Radar everywhere

Police with radar speed guns are indeed what leaps to most people's minds if you ask them what radar is good for, other than detecting aircraft. In fact, though, radar has proved to be an extraordinarily versatile technology, with established uses now in vehicles, weather monitoring, aerial reconnaissance, even for seeing through walls. But as applications for it proliferate at an accelerating rate, government regulators, including those in the United States, are having a hard time keeping up. It's vital that they do, because foot dragging on their part threatens to slow the pace of innovation. If you have any doubts, read on and discover just how deeply radar has integrated itself into the fabric of modern industrial society, despite what I regard as a problematic regulatory environment. It's a cautionary tale, and though I'm concerned with radar here, the warning is relevant to many technologies-including drones, app-based ride sharing, and cryptocurrencies, to mention just a few.