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Omniviolence Is Coming and the World Isn’t Ready

nautil.us

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Re: Omniviolence Is Coming and the World Isn’t Ready

#52

Post by trentnix »

DSingularity wrote: post #47
trentnix wrote: post #6

Bostrom is well-aware of the downsides—corrupt actors in a state could exploit this surveillance for totalitarian ends, or hackers could blackmail unsuspecting victims. Yet the fact is that it may still be a better option than suffering one global catastrophe after another. Aspiring fascists are always trying to save us from ourselves.

I don't like this "panopticon" but I don't think suggesting it as a solution makes the author an "aspiring" fascist.

On the contrary, that's exactly what it makes him.

Re: Omniviolence Is Coming and the World Isn’t Ready

#53

Post by Felz »

XorNot wrote: post #23
defen wrote: post #9

> In this scenario, the K/K ratio could be perhaps 3/1,000,000, assuming a 10-percent accuracy and only a single one-gram shaped charge per drone. So you "only" need 10 million drones and 10 million grams of plastic explosive? An attack of that magnitude probably requires the resources of a nation-state, so I doubt it will happen. Targeted assassinations seem more plausible.

I mean if you barred the doors to a theater and tossed a few gallons of bleach and vinegar in you could also just gas hundreds of people, but it doesn't happen. We worry a lot about technology because the attacks sound novel, but not about the conventional ones which still (mostly) don't happen because the reality is that the actual logistical challenges of implementing them without security services noticing still h…

I think the real limiter is people willing and stable enough to murder indiscriminately at scale in novel ways. Mowing down crowds of people with a truck is bizarrely recent, and the peak of mass murder is still one guy sniping at a concert from a nearby hotel. Everyone was relatively surprised that passenger planes could be used as destructive weapons.

The really effective means of mass murder I think would be subtle, though, and mass murderers don't seem to do subtle. E.g. leaving some radioactive material in an innocuous public place, worsening visibility at crash prone intersections, subtle and slow poisons mixed into food and drink…

Re: Omniviolence Is Coming and the World Isn’t Ready

#55

Post by subroutine »

nostrademons wrote: post #38
subroutine wrote: post #5

I would like to see a mini quad copter take the recoil of a 1 g "shaped charge" (aka bullet). EDIT: ok, i found a clip of (a fairly big) drone firing a gun and it looks... not stable: https://youtu.be/FI--wFfipvA still, pretty worrisome.

Shaped charges are not bullets. They're bits of specially-molded explosives, such that the blast energy of the explosive forms the charge into a jet of molten metal. They don't rely on any kinetic energy at all to penetrate, and can be delivered by sticking a small candle-sized (the little ones, like you might see at a fancy dinner) device onto the targeted surface. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaped_charge

What you said directly contradicts the wiki article you linked...

"Contrary to a widespread misconception (possibly resulting from the acronym HEAT) the shaped charge does not depend in any way on heating or melting for its effectiveness; that is, the jet from a shaped charge does not melt its way through armor, as its effect is purely kinetic in nature"

Re: Omniviolence Is Coming and the World Isn’t Ready

#56

Post by glangdale »

Amusing to picture our "3" terrorists carefully assembling 10m drones, each with a 1g shaped charge on it - or does the author think this is something that you can just order from some factory in China, along with the 10 tons of plastic explosive.

It seems to be that anyone sophisticated enough to put 10 tons of plastic explosive in any form wherever they feel like is already quite capable of causing massive casualties.

Somehow, to make this even remotely plausible, we need to intersect a lot of unlikely combinations (a bunch of really bad guys who are hugely resourced, very technical and intelligent, completely uninfiltrated, fighting for some goal that isn't going to be radically harmed by the optics of killing thousands of soft targets).

Re: Omniviolence Is Coming and the World Isn’t Ready

#57

Post by Gibbon1 »

michaelmrose wrote: post #36
Gibbon1 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drone + cluster bomblet, cheep. That sort of thing scares me more than weapons of mass destruction. Because they are usable by non-nation state actors and rouge nation state actors. It's not that I'm worried anyone's going to try to take me out (like why?). It's I'm worried what sort of society we end up with when people like Larry Ellison are terrified of the above.

Larry Ellison in the grand scheme of things is a turd who while he has probably pissed enough people off hasn't pissed off anyone enough to try to flush him with extreme prejudice. I'd be more worried about people of actual importance like police chiefs, prosecutors, senators, presidents.

Not signalling anyone out, pick a name any name tho. Consider though where I live no one gives a flying fuck what I say. Because nothing I say is going to upend anyone with any real power.

There are other places where I'd stick out like a nail.

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