Thread by @AthertonKD, 10 weeks of furlough straight into a layoff my dms are open [...]

10 weeks of furlough straight into a layoff

my dms are open and I& #39;m available for freelance. I don& #39;t have a ton of illusions about the sustainability of journalism beset by private equity on one side and a pandemic on the other, but expect me to try some form of direct reader-supported newsletter at some point in June.

The thing I will miss most about C4ISRNET, besides my colleagues, is the "Tomorrow Wars" newsletter, 6 issues shy of a full year https://www.c4isrnet.com/artificial-intelligence/tomorrow-wars/">https://www.c4isrnet.com/artificia... It was a privilege to get to dive into the big-picture military tech questions every other week, informed by beat coverage.

The thing I will not miss is trying to explain "Command, Control, Communications, Cyber*, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, Networks" to strangers in plain, grokkable language.

*Computers? look, there& #39;s also C5 and C6 ISR, it& #39;s a whole mess

Here& #39;s the freelance I& #39;d already been doing in furlough: for @inkstickmedia, a look at the long history of plagues being exploited as a military tool https://inkstickmedia.com/the-plague-and-the-long-war/">https://inkstickmedia.com/the-plagu...

The Plague and the Long War

“Neither were the physicians at first of any service, ignorant as they were of the proper way to treat it, but they died themselves the most thickly, as they

https://inkstickmedia.com/the-plague-and-the-long-war/

For @FutureTenseNow at @Slate, I looked into how the deliberate political choices of the ~neoliberal turn~ in the 1980s were extrapolated into cyberpunk and now also shape the present world of unresponsive politics and the untouchable power of wealth https://slate.com/technology/2020/04/coronavirus-cyberpunk-science-fiction-government-politics.html">https://slate.com/technolog...

The Fictional Future of Cyberpunk Is About to Come True

The real future may be more Amazon and less androids, but the dystopian power dynamics are hard to miss.

https://slate.com/technology/2020/04/coronavirus-cyberpunk-science-fiction-government-politics.html

Also at @Slate @FutureTenseNow, I used the recent release of UFO (sorry, UAP) footage to explain how the post-1947 tradition of national security secrecy makes space for conspiracy theories and alien rumors https://slate.com/technology/2020/05/ufo-videos-pentagon-disclosures-national-security.html">https://slate.com/technolog...

Those New UFO Videos Tell Us Way More About the Military Than About Aliens

Trump: “I just wonder if it’s real. … That’s a hell of a video.”

https://slate.com/technology/2020/05/ufo-videos-pentagon-disclosures-national-security.html

Over at @ForeignPolicy, I wrote about how the drone war, subject to only the mildest of voluntary accountability late in Obama& #39;s second term, is now deliberately made opaque by the Trump admin, despite a little congressional action otherwise https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/22/obama-drones-trump-killings-count/">https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/2...

Trump Inherited the Drone War but Ditched Accountability

Only a single formal check remains on U.S. killings worldwide.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/22/obama-drones-trump-killings-count/

I& #39;ve also been doing a bit of beat coverage at @Forbes, on everything from blood drones... #343b69d43183">https://www.forbes.com/sites/kelseyatherton/2020/05/27/drones-will-continuously-drop-supplies-to-hospital-in-north-carolina/ #343b69d43183">https://www.forbes.com/sites/kel...

Zipline Drones Will Continuously Drop Supplies To Hospital In North Carolina

The delivery service, which Zipline and Novant boast is 'America’s first emergency drone logistics operation for hospital pandemic response,' could define how drone delivery works in the U.S. Its...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kelseyatherton/2020/05/27/drones-will-continuously-drop-supplies-to-hospital-in-north-carolina/#343b69d43183

...to grenade drones #7fba8148b572">https://www.forbes.com/sites/kelseyatherton/2020/05/18/farming-drone-goes-from-plowshares-to-grenade-launcher/ #7fba8148b572">https://www.forbes.com/sites/kel...

Farming Drone Goes From Plowshares To Grenade Launcher

For dronemaker VINVELI, the purpose of its quadcopters shifted with the market and with its change in location. Which is how a drone launched as a farmer’s helper in Texas is now in the hands of...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kelseyatherton/2020/05/18/farming-drone-goes-from-plowshares-to-grenade-launcher/#7fba8148b572

to even more grenade drones #680a9b5a41ea">https://www.forbes.com/sites/kelseyatherton/2020/05/07/grenade-drone-promises-an-end-to-cover-forever/ #680a9b5a41ea">https://www.forbes.com/sites/kel...

Grenade Drone Promises An End To Cover, Forever

Firefly, which resembles nothing so much as an oversized electronic vape pen, is a collection of novel features in a tight, deadly package.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kelseyatherton/2020/05/07/grenade-drone-promises-an-end-to-cover-forever/#680a9b5a41ea

to how Russian robot doctrine will shape future war #6c1ab3fd3c71">https://www.forbes.com/sites/kelseyatherton/2020/04/30/robots-will-replace-soldiers-in-combat-says-russia/ #6c1ab3fd3c71">https://www.forbes.com/sites/kel...

Robots Will Replace Soldiers In Combat, Says Russia

Russia plans to test swarms of ground robots later in 2020, betting that military robots will be faster, more discriminating in target selection and more accurate than human soldiers.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kelseyatherton/2020/04/30/robots-will-replace-soldiers-in-combat-says-russia/#6c1ab3fd3c71

if you& #39;re an editor and interested in any coverage of the sort, feel free to reach out. And if you& #39;re someone who just likes reading what I write, so long as I can scrape by writing in some capacity, expect it to exist online in some form. Just, not at C4ISRNET any more.

Latest Threads Unrolled: