Hey guys,
oh, this thread still lives!
This is my second attempt at answering,
the server seems to be very busy today
Well, I agree, technological and scientific evolution represents an important challenge to any society: As progress accelerates itself, but growing bureaucratic complexity tends to suffocate itself into operational paralysis, the laws will always lag behind. As there is a conceptual necessity to create and adapt more and more laws, the number of humans acting like machines and treating subjects they neither feel nor understand will increase.
I witness a surge of new regulations in my professional field as well, and all of them are obviously issued by people not familiar with the subject. They have just elected a woman professor for a medical faculty in Basel University Hospital, just because she's a woman. Her male contestant was lightyears ahead of her, but a man. They wanted a woman. Political correctness leads to bigotry and nepotism - politics in general focus too much on particular interests: While technology becomes exponential, bureaucracy accelerates in the opposite direction: Unluckily, the effects of politics and laws are more short-term, as they aim to stabilize a fracture which has already occured. Clinging onto every bit of power and control, the direction of the whole development is the middle ages. Steam punk. Technology and wild west. Just read the news..
The counter force to this is entropy and complexity. They are impossible to compensate - exept you cool the whole process down: That's happening to a lot of countries too, in the attempt to maintain control. The result of this gameplay of opposing forces eventually leads to a commonly defined plane of reality which is more and more distant from what actually happens. The consumer goods industry and the media do their work to keep us consuming and uninformed. Govern the masses..
FPV quad guys are not likely to be part of any of these groups. We're individualists, and we want to understand what's going on. That's the fundament of our activity. Insight, sensibility and logical deduction. Everything it takes to become a functional human being.
I agree with Carl where the "black market" is always proportional to regulatory efforts of the government. New tax on cigarettes? - Growing illegal imports, easy. There's a natural balance which cannot be shifted to either side for a long time.
As soon as someone is able to build a quad, reasonably tune and fly a quad without constantly endangering surroundings, this person belongs to a minority in society. We're responsible ourselves for finding ambassadors, diplomats, etc. for our hobby. People will make of it what they understand - whatever. The hobby will be perceived how we communicate it, and that's why it's important how we behave towards bystanders: It's important to be open, patient and jovial, but I consider it equally important to draw some very clearly defined lines:
What I'm doing is not illegal. I have invested a lot of time and consideration in what I am doing for a few minutes right now. I am willing to inform and share, but please do comply and behave in a civilized way, as otherwise - just like when crossing a street or practising sports - people may get hurt. No law will ever be able to compensate for human stupidity.
Let's not forget that technology has equally enabled humans to prosper despite their evolutional obsolence. We're close to 50% cesarean sections by now. Meaning that 50% of women are transmitting genes that formulate a birth channel (hips) that doesn't work. Like french bulldogs. Cute, but can't reproduce without surgical help. Oh my..
..our ideals of "democracy", of "equal rights" and so forth are humanistic and noble, okay, but they come with a cost: By abolishing meritocracy and supporting the reproduction of ineffective members of society (welfare, projects, ghettos etc.), industrialised countries will face an important efficiency problem: Like every teenager wants to be a social media star today (..and I have the feeling pretty much every single one wants to..) and there are about three times as many stars as fans around, in the western and soon the whole world, everybody wants to consume, relax and enjoy. Nobody wants to produce. The chinese have already evolved into workload surveillance long ago - they're not stitching our t-shirts anymore, they're moving to the african continent as part of a new burgoisie who is surveilling the locals working in local plants. Previously, public transportation has been boosted by "financial support" from China, and now the only transportation functioning reliably in this city is the one bringing workers to the factory. India has evolved, China has evolved, Africa is about to evolve (..into a consuming vs. a producing country), so who's going to produce for us? Obviously technology..
..but what are all those superstar-relaxed-enjoyment-selfulfillment-individuals going to do with their spare time? Consume? Reproduce? - welcome to the Matrix..
I see us as pioneers, as projection plane, as diplomats. It's our responsibility to communicate the liability, but as well the fascination of our activity. Communicate the possible benefits for other disciplines generated "while playing FPV". You guys wouldn't believe how good I got at endoscopy
, by now I refer to FPVquads as "high-speed-endoscopy"
FPVquads are a vessel of expression, of communication. We can and should communicate unusual perspectives on a world we believe to know in detail, we can share freedom of expression and appreciation of surroundings, we may instill that feu sacré or spark into the young mind in order to motivate for a scientific career, we may teach to share the space, to plan our actions and to help each other pushing the limits - the fundament of humanity.
Apostolic fpv
Keep it up, never back down on an argument and keep your cool!
Happy flying everyone!!