Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey, who left Facebook in March, wants to build a wall... with LIDAR sensors:
Palmer Freeman Luckey was the kind of wunderkind Silicon Valley venerates. When he was just 21, he made an overnight fortune selling his start-up, a company called Oculus VR that made virtual-reality gear, to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014.
But the success story took a sideways turn this year when Mr. Luckey was pressured to leave Facebook months after news spread that he had secretly donated to an organization dedicated to spreading anti-Hillary Clinton internet memes.
[...] And he has a new start-up in the works, a company that is developing surveillance technology that could be deployed on borders between countries and around military bases, according to three people familiar with the plan who asked for anonymity because it's still confidential. They said the investment fund run by Peter Thiel, a technology adviser to Mr. Trump, planned to support the effort.
In an emailed statement, Mr. Luckey confirmed that he was working on a defense-related start-up. "We are spending more than ever on defense technology, yet the pace of innovation has been slowing for decades," he wrote. "We need a new kind of defense company, one that will save taxpayer dollars while creating superior technology to keep our troops and citizens safer."
Also at BBC, CNET, Boing Boing, PCMag, and Engadget.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday June 07 2017, @05:42PM (1 child)
If you were conservative, and not just anti-strawman-justice-warrior, you might be concerned about the massive expansion of federal government power required to set up a deportation force capable of tracking down and deporting 11 million people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 08 2017, @04:39PM
That horse has left the barn. We might as well use the capability to secure our homeland.
Truth is, freedom is a luxury that we have squandered. We have failed to resist invasion by hostile cultures. We're on our way to genocide within the century, and the only thing in question is the winner. I prefer that my descendants not be slaughtered, as they will be if they aren't on the winning team.
For all of known civilization, distinct cultures in close proximity has led to violence. It is absurd to think that human nature has suddenly changed, post-WWII or whatever, or that it really isn't violent. You may not seek war, but war seeks you.