spying device. Imagine an innocent looking pigeon sitting on a window ledge, but really its fitted with a microphone and remote control. It would be ideal for spying.

    --
    There are 10 kinds of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.
  2. Obvious use: intelligence gathering by blind+biker · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This might be the ultimate spying device: hook up a tiny camera or mike to a pigeon and command it to fly to the window of an embassy, the Pentagon, etc.

    Of course, political assassinations via C4 bombs delivered by pigeons might be a possibility, too. Or, biological/chemical agent delivery to otherwise protected areas...

    I am having some tiny chills running down my spine.

    --
    "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
  3. Re:Whats the application? What about ethics? by drgonzo59 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    not very far from what the Nazi KZ Doctors did to the people captured in the camps

    Nazi KZ Doctors???

    Pigeons are not people....

    Repeat that a couple of times, please, perhaps it will sink in.

    A lot of this un-ethical kind of stuff is going on in your backyard university lab probably, it's just not in the news. Russians tried to do the same with dolphins and other animals, Israelis do this with monkeys (see hear ). You should go tour your local pig farm and see how those animals are treated.

    Just because these are Chinese scientists, i.e. foreigners (and of course, probably commie terrorists, right?) that we are all appalled.