I was not expecting this amount of hate over this video when I clicked on this post. The video is... normal? I don't see issues? This whole thread seems oddly anti-military, anti-tech, and anti-Mark Rober. Like, what, is this tech going to be used to murder children more effectively than bombing a school? Even if it is, why is Mark Rober at fault and actually a phony who's just shelling out for fame/cash? I'm genuinely curious what I'm missing here.
Mostly I just hate when very obviously sponsored videos don't declare their sponsorships. The entire first half of this like, 15 minute video is an ad, and then the rest of the content is made by like 3 other people. The thing he did was a big dart launcher. Now sure, that's probably just for fun, it's a scaled up version of the science kit he's selling, it's probably laudable that he didn't want to show up his co-stars or whatever, but this is a video that has no content and basically no educational value. It's trash, basically, it just has science education skin on.
Veritasium has done a similar thing a couple times, like his video on the autonomous cars. Very clearly a sponsorship, I think he only says so at the very end of the video, he totally glosses over any problems or downsides the technology has and speaks glowingly of it the whole time, paycheck please, next video, credibility is basically totally shot. I dunno, when I was a kid, magazines like popular science sold me on shit like the hyperloop. I wish they had been as forward thinking and hyped about normal trains, instead. Especially considering how many people have probably fallen for similar garbage like this due to that kind of stuff.
This kind of thing happens a lot. Something "negative" comes up about a popular person and everyone comes crawling out of the wood work about how they "knew all along" and "this person really is such a horrible person" and "on my god how could they do this?"
I'm probably going to regret the few comments I've made in this thread ... but yeah, I really don't think that video was that bad. It shows off how engineering can be applied to defending from possible future attacks. Maybe someone could use this offensively and "promotes the military industrial complex" but I think a bullet or a bomb is a lot more economical than "anvil" and "anvil" is something folks could potentially see in real life in civilian defense applications.
I'd personally love to see more people taking an interest and inspiration from counter weapons systems rather than the mentality of "the best defense is a good offense." Not because I want to see more war, but because I think we've created some really nasty weapons and the shield and castle have long been out classed... People should be able to protect themselves.
Some children may grow to be the "bad guys" making and employing the "bad guy drones", so it may be useful for them. War is part of life.
But if you want a certain kind of atmosphere, then I wouldn't.
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