The Future of Violence: Robots and Gerais, Hackers and Drones--Confronting a New Age of Threat.

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Date: 22 September 2015
• Author: Harper, Jim

The Future of Violence: Robots and Gerais, Hackers and Drones--Confronting a New Age of Threat

Benjamin Wittes and Gabriella Blum

New York: Basic Books, 2015, 336 pp.

On Memorial Day this year, link-aggregator The Drudge Report displayed a shocking banner headline: "Drone Hits 2 People during Parade." Playing on readers' expectations of some titillating new horror disrupting a beloved American holiday, the site linked to a story about a small, remotely piloted aircraft flown over a parade in the New England town of Marblehead, Massachusetts. Its owner had lost control and run the drone into a building. On its descent, the drone hit a man on the head and nicked his neck, then caromed off another parade-goer's shoulder before falling to the ground. The injured man declined treatment, according to the news item. As for the drone operator: "A police report described the man as very apologetic and embarrassed."

Drones are among the suite of new technologies authors Benjamin Wittes and Gabriella Blum offer up as "technologies of mass empowerment" in their book, The Future of Violence: Robots and Germs, Hackers and Drones--Confronting a New Age of Threat. "By delivering...