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We do not need another ludicrously over-engineered solution. The world is drowning in them. Mosquito nets work and are cheap and environmentally neutral.

autoexec 3y ago
They are a massive fire hazard though. If I were in an area with a ton of malaria it might still be worth it, but those nets are typically soaked in poison and I wouldn't expect everybody to feel that way (https://observer.ug/news/headlines/62350-mosquito-nets-fuelling-school-fires-police https://observer.ug/news/headlines/62350-mosquito-nets-fuell...)
- lproven 3y ago
  And robots with frikkin' laser beams aren't?!
  - autoexec 3y ago
    Not so far? Maybe once people start using them in large numbers or buying cheap knockoffs of mass produced laser zappers on amazon we'll see a bunch of fire deaths or other injuries (lasers in the eyeball?), but in theory they would be safer.
dieselgate 3y ago
A mosquito net solves a different problem than a bug zapper
arp242 3y ago
> Mosquito nets work and are cheap and environmentally neutral. Yes, as evidenced by their usage to eradicate malaria... :-/ Many countries also use nets with insecticides, not "just" nets, so they're not even environmentally neutral. This is because mosquito is and remains key to malaria control. You can't live your life inside a net.
- lproven 3y ago
  I'd dispute that. Currently, the countries where malaria is a big problem are poor and suffer from lack of education, literacy etc. But on the one hand, global warming is pushing the Anopheles mosquito range into richer educated countries. That might result in greater and better use of nets. On the other hand, the tropical countries' demography is changing and education and so on is improving, overall, so that might help, too. On the gripping hand, global warming and ecological collapse is driven by the size of the human population and so more infectious disease and more plagues would be good for the planet and therefore good for humanity in general. (Just not the people who die from it, obvs.) So it all balances out. But appropriate technology is more important than the sort of fancy elaborate tech that HN commenters favour, like AIs with frikkin' lasers.

autoexec 3y ago

They are a massive fire hazard though. If I were in an area with a ton of malaria it might still be worth it, but those nets are typically soaked in poison and I wouldn't expect everybody to feel that way (https://observer.ug/news/headlines/62350-mosquito-nets-fuelling-school-fires-police https://observer.ug/news/headlines/62350-mosquito-nets-fuell...)

lproven 3y ago
And robots with frikkin' laser beams aren't?!
- autoexec 3y ago
  Not so far? Maybe once people start using them in large numbers or buying cheap knockoffs of mass produced laser zappers on amazon we'll see a bunch of fire deaths or other injuries (lasers in the eyeball?), but in theory they would be safer.

dieselgate 3y ago

A mosquito net solves a different problem than a bug zapper

arp242 3y ago

> Mosquito nets work and are cheap and environmentally neutral. Yes, as evidenced by their usage to eradicate malaria... :-/ Many countries also use nets with insecticides, not "just" nets, so they're not even environmentally neutral. This is because mosquito is and remains key to malaria control. You can't live your life inside a net.

lproven 3y ago
I'd dispute that. Currently, the countries where malaria is a big problem are poor and suffer from lack of education, literacy etc. But on the one hand, global warming is pushing the Anopheles mosquito range into richer educated countries. That might result in greater and better use of nets. On the other hand, the tropical countries' demography is changing and education and so on is improving, overall, so that might help, too. On the gripping hand, global warming and ecological collapse is driven by the size of the human population and so more infectious disease and more plagues would be good for the planet and therefore good for humanity in general. (Just not the people who die from it, obvs.) So it all balances out. But appropriate technology is more important than the sort of fancy elaborate tech that HN commenters favour, like AIs with frikkin' lasers.