4 ms·

Over time the number of single humans that have the power to wipe out a sizeable portion of life on Earth (which is almost certainly non-zero already) will almo

Over time the number of single humans that have the power to wipe out a sizeable portion of life on Earth (which is almost certainly non-zero already) will almost certainly increase due to advances in technology and dissemination of information. Do we aim for security through obscurity or work out how to deal with that increasingly terrifying reality? I think at some point we will be forced to do latter.

ethanbond 4y ago
This trend is clearly real, but what exactly do you mean “work out how to deal with that?” One of the obvious ways to deal with it, albeit imperfectly, is in fact to keep these technologies as obscure as possible for as long as possible. Maybe an interesting norm to try to generate in this community would be, “if you plan on publishing attack X, you should publish immediately alongside it your best guess as to the effective counter to X.”
- leereeves 4y ago
  Keeping these technologies in the hands of a few has its own set of severe negative consequences. In the case of nuclear weapons, one of those consequences is that poor countries are denied the ability to defend themselves. This led to the bullying and invasion of countries without nuclear weapons by countries with nuclear weapons (most recently Russia invading Ukraine, but China and the US are equally guilty). I'm reminded of a line from the TV show The West Wing, something like: "India must and will be a nuclear power. That way, we'll never be dictated to again."
- ryandrake 4y ago
  Even an extreme example -- The technology to build an automated drone with a camera for targeting and a gun on a gimbal and deploy it to do a mass-shooting -- all exists today. All it would take is for some madman to pick the pieces up and assemble them. In fact, I'd be willing to bet $100 that we'll actually see some kind of tragedy to that effect in the USA within the next 5 years. The technology cats are very quickly getting out of the bags.
  - franga2000 4y ago
    Many airsoft players are mounting fully automatic airsoft rifles on drones and some Russian dude already put a glock on a 1st gen DJI phantom years ago. My guess is a big thing stopping such an attack from happening is that the people doing these attacks are usually not well educated, so they don't have the arduino-starter-kit level of electronics knowledge required to pull it off.
    - munk-a 4y ago
      Mental instability happens on all portions of the education and intelligence spectrum though - so if that's what we're banking on we're going to have a very rude awakening.
  - WaitWaitWha 4y ago
    Your example is not extreme. Off-the-shelf "drone bombers" have already been used in the Middle East.

ethanbond 4y ago

This trend is clearly real, but what exactly do you mean “work out how to deal with that?” One of the obvious ways to deal with it, albeit imperfectly, is in fact to keep these technologies as obscure as possible for as long as possible. Maybe an interesting norm to try to generate in this community would be, “if you plan on publishing attack X, you should publish immediately alongside it your best guess as to the effective counter to X.”

leereeves 4y ago
Keeping these technologies in the hands of a few has its own set of severe negative consequences. In the case of nuclear weapons, one of those consequences is that poor countries are denied the ability to defend themselves. This led to the bullying and invasion of countries without nuclear weapons by countries with nuclear weapons (most recently Russia invading Ukraine, but China and the US are equally guilty). I'm reminded of a line from the TV show The West Wing, something like: "India must and will be a nuclear power. That way, we'll never be dictated to again."
ryandrake 4y ago
Even an extreme example -- The technology to build an automated drone with a camera for targeting and a gun on a gimbal and deploy it to do a mass-shooting -- all exists today. All it would take is for some madman to pick the pieces up and assemble them. In fact, I'd be willing to bet $100 that we'll actually see some kind of tragedy to that effect in the USA within the next 5 years. The technology cats are very quickly getting out of the bags.
- franga2000 4y ago
  Many airsoft players are mounting fully automatic airsoft rifles on drones and some Russian dude already put a glock on a 1st gen DJI phantom years ago. My guess is a big thing stopping such an attack from happening is that the people doing these attacks are usually not well educated, so they don't have the arduino-starter-kit level of electronics knowledge required to pull it off.
  - munk-a 4y ago
    Mental instability happens on all portions of the education and intelligence spectrum though - so if that's what we're banking on we're going to have a very rude awakening.
- WaitWaitWha 4y ago
  Your example is not extreme. Off-the-shelf "drone bombers" have already been used in the Middle East.