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The Era of the Drone Swarm Is Coming

mwi.usma.edu

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Re: The Era of the Drone Swarm Is Coming

#31

Post by jon_richards »

torgian wrote: post #27
nradov wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No need to panic. Just because the video has high production values doesn't mean it's an accurate prediction of the future, or that effective countermeasures won't be found.

I’m gonna have to say I disagree. We are already making tiny drones the size of bees. And you don’t need that size to make a reliable, one shot bomb to kill someone. Anyone with time, a bit of money, and a plan can make a swarm of drones to fly into a crowd automatically and blow themselves up remotely. The fact that I hasn’t happened already just surprises me.

I imagine Bill Gates' mosquito killing laser research is going to become a lot more popular soon.

Re: The Era of the Drone Swarm Is Coming

#32

Post by nradov »

stephengillie wrote: post #25
nradov wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Directional, reusable electromagnetic pulse weapons are still science fiction. Producing any significant EMP today requires a large explosion.

An EMP wirelessly overvolts circuits, burning them like a blown fuse. What kind of magnetic field would it take to induce too much current inside an Arduino?

It depends on the range. Due to the inverse square law, it would take a tremendously powerful magnetic field to induce enough current to damage even unshielded electronics at more than a few meters away.

Re: The Era of the Drone Swarm Is Coming

#33

Post by nradov »

torgian wrote: post #28
xrayzerone wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people are doing things. There's an outfit at DIU (Defense Innovation Unit) called Rogue Squadron who's job it is to conduct counter-UAS research.

I’ll check it out. I’m still trying to find a way we can protect ourselves though. The best I can come up with is (at home) a droppable net that covers your windows that has a current running through it. Maybe something similar for a personal device. Beyond that, hacking into their WiFi or navigation signals. But how do you do that?

Why do you think someone would try to kill you in your home with a drone? Do you have a lot of mortal enemies?

Re: The Era of the Drone Swarm Is Coming

#34

Post by nradov »

stephengillie wrote: post #24
abledon wrote: post #16

“Start learning mandarin _now_ people!” — quote from a guy in my office who is only learning mandarin because he is sure Chinese will take over world in coming decade

Like Japan was supposed to in the 1990s.

Sure the concerns over Japan buying up US real estate and driving US companies out of business seem ridiculous now. But the difference is that at Japan's economic peak they had only about half the US population, whereas now China has about four times the current US population. That's a huge difference in scale.

Re: The Era of the Drone Swarm Is Coming

#35

Post by torgian »

nradov wrote: post #33
torgian wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ll check it out. I’m still trying to find a way we can protect ourselves though. The best I can come up with is (at home) a droppable net that covers your windows that has a current running through it. Maybe something similar for a personal device. Beyond that, hacking into their WiFi or navigation signals. But how do you do that?

Why do you think someone would try to kill you in your home with a drone? Do you have a lot of mortal enemies?

Same thing has been said about guns. And data collection. And the government using data to spy on us.

It doesn’t matter if you have mortal enemies, or if you aren’t doing bad things, or if it matters if the government spies on you.

What matters is that it’s possible. And it’s a very real possibility.

Re: The Era of the Drone Swarm Is Coming

#36

Post by chronic1921 »

torgian wrote: post #35
nradov wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think someone would try to kill you in your home with a drone? Do you have a lot of mortal enemies?

Same thing has been said about guns. And data collection. And the government using data to spy on us. It doesn’t matter if you have mortal enemies, or if you aren’t doing bad things, or if it matters if the government spies on you. What matters is that it’s possible. And it’s a very real possibility.

> What matters is that it’s possible. And it’s a very real possibility.

Good luck stepping foot outside.

Re: The Era of the Drone Swarm Is Coming

#37

Post by nradov »

torgian wrote: post #35
nradov wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think someone would try to kill you in your home with a drone? Do you have a lot of mortal enemies?

Same thing has been said about guns. And data collection. And the government using data to spy on us. It doesn’t matter if you have mortal enemies, or if you aren’t doing bad things, or if it matters if the government spies on you. What matters is that it’s possible. And it’s a very real possibility.

All sorts of bad things are possible. So what. People with guns could shoot you through your windows today, but the reality is that almost never happens. Most firearm deaths in the home are due to suicide or domestic violence.

Watch out, maybe your wife will program a drone to kill you!

Re: The Era of the Drone Swarm Is Coming

#38

Post by carapace »

So this is mostly about drone-based warfare, which is uninteresting in the limit because nanotech and "Toner". (That's a "Diamond Age" reference.)

The challenge is securely coordinating your swarm so it can be controlled by you and not suborned by your enemies. It can't really be done, basically you wind up recapitulating an immune system and that's the best you can do. I've been thinking about this for years and there's just no way truly be certain that all your hardware will actually follow your order when the shit hits the fan.

Anyway, if you have the technology to make drone war then you also have the technology to make techno-utopia. So the real issue is for us to globally chill out and be excellent to each other. Otherwise all these machines are going to be a hazard, not a benefit. (That's a Bladerunner reference. Another scary tech is realistic beyond-the-Uncanny-Valley androids. Cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrogates ...or same but small...)

Re: The Era of the Drone Swarm Is Coming

#39

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

nradov wrote: post #30
roenxi wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've never really found an effective countermeasure to bullets apart from avoiding people who want to shoot us. If someone develops what is essentially a bullet with 365-degree acceleration, I doubt there is going to be a better strategy than hoping that one is never fired at us.

Modern US military body armor is actually quite an effective countermeasure against most bullets. Check the casualty statistics from recent conflicts.

Oh, yay, always looked forward to having everyone walk around in military grade body armor.

Re: The Era of the Drone Swarm Is Coming

#40

Post by cubano »

China is almost wholly dependent upon U.S. citizens for their economic growth and well-being, so the idea that China is itching to start a hot war with the U.S. is rather laughable, at least for the near future.

Remember, it's always bad business to kill your customers.

I think by far the more credible threat, of course, is from terrorists (foreign and perhaps even domestic, as horrific as that seems) and do hope that the superpowers of the world come up with some defense systems that are able to mitigate such attacks.

But to be honest...this new military-sponsored "killer robot" world we are barreling headlong into gives shudders to most sane, peace-loving citizens, no?

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