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> You cannot invent drones and tell people it should only be used for good things, not bad things. Sure you can. This is the purpose of laws and law enforcemen

by Iv 9y ago

> You cannot invent drones and tell people it should only be used for good things, not bad things. Sure you can. This is the purpose of laws and law enforcement. Try to fly a drone with a knife to stab people and people will destroy it and arrest you. Internationally we have a lack of laws and a lack of enforcement, therefore we had only limited success at preventing nuclear proliferation or chemical/bio weapons uses but the will is there and successes do exist. Both Antarctica and outer space are military-weapons-free (they do have a valid excuse for that handgun on the ISS)

scarmig 9y ago
> Try to fly a drone with a knife to stab people and people will destroy it and arrest you Unless it's the people doing the destroying and arresting who are flying the knife drone. In that case, they'll be celebrated as patriotic heroes and you as a terrorist deserving of death.
gizmo686 9y ago
The ISS never had a gun; it stayed in the Soyuz. Supposedly, the gun has not been included in recent missions. https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/space-flight/how-i-stop-cosmonauts-carrying-guns https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/space-flight/h...
- Iv 9y ago
  For the intent of drama, it can be considered accessible from the ISS :-) Thanks for the link, that's good to know, no more weapons in space!
pizza 9y ago
Laws are like coupons: you can redeem them, but no coupon redeems itself without a redeemer.
rjsw 9y ago
There was a gun on the Almaz [0] space station. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almaz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almaz
hammock 9y ago
Laws don't separate good from evil. They serve to legitimize (think of the root of that word) the exercise of certain behavior. But there can be good laws and evil laws. If you have trouble understanding this point, look at another country besides the US when thinking about it.
- kutkloon7 9y ago
  Heh, "Look at the laws in the US when thinking about it" would be more appropriate.
  - sammoorhouse 9y ago
    > If you have trouble understanding this point, look at another country besides the US when thinking about it. More than a little patronising, and also: really??
    - hammock 9y ago
      It wasn't a dig at the US, rather the opposite. Looking at say North Korea, or Nazi Germany, or any place where slavery was legal...might make it easier to see laws that were divorced from what is good/bad.
    - jessaustin 9y ago
      Many people have trouble thinking about the category of evil laws. It's not what they learned in junior high school! It's helpful to inspire thinking about categories that asymptotically approach the categories that are difficult to conceptualize directly.
dalore 9y ago
Nothing is stopping you from doing it. You're talking about the consequences of doing it after the fact.
kerkeslager 9y ago
> Sure you can. This is the purpose of laws and law enforcement. Try to fly a drone with a knife to stab people and people will destroy it and arrest you. There are lots of drones in the Middle East killing people with much more dangerous weapons than knives. > Both Antarctica and outer space are military-weapons-free This is a fairly academic point given the US is capable of nuking anywhere on earth that anyone could possibly want to nuke. There aren't weapons in space because the purposes of putting weapons in space are achieved by other means.
- dahoramanodoceu 9y ago
  I thought about importing drones into Sao Paulo to do 'in-window' sushi delivery (it's popular here for 25-35 y/o's). Then i put on my black hat thought about it some more. Asking the question "what could i do with this if i were an asshole?" I was speaking with a guy Yakuza ties when the idea came to me, so we both quickly thought of how drug dealers could use it for their deliveries and stuff. Then, the next logical conclusion: their drug wars, so assasinations. Another bad consequence: Carrefour getting a hold of it, thereby normalizing it through ubiquity, sliding it right in on claims of 'convenience,' Before you know it, spooks, whose surveillance state currently requires one to be within physical range of a chipboard, can now do a whole lot more (like puts on tin-foil hat aerosol delivery inside my 20th floor 'weatherized' studio apartment, "just leave the window open so wal-mart's drones can get in and bring you your socks and sushi!"). Everyone mentions big brother, but i find the silicon valley commentary on "big mother" equal parts hilarious and frightening. So, drones, not a good idea here, since we live under a silent and (mostly) non-violent dictatorship on the federal level, with buy-in from the elected municipal and state executive governments. Needless to say I scrapped the idea. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Ya dig?(=
baursak 9y ago
You seem to imply that the government and laws cannot be evil and enforce evil policies.
- Iv 9y ago
  Indeed. Not in a sane, functioning democracy guided by en educated electorate.
  - jessaustin 9y ago
    Normally I appreciate irony but this is too on-the-nose.
dsfyu404ed 9y ago
>they do have a valid excuse for that handgun on the ISS The kind of cosmonauts that can fight a bear hand to hand don't physically fit in the Soyuz capsule. It's a shame it would be a NFA headache to make but it would be really cool to have a replica of one of these guns for hunting. Integrate it with an over/under 12ga, full power rifle on one side, full power handgun on the other and you've got a load for basically anything you could run across. The block of steel you've have to start with would be $$$ though.

by Iv 9y ago

scarmig 9y ago

> Try to fly a drone with a knife to stab people and people will destroy it and arrest you Unless it's the people doing the destroying and arresting who are flying the knife drone. In that case, they'll be celebrated as patriotic heroes and you as a terrorist deserving of death.

gizmo686 9y ago

The ISS never had a gun; it stayed in the Soyuz. Supposedly, the gun has not been included in recent missions. https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/space-flight/how-i-stop-cosmonauts-carrying-guns https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/space-flight/h...

Iv 9y ago
For the intent of drama, it can be considered accessible from the ISS :-) Thanks for the link, that's good to know, no more weapons in space!

pizza 9y ago

Laws are like coupons: you can redeem them, but no coupon redeems itself without a redeemer.

rjsw 9y ago

There was a gun on the Almaz [0] space station. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almaz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almaz

hammock 9y ago

Laws don't separate good from evil. They serve to legitimize (think of the root of that word) the exercise of certain behavior. But there can be good laws and evil laws. If you have trouble understanding this point, look at another country besides the US when thinking about it.

kutkloon7 9y ago
Heh, "Look at the laws in the US when thinking about it" would be more appropriate.
- sammoorhouse 9y ago
  > If you have trouble understanding this point, look at another country besides the US when thinking about it. More than a little patronising, and also: really??
  - hammock 9y ago
    It wasn't a dig at the US, rather the opposite. Looking at say North Korea, or Nazi Germany, or any place where slavery was legal...might make it easier to see laws that were divorced from what is good/bad.
  - jessaustin 9y ago
    Many people have trouble thinking about the category of evil laws. It's not what they learned in junior high school! It's helpful to inspire thinking about categories that asymptotically approach the categories that are difficult to conceptualize directly.

dalore 9y ago

Nothing is stopping you from doing it. You're talking about the consequences of doing it after the fact.

kerkeslager 9y ago

> Sure you can. This is the purpose of laws and law enforcement. Try to fly a drone with a knife to stab people and people will destroy it and arrest you. There are lots of drones in the Middle East killing people with much more dangerous weapons than knives. > Both Antarctica and outer space are military-weapons-free This is a fairly academic point given the US is capable of nuking anywhere on earth that anyone could possibly want to nuke. There aren't weapons in space because the purposes of putting weapons in space are achieved by other means.

dahoramanodoceu 9y ago
I thought about importing drones into Sao Paulo to do 'in-window' sushi delivery (it's popular here for 25-35 y/o's). Then i put on my black hat thought about it some more. Asking the question "what could i do with this if i were an asshole?" I was speaking with a guy Yakuza ties when the idea came to me, so we both quickly thought of how drug dealers could use it for their deliveries and stuff. Then, the next logical conclusion: their drug wars, so assasinations. Another bad consequence: Carrefour getting a hold of it, thereby normalizing it through ubiquity, sliding it right in on claims of 'convenience,' Before you know it, spooks, whose surveillance state currently requires one to be within physical range of a chipboard, can now do a whole lot more (like puts on tin-foil hat aerosol delivery inside my 20th floor 'weatherized' studio apartment, "just leave the window open so wal-mart's drones can get in and bring you your socks and sushi!"). Everyone mentions big brother, but i find the silicon valley commentary on "big mother" equal parts hilarious and frightening. So, drones, not a good idea here, since we live under a silent and (mostly) non-violent dictatorship on the federal level, with buy-in from the elected municipal and state executive governments. Needless to say I scrapped the idea. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Ya dig?(=

baursak 9y ago

You seem to imply that the government and laws cannot be evil and enforce evil policies.

Iv 9y ago
Indeed. Not in a sane, functioning democracy guided by en educated electorate.
- jessaustin 9y ago
  Normally I appreciate irony but this is too on-the-nose.

dsfyu404ed 9y ago

>they do have a valid excuse for that handgun on the ISS The kind of cosmonauts that can fight a bear hand to hand don't physically fit in the Soyuz capsule. It's a shame it would be a NFA headache to make but it would be really cool to have a replica of one of these guns for hunting. Integrate it with an over/under 12ga, full power rifle on one side, full power handgun on the other and you've got a load for basically anything you could run across. The block of steel you've have to start with would be $$$ though.