Omniviolence Is Coming and the World Isn’t Ready

Post by big_youth » Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 3:45 AM UTC

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…

Post by mavdi » Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 4:42 AM UTC

xxxtentachyon wrote: post #100

mavdi wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree with all that, but when it comes to synbio, the article is 100% right to raise alarms.

But even then, historical analogues haven't been exploited that often. We've had probably thousands of people with access to weaponizable Smallpox etc in the US and former USSR for many decades now and no one has made any known attempt to use it, sell it, ...

Post by anigbrowl » Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 5:37 AM UTC

morningseagulls wrote: post #102

anigbrowl wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your best idea is to refashion the world as a giant prison camp, that's pretty fascist whether or not one likes to think of oneself that way; if Bostrom thinks it's a necessity but doesn't believe it to be fascist because he personally does not wish to wield power over people then that's just idiotically fascist. (There's a viable side argument here about the difference between totalitarianism and fascism as one k…

>This struck me as a warmed-over version of the literary conceit that we're all just characters in a particularly elaborate-seeming novel or stage play. He also came up with the notion of apocalyptic "superintelligences"[0], which is a warmed-over version of 20th-century critiques of the corporation, starting with one written by an economist and a lawyer[1]. People like Cory Doctorow[2], Ted Chiang[3] and Charlie Str…

Post by subroutine » Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 7:30 AM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #62

subroutine wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"

No, it doesn't contradict it. What I mean by "doesn't require any kinetic energy to penetrate" is that the explosive doesn't need to be moving at all to penetrate. For example, you can stick a shape charge directly underneath a parked tank, detonate it, and it will blow up the tank. (This is exactly what a landmine or IED does.) You could also just drop it by parachute from a drone (this is a cluster bomb). What the…

Post by glangdale » Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 10:30 AM UTC

glangdale wrote: post #56

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 casualti…