4 ms·

Imagine a terrorist cell, which has no leader, no members, no financiers but is able to attack anyway. A DAO hires gig workers to assemble a "product" in a pro

Imagine a terrorist cell, which has no leader, no members, no financiers but is able to attack anyway. A DAO hires gig workers to assemble a "product" in a property which it has rented, the product is then programed by the DAO to attack the city it resides in. The DAO having speculated on shares of competitors of companies within the city, moves ever onwards. Terrorism as a software glider gun. Its a major theme in my game, any exponential tech advances handed to citizens, become a minority vote mechanism on society. The implications being, that freedom and exponential toys bump into a hard roof, were any clever crank can empty exponential weapons down the hallway. But society as we know it also can not continue without exponentials tapped. A rock and a hard place.

namaria 4y ago
Exponential is usually an adjective applied to processes and progressions. I'm having a hard time parsing the phrase "exponential tech advance". What do you mean?
- winReInstall 4y ago
  It really is the appeareance of exponential curves in any field. Biology, physics, comp science, as soon as the curve appears, it amplifies the nature of those who wield it. Comp science is obvious. Physics is similiar - if you have a working fusion device (ripped from a flying car) or any other device with exponential energy density, it amplifies the problems you can solve and cause. Biology is harder to grasp, no not really after covid. But in theory one day not far away somebody might take a backyard shed and cook something up, which is not even a disease that has "exponential" castrophe written all over it. Imagine a floating Lema https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemna, blue, bio engineered to harvest carbon, all good intentions, wrapped around a bubble of methan for buyoncy. Such a plant, engineered by anyone, could block out the sun.
- quietbritishjim 4y ago
  Unless edited since, the parent comment said "advances" not "advance". A sequence of advances can obviously be exponential, even if they're discrete rather than continuous.
  - namaria 4y ago
    That could make sense but "exponential toys" and "exponential weapons" and "exponentials" as a substantive indicate to me the intended meaning was closer to "disruptive".
rapsey 4y ago
Fortunately what we have learned is that terrorists at the end of the day are pretty dumb. People capable of doing mass damage are not ones to soccumb to extremist ideology.
- mettamage 4y ago
  Not yet, but 100 years from now they'll be a lot more tech savvy. If I look who's capable of using a computer at all to browse the web, it's a lot more people than I'd have predicted in the early 90s
  - LeeroyWasHere 4y ago
    Most people can barely rename a file name, I think we're safe.
- onion2k 4y ago
  Fortunately what we have learned is that terrorists at the end of the day are pretty dumb. Is that because the ones we don't think are dumb get called "freedom fighters"?
  - krapp 4y ago
    No, the freedom fighters tend to be pretty dumb too - see Jan. 6th. Whether they get called freedom fighters or terrorists depends more on their race and religion than their capabilities.
    - onion2k 4y ago
      No, the freedom fighters tend to be pretty dumb too - see Jan. 6th. Maybe they were terrorists...
- pjc50 4y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Las_Vegas_shooting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Las_Vegas_shooting : "fired more than 1,000 bullets, killing 60 people[a] and wounding at least 413" (and of course the big outlier in terrorism, 9/11)
pjc50 4y ago
> a terrorist cell, which has no leader, no members, no financiers but is able to attack anyway. This is called "stochastic terrorism". It has carried out at least two attacks in the United States in the past week. Doesn't require fancy technology, just very effective ideological poisoning.
- trompetenaccoun 4y ago
  Which attacks are you referring to, out of interest?
  - pjc50 4y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2022 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_... (671 dead, 2616 wounded total so far) The ones which had made it through to UK twitter were the Walmart one (not ideological per se, but the workplace massacre is a distinct American phenomenon) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Springs_nightclub_shooting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Springs_nightclub_sho... which definitely was ideological.
- remarkEon 4y ago
  “Stochastic terrorism” is a made up term, meant to give the extremely online a mechanism to ascribe group blame to a tragic event perpetrated by a deranged individual. It’s an awesomely Orwellian term, because now people who commit otherwise random violence can be charged with terrorism if the state so chooses.

namaria 4y ago

Exponential is usually an adjective applied to processes and progressions. I'm having a hard time parsing the phrase "exponential tech advance". What do you mean?

winReInstall 4y ago
It really is the appeareance of exponential curves in any field. Biology, physics, comp science, as soon as the curve appears, it amplifies the nature of those who wield it. Comp science is obvious. Physics is similiar - if you have a working fusion device (ripped from a flying car) or any other device with exponential energy density, it amplifies the problems you can solve and cause. Biology is harder to grasp, no not really after covid. But in theory one day not far away somebody might take a backyard shed and cook something up, which is not even a disease that has "exponential" castrophe written all over it. Imagine a floating Lema https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemna, blue, bio engineered to harvest carbon, all good intentions, wrapped around a bubble of methan for buyoncy. Such a plant, engineered by anyone, could block out the sun.
quietbritishjim 4y ago
Unless edited since, the parent comment said "advances" not "advance". A sequence of advances can obviously be exponential, even if they're discrete rather than continuous.
- namaria 4y ago
  That could make sense but "exponential toys" and "exponential weapons" and "exponentials" as a substantive indicate to me the intended meaning was closer to "disruptive".

rapsey 4y ago

Fortunately what we have learned is that terrorists at the end of the day are pretty dumb. People capable of doing mass damage are not ones to soccumb to extremist ideology.

mettamage 4y ago
Not yet, but 100 years from now they'll be a lot more tech savvy. If I look who's capable of using a computer at all to browse the web, it's a lot more people than I'd have predicted in the early 90s
- LeeroyWasHere 4y ago
  Most people can barely rename a file name, I think we're safe.
onion2k 4y ago
Fortunately what we have learned is that terrorists at the end of the day are pretty dumb. Is that because the ones we don't think are dumb get called "freedom fighters"?
- krapp 4y ago
  No, the freedom fighters tend to be pretty dumb too - see Jan. 6th. Whether they get called freedom fighters or terrorists depends more on their race and religion than their capabilities.
  - onion2k 4y ago
    No, the freedom fighters tend to be pretty dumb too - see Jan. 6th. Maybe they were terrorists...
pjc50 4y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Las_Vegas_shooting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Las_Vegas_shooting : "fired more than 1,000 bullets, killing 60 people[a] and wounding at least 413" (and of course the big outlier in terrorism, 9/11)

pjc50 4y ago

> a terrorist cell, which has no leader, no members, no financiers but is able to attack anyway. This is called "stochastic terrorism". It has carried out at least two attacks in the United States in the past week. Doesn't require fancy technology, just very effective ideological poisoning.

trompetenaccoun 4y ago
Which attacks are you referring to, out of interest?
- pjc50 4y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2022 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_... (671 dead, 2616 wounded total so far) The ones which had made it through to UK twitter were the Walmart one (not ideological per se, but the workplace massacre is a distinct American phenomenon) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Springs_nightclub_shooting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Springs_nightclub_sho... which definitely was ideological.
remarkEon 4y ago
“Stochastic terrorism” is a made up term, meant to give the extremely online a mechanism to ascribe group blame to a tragic event perpetrated by a deranged individual. It’s an awesomely Orwellian term, because now people who commit otherwise random violence can be charged with terrorism if the state so chooses.