
A tiny forest tribe built a DIY drone from YouTube to fight off illegal loggers - vezycash
http://qz.com/662530/a-tiny-forest-tribe-built-a-diy-drone-from-youtube-to-fight-off-illegal-loggers/
======
jjoonathan
Here's hoping that the government actually does something about the
logging."You can't prove it's happening" sounds like more of an excuse than a
reason.

I'm sure the tribe has their doubts too, but I wish them luck.

------
new299
TLDR: They're using a drone to take video of the illegal logging.

I'd guess a couple of questions come to mind. The first is, wouldn't satellite
imagery identify illegal logging? I guess that might be too expensive?

If those images are not detailed enough, what kind of information do they
need, other than where/when logging is taking place.

~~~
pjc50
Registration plates of vehicles involved would be useful, and generally this
needs to be taken from an angle rather than above and requires high
resolution.

------
xwowsersx
This is really cool.

I guess it's sort of obvious, but surveilling large areas of land in order to
cultivate or manage seems like such a great use case for drones.

------
at-fates-hands
Wow, it's been a while since I've seen ethnocentrism displayed in such an
obvious manner.

The article seems to equate indigenous people with a lack of intelligence for
some reason - yet in many of the photos in the article, you clearly see
technology they have is current and are able to use it effectively (they have
a FB page?).

This really comes across as, "Look at the these rain forest people, isn't it
cute they built something with "our" technology?"

------
dannypgh
Am I the only one who thought this article took a condescending tone by
referring to this as "incredible?"

If a 15 year old white kid in Nebraska built a drone following directions on
YouTube to monitor land use around him, I don't think this would be seen as
incredible.

The difference is a lot of people have very demeaning views of indigenous
peoples - they believe they are frozen in time (usually at the time of first
contact with white people) and therefore they are surprised to hear that, no,
this nation (like any other) is in fact able to use technology.

~~~
praveer13
I think you're looking for something to take offense to without any reason. A
tribe from a poor country building these things from videos they saw on
internet is certainly more impressive than a 15 year old american kid doing
the same. The reason is not that they can't be that capable, the difference is
that these people have not been exposed to education, environment, schools,
infrastructure, computers etc like a kid from the most developed country in
the world. That is what is impressive here. You can't compare the two because
of the background they come from, not because they are inferior.

~~~
dogma1138
True; but this isn't some "stone age" tribe from the Amazon that shoots arrows
at passing helicopters.

They are exposed to the modern world; even if they don't have access to its
amenities all the time.

They understand the concepts of flight, electricity, the internet and modern
techonology at large.

The village in question has a facebook page, if you google it you'll see that
there are enough results like this one
[http://www.gy.undp.org/content/guyana/en/home/presscenter/ar...](http://www.gy.undp.org/content/guyana/en/home/presscenter/articles/2016/04/22/-south-
central-people-s-development-association-awarded-equator-prize-in-shulinab-
village-region-9-guyana.html) to show that whilst it's fairly undeveloped it's
not exactly "backwater".

People in that village seem to have cell phones, internet access, and are not
really cut off from the world, the article seem to frame it like they went
from sharpening wooden arrows on stones to building drones which they clearly
haven't.

So yeah, I don't really see what is so amazing about a few people in a remote
village constructing an over the counter drone[0] I would actually be insulted
by the fact that I'm expected to be "amazed" by that and I find the entire
notion very condescending towards those people.

If you strip down the fluff of the article it almost boils down to "How
quaint, look at these savages constructing RC aircraft"....

[0][http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/phantom-fx-61-flying-
win...](http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/phantom-fx-61-flying-wing-110-km-
flight)

~~~
beambot
Counterpoint: they are operating a drone in the jungle around illegal loggers
who probably aren't happy about it.

I can't seem to keep my drone in one piece without constant deliveries of new
parts to my doorstep, and I'm just dinking around in empty parks and parking
lots.

Theirs sounds more impressive ("incredible" if you will). I would even be
impressed if it was a big official government program.

~~~
dogma1138
"impressive" at the end this is a case where an NGO got them a few RC foam
aircraft with cameras that the fly and maintain.

These aren't some stone age people, they can keep the foam parts together with
duct tape; they aren't manufacturing electronics.

The article made it sound like they are doing something super special beyond
their natural ability which is condescending, i really loved the part about
the "bowstring" and the "lollipop stick" as a drill, I've built a similar
airframe and it actually comes with lollipop sticks to fit the holes and to be
inserted into the foam for support, and the bowstring well they tell you to
tie somethings with a lightweight string in the manual ;)

Yes I know it's not easy to get these things all over the world, but these
aren't stupid people; they are aware of modern technology and clearly can use
it and they have the same ingenuity as anyone else.

~~~
beambot
Someone calls their accomplishment "incredible" and you immediately jump to
the conclusion that the author finds it "incredible, because these backwards
folks are from the stone age"? You don't think: Maybe, just maybe, the author
finds it incredible because it's an inspiring story & technical
accomplishment? That, given their own experiences as an average joe, the
author (like me) can't keep their own drones together with duct tape... and it
is "incredible" that in 2016 individuals and small communities can band
together using insanely-awesome technology to solve problems like this? (The
"stone age" argument seems like a strawman to me.)

Using a drone to successfully solve any real, practical problem is an
accomplishment in my book. I don't care who they are or where they do it. Add
extra challenges and it makes it even more awesome -- eg. Geography: unlike
me, they don't have Amazon Prime 2-day shipping on replacement parts. I think
their accomplishment is incredible. But maybe I'm easy to impress...?

FYI, to use GP's analogy: If a 15 year old from Nebraska (Go Huskers!) used a
drone to stop illegal logging or pollution, I'd call it incredible too! We are
capable of some serious SciFi "magic" these days!

 _EDIT_ : Or to put this another way... have you done anything half as
incredible as stopping illegal loggers with your drones...?

~~~
dannypgh
Calling something "incredible" means you are saying it's difficult or
impossible to believe. That is very easily not a compliment, depending on
context.

------
dang
We changed the url from [http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-a-tribe-is-
fighting...](http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-a-tribe-is-fighting-off-
loggers-with-a-drone-they-built-watching-youtube), which points to this.

Submitters: Please follow the HN guideline that asks you to submit the
original when one story points to another. Besides giving credit where due or
at least further upstream to the source, the articles tend to get fluffier the
further downstream you are.

------
stefantalpalaru
> built a DIY drone from YouTube

No, they just assembled a chinese kit by watching an instruction video, like
every other amateur UAV owner out there.

------
howfun
Very cool!

------
gressquel
Amazing. If most of the human race were wiped out by a meteorite then we need
more of such engineering minds to get us back to the advanced civilisation we
are :)

~~~
asdfologist
Ironically it's also precisely those engineering minds who have built weapons
capable of wiping out the human race.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
I don't think that's ironic. I, inspired by Kardashev [1], believe a
civilisation's level of technological advancement can be measured by how much
energy it controls.

Thus, a civilisation that can control an energy source at a low-power level (
_e.g._ boiling water reactors) can presumably also deploy it at a high-power
level ( _e.g._ atomic bombs). If anything, especially as sources become more
energetic, control capabilities will be preceded by deployment capability.

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale)

