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Somebody please tell me that I should not lose sleep about this scenario: Take this array of mirrors and mount them to a cloud of drones. Launch it on a sunny d

Somebody please tell me that I should not lose sleep about this scenario: Take this array of mirrors and mount them to a cloud of drones. Launch it on a sunny day, fly it to the correct position and focus a greater than 1000 degree Celsius beam of photons on your enemies. The scary thing about this is that it requires nothing more than mirrors, drones and software, and not a deep military industrial complex.

deleted 7y ago
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resist_futility 7y ago
Mythbusters already tried and failed http://web.mit.edu/2.009/www/experiments/deathray/10_Mythbusters.html http://web.mit.edu/2.009/www/experiments/deathray/10_Mythbus... Would be scarier to see a swarm of drones with crossbows
AndrewDucker 7y ago
Sounds a lot more complex than "strap grenade to drone, with actuator to pull pin", and no more effective.
- hirundo 7y ago
  Sunlight is easier to source than explosives.
topspin 7y ago
Why not just arm the drones with machine guns, like the Ziyan Blowfish A3[1], coming soon to arms dealers world wide? The guns will work at night as well! [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDGqc0FrXZg&feature=youtu.be&t=57 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDGqc0FrXZg&feature=youtu.be...
carapace 7y ago
I suppose I should keep this a secret, but experience has shown that no one will take me seriously, so wtf? Why not? Congratulations, you have just discovered my Evil Plan to Rule the World. Mwooooha-hah-hah-hah-hah-haaaaaa (evil laugh, eh) But I'm serious, sort of. I have a plan to create a huge swarm of flying robots. (Image search Alexander Bell's cellular kites.) They are designed to connect together to make bigger flying structures. There's no upper limit. I will be able to make flying buildings, or what I call the World-Kite... Anyhow, the thought occurred that I could make the sails reflective and create large (multi-kilometer) solar furnaces. Further, as the swarm will be distributed globally, there's no problem about clouds or night-side: you can just reflect light from the illuminated areas to the desired focal point. If I manage to do this before anyone catches on I don't see how it could be stopped. I've spent the last N years researching secure computing (I'm not about to let some other hacker usurp my botnet just as I achieve Kardashev Type I status, eh?) and I'm just about to start manufacturing them. (Finally! It's taken about ten years longer than I thought it would.) - - - - Imagine being at the focal point of the system as the individual machines line up on you: the sky turning all into Sun...

deleted 7y ago

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resist_futility 7y ago

Mythbusters already tried and failed http://web.mit.edu/2.009/www/experiments/deathray/10_Mythbusters.html http://web.mit.edu/2.009/www/experiments/deathray/10_Mythbus... Would be scarier to see a swarm of drones with crossbows

AndrewDucker 7y ago

Sounds a lot more complex than "strap grenade to drone, with actuator to pull pin", and no more effective.

hirundo 7y ago
Sunlight is easier to source than explosives.

topspin 7y ago

Why not just arm the drones with machine guns, like the Ziyan Blowfish A3[1], coming soon to arms dealers world wide? The guns will work at night as well! [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDGqc0FrXZg&feature=youtu.be&t=57 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDGqc0FrXZg&feature=youtu.be...

carapace 7y ago

I suppose I should keep this a secret, but experience has shown that no one will take me seriously, so wtf? Why not? Congratulations, you have just discovered my Evil Plan to Rule the World. Mwooooha-hah-hah-hah-hah-haaaaaa (evil laugh, eh) But I'm serious, sort of. I have a plan to create a huge swarm of flying robots. (Image search Alexander Bell's cellular kites.) They are designed to connect together to make bigger flying structures. There's no upper limit. I will be able to make flying buildings, or what I call the World-Kite... Anyhow, the thought occurred that I could make the sails reflective and create large (multi-kilometer) solar furnaces. Further, as the swarm will be distributed globally, there's no problem about clouds or night-side: you can just reflect light from the illuminated areas to the desired focal point. If I manage to do this before anyone catches on I don't see how it could be stopped. I've spent the last N years researching secure computing (I'm not about to let some other hacker usurp my botnet just as I achieve Kardashev Type I status, eh?) and I'm just about to start manufacturing them. (Finally! It's taken about ten years longer than I thought it would.) - - - - Imagine being at the focal point of the system as the individual machines line up on you: the sky turning all into Sun...