Spying As A Business Venture

Here is a cool story of a US entrepreneur who has created a mini spy satellite business:

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/2/16/this-space-for-rentprivatesatellitesraiseprofitsprivacyconcerns.html

“The privacy ship has sailed,” Gary Hudson, president of the Space Studies Institute, a nonprofit group that promotes space research and education, wrote in an email. “No one can block access to the ground from orbit. And the genie is out of the bottle with respect to capabilities such as reconnaissance, signals intelligence, etc. It can’t be put back in.”

In other words, the spies have done things they probably shouldn't have, didn't ask your permission, and now they say there is nothing you can do about it. Sheesh!

I like the way this is couched in terms of "it will accomplish good things". It reminds me of the claim "too cheap to meter" which was made for nuclear power. This technology will be good AND bad. Will the good outweigh the bad? Only time will tell.

But keep one thing in mind: This is the modern equivalent of George Armstrong Custer's geological expedition into the Black Hills of the Dakotas. Whenever the white man comes into "your" backyard with survey/spy equipment, his intention is to steal something. And anyone who gets in his way is likely to be killed. Gold drives the white man crazy.

I′yehe′! my children — Uhi′yeye′heye′!/ I′yehe′! we have rendered them desolate — Eye′ae′yuhe′yu!/ The whites are crazy — Ahe′yuhe′yu!

Arapaho Ghost Dance song