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Related: "Kill Decision" by Daniel Suarez. Talked about this exact thing. What happens when drones become so cheap and able to be armed, that a swarm of drones

Related: "Kill Decision" by Daniel Suarez. Talked about this exact thing. What happens when drones become so cheap and able to be armed, that a swarm of drones could come out of nowhere, commit a crime, and no one would have a clue where they came form.

woolvalley 9y ago
You can locate radio signal sources fairly accurately. You could get around that with the cell phone network although, which is partly why many countries have stringent ID requirements behind them. You can also get around that with some sort of hardwired control laptop that you leave somewhere, but that has a SPOF issue like the cell networks do. You can also get around that with self programmed drones, but they are more limited in adaptability.
- noir_lord 9y ago
  > You can also get around that with self programmed drones, but they are more limited in adaptability. For now (perhaps). My android phone for 300 quid has more computing power than my fast desktop had 20 years ago in about one hundredth the power budget with a powerful high speed network connection.
  - 0xCMP 9y ago
    And which is becoming easier to create P2P distributed systems that could mesh together over prepaid and falsely registered connections. Obviously this would require serious sophistication (not just anyone could string it together), but I think that anyone capable of being the first to build a serious threat with any of this technology will likely have funding and serious skills on tap.
- icebraining 9y ago
  many countries have stringent ID requirements behind them. I wonder how many of those allow roaming using SIMs from countries that have no such requirements. All of that seems so much like security theater.
dredmorbius 9y ago
Suarez comments on G+ and has mentioned drones / robotics several times, and has a Collection geared toward these: https://plus.google.com/collection/wDwWpB https://plus.google.com/collection/wDwWpB https://plus.google.com/+DanielSuarez/posts/gQYcxrMhuXZ https://plus.google.com/+DanielSuarez/posts/gQYcxrMhuXZ https://plus.google.com/+DanielSuarez/posts/Tq6erLaLoof https://plus.google.com/+DanielSuarez/posts/Tq6erLaLoof https://plus.google.com/+DanielSuarez/posts/KcyiPJhMWcu https://plus.google.com/+DanielSuarez/posts/KcyiPJhMWcu https://plus.google.com/+DanielSuarez/posts/DpzPMp4JHYd https://plus.google.com/+DanielSuarez/posts/DpzPMp4JHYd https://plus.google.com/+DanielSuarez/posts/eNGy2dfbQgz https://plus.google.com/+DanielSuarez/posts/eNGy2dfbQgz
lopmotr 9y ago
Similar technology like using a gun from a car [1], or putting a bomb in a rubbish bin, or mailing antrax, already exists and does cause occasional mass killings. The main the stopping it is humans usually don't want to do that. Even with drones, there will still be evidence and police hunting for who did it. It's not going to be anarchy. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.C._sniper_attacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.C._sniper_attacks
- nyolfen 9y ago
  19 people decided to fly planes into buildings and we invaded two countries, massively expanded and accelerated the most powerful surveillance apparatus that has ever existed, and invented a gargantuan bureaucracy that carries out tens of millions of man-hours a year of security screenings. it doens't take anarchy to shift the security calculus enough to greatly alter culture.
  - lopmotr 9y ago
    Sure, there might be overreaction. I'm saying we don't need to worry about criminals or terrorists using them any more than we do conventional weapons. Of course people will still worry too much if it's on the news, just like 911.
- jobigoud 9y ago
  There is this approach of using airplanes taking pictures every second. When a crime like drive by shooting and putting a bomb in a bin is commited, this technology allows the investigators to rewind time and fast forward to discover where the car/person come from/went and eventually catch it. It was used to figure out location of drug cartel head quarters. This wouldn't be efficient against a swarm of drone attack though, as they can be operated remotely from miles away.

woolvalley 9y ago

You can locate radio signal sources fairly accurately. You could get around that with the cell phone network although, which is partly why many countries have stringent ID requirements behind them. You can also get around that with some sort of hardwired control laptop that you leave somewhere, but that has a SPOF issue like the cell networks do. You can also get around that with self programmed drones, but they are more limited in adaptability.

noir_lord 9y ago
> You can also get around that with self programmed drones, but they are more limited in adaptability. For now (perhaps). My android phone for 300 quid has more computing power than my fast desktop had 20 years ago in about one hundredth the power budget with a powerful high speed network connection.
- 0xCMP 9y ago
  And which is becoming easier to create P2P distributed systems that could mesh together over prepaid and falsely registered connections. Obviously this would require serious sophistication (not just anyone could string it together), but I think that anyone capable of being the first to build a serious threat with any of this technology will likely have funding and serious skills on tap.
icebraining 9y ago
many countries have stringent ID requirements behind them. I wonder how many of those allow roaming using SIMs from countries that have no such requirements. All of that seems so much like security theater.

dredmorbius 9y ago

Suarez comments on G+ and has mentioned drones / robotics several times, and has a Collection geared toward these: https://plus.google.com/collection/wDwWpB https://plus.google.com/collection/wDwWpB https://plus.google.com/+DanielSuarez/posts/gQYcxrMhuXZ https://plus.google.com/+DanielSuarez/posts/gQYcxrMhuXZ https://plus.google.com/+DanielSuarez/posts/Tq6erLaLoof https://plus.google.com/+DanielSuarez/posts/Tq6erLaLoof https://plus.google.com/+DanielSuarez/posts/KcyiPJhMWcu https://plus.google.com/+DanielSuarez/posts/KcyiPJhMWcu https://plus.google.com/+DanielSuarez/posts/DpzPMp4JHYd https://plus.google.com/+DanielSuarez/posts/DpzPMp4JHYd https://plus.google.com/+DanielSuarez/posts/eNGy2dfbQgz https://plus.google.com/+DanielSuarez/posts/eNGy2dfbQgz

lopmotr 9y ago

Similar technology like using a gun from a car [1], or putting a bomb in a rubbish bin, or mailing antrax, already exists and does cause occasional mass killings. The main the stopping it is humans usually don't want to do that. Even with drones, there will still be evidence and police hunting for who did it. It's not going to be anarchy. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.C._sniper_attacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.C._sniper_attacks

nyolfen 9y ago
19 people decided to fly planes into buildings and we invaded two countries, massively expanded and accelerated the most powerful surveillance apparatus that has ever existed, and invented a gargantuan bureaucracy that carries out tens of millions of man-hours a year of security screenings. it doens't take anarchy to shift the security calculus enough to greatly alter culture.
- lopmotr 9y ago
  Sure, there might be overreaction. I'm saying we don't need to worry about criminals or terrorists using them any more than we do conventional weapons. Of course people will still worry too much if it's on the news, just like 911.
jobigoud 9y ago
There is this approach of using airplanes taking pictures every second. When a crime like drive by shooting and putting a bomb in a bin is commited, this technology allows the investigators to rewind time and fast forward to discover where the car/person come from/went and eventually catch it. It was used to figure out location of drug cartel head quarters. This wouldn't be efficient against a swarm of drone attack though, as they can be operated remotely from miles away.