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The Lawfare Podcast

Episode #5: Missy Cummings on Drones, Drones, and More Drones

The Lawfare Podcast

The Lawfare Institute

History, News, National Security, Law, Terrorism, Current Events, Military, International Law, Foreign Policy, Intelligence, International Relations, Politics, Diplomacy, Rule Of Law, Government, Constitutional Law

4.76.4K Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2012

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

MIT robotics professor Missy Cummings discusses drones with Ritika Singh.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair

0:07.2

podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair.

0:14.7

That's patreon.com slash LawFair.

0:18.2

Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair

0:25.6

no bull, and the aftermath.

0:44.2

Hello and welcome to the LawFair podcast, I'm Benjamin Whittes.

0:49.2

Our subject today is drones, drones and more drones, and with us to discuss them is, well,

0:57.9

just about the coolest person on the face of the planet.

1:01.4

Missy Cummings is a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, where she directs

1:07.4

the humans and automation laboratory.

1:10.6

She also was one of the Navy's first female fighter pilots, oftentimes in LawFair's discussions

1:17.2

of targeted killing and military robotics.

1:20.4

The robotics itself tends to get short shrift, yet what machines can do, what they can't

1:26.9

do, and what they will soon be able to do is key to a lot of these discussions.

1:32.7

Missy sat down recently with Ridica Singh to discuss these questions.

1:37.2

We spend a lot of time on LawFair thinking about and debating the use of drones.

1:42.2

You actually designed these systems, and you came about doing so in a very interesting

1:48.1

and surprising sort of way.

1:50.1

Can you talk a little bit about how you came to this field and what you do within it?

1:55.3

So back in the mid-90s, I was flying F-18s for the US Navy, and prior to that I had flown

2:04.0

A-4s, which are an older aircraft, and it's a manual control plane, meaning when you

2:09.6

move the stick left or right, the plane goes left or right.

...

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