4 ms·

what concerns me is that it's wild laser beam in potentially public space. anyone that would accidentally cross that potentially invisible line could get killed

what concerns me is that it's wild laser beam in potentially public space. anyone that would accidentally cross that potentially invisible line could get killed or severely hurt. imagine something reflective entering this beam, it could blind people in a very large radius. for me it means that thus would still need some pipe/fiber that would protect world from this laser.

seberino 1y ago
The eventual goal is to use it at extremely high altitude with drones so that that isn't much of a risk.
- DaftDank 1y ago
  That will be quite a sight -- seeing the videos of people on the ground, filming future drone laser battles
- xattt 1y ago
  The laser would ricochet from disintegrating drones (think of the props) and cause collateral damage to people on the ground. Also see this (with remaining eye): https://www.funraniumlabs.com/2024/07/how-i-got-my-laser-eye-injury/ https://www.funraniumlabs.com/2024/07/how-i-got-my-laser-eye...
  - echelon 1y ago
    There's danger and risk in everything worth doing. The dams could burst and drown millions. The highrise you live in could topple over or burn. The bridge carrying the train could crash into the valley. The passenger plane could lose lift and crash into a residential building. The power source in your car could catch fire. We engineer around it.
    - probably_wrong 1y ago
      Counterpoint: We've known about global warming for almost 50 years and yet to this day the debate is divided between "eh" and "no, it isn't". Coal plants have been consistently depositing smog in our lungs with no end in sight. Boeing has successfully lobbied itself out of criminal charges for the deadly consequences of their (IMHO) negligence regarding the 737 Max. Companies have stopped pretending that they'll put human lives before profit. As a human, I am therefore beyond giving any company the benefit of the doubt that they'll "engineer around it" when it comes to safety.
      - cap11235 1y ago
        Counterpoint: Military doesn't care or get prosecuted by anyone other than the military. Pew pew, motherfucker. Defense companies are rather refreshing to read for corporate postings, since they see to always be proud of how many Iraqi's they bulldozed to death.
      - echelon 1y ago
        > We've known about global warming for almost 50 years and yet to this day the debate is divided between "eh" and "no, it isn't". So much work is being done on that front. > Coal plants have been consistently depositing smog in our lungs with no end in sight. Not the #1 killer of humans. We're still making lots of progress on healthspan, especially in pulling people out of poverty. We're well ahead of where we were 50 years ago. People are no longer starving to death at unprecedented scale. > Boeing has successfully lobbied itself out of criminal charges for the deadly consequences of their (IMHO) negligence regarding the 737 Max. Sometimes bad things happen. Not to diminish these lives, but this is just a footnote in the list of impressive things technology and society have accomplished, though. Boeing and execs should face punishment, but this is a very small downside to a much greater set of accomplishments that vastly outweighs the bad. > Companies have stopped pretending that they'll put human lives before profit. As a human, I am therefore beyond giving any company the benefit of the doubt that they'll "engineer around it" when it comes to safety. What are you talking about? To just cite one instance, Waymo is already going to be one of the biggest needle movers in terms of human lives saved. Or another - look at what Moderna did during Covid. Life is better than it used to be, not worse. You're wearing miasma-tinted glasses.
    - cryptonector 1y ago
      Yes, but this [beaming large amounts of power wirelessly over long distances] isn't worth doing.
      - deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]
- cap11235 1y ago
  Also, an implicit but obvious goal is military applications. Murder laser beams are a potential benefit in those cases.
PaulHoule 1y ago
They tested that thing at the White Sands Missile Range where the public is excluded. A friend of mine was looking for a stargazing spot between WSMR and the Rio Grande River a fair bit south of San Antonio, NM and got her Chevy Blazy stuck and figured her best bet was to walk across the security perimeter and get caught by the security force and they caught her pretty quickly.
- Xevion 1y ago
  TIL San Antonio is not just a city in Texas where I live, but also a place in New Mexico. That's crazy.
  - mulmen 1y ago
    San Antonio is Spanish for “Saint Anthony”. The city in Texas is well known but there are many places in the world that share the name.
  - PaulHoule 1y ago
    Famous (or not) for a few things: (1) You always hear it wrongly repeated that the first nuclear bomb was tested at Alamagordo but Alamagordo is 100 miles from the Trinity Site. San Antonio, NM was the closest settlement. (2) Conrad Hilton, founder of the hotel chain, was born there (in his autobiography "Be My Guest" he talks about riding his horse up to Socorro, where I went to undergrad school) (3) The Owl Bar and Cafe still serves a great green chili cheeseburger https://sanantonioowl.com/ https://sanantonioowl.com/ there was that time I ran from Socorro to San Antonio in a race and, despite being underage, got offered a beer from the bartender.
  - triceratops 1y ago
    It's crazy that two states have cities of the same name?
- dooglius 1y ago
  This strategy went very poorly for the Death Valley Germans https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34676129 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34676129
_verandaguy 1y ago
IMO there's two safe ways to implement this: - Ground-satellite-ground relaying, with at least one geostationary satellite between the ground stations. The satellites being geostationary means that the path of the beam through the atmosphere is constant, and air traffic can be routed around them in a reasonable way. (You could do this with lower orbits, but it'd be a hassle with current aviation industry technology). - Beaming by tunnel! Can't get hit by a laser if it's under your feet. Obviously, this negates the benefits of the technology, and just turns into fibre lines without the fibre, over shorter distances, with all the pain in the ass of laying underground cable. In the first approach, there'd have to be an effective exclusion zone around the receiving station (how big, I don't know), and it'd be nice to have satellites fail safe, so that if they end up pitching or rolling off axis, the beam will be shut off before becoming an accidental weapon.
- iwontberude 1y ago
  Geostationary orbit is way way too far and tunnels? Really?
  - cap11235 1y ago
    As opposed to?
  - _verandaguy 1y ago
    Geostationary orbit is very far, yes. If you read my comment you can see my reasoning for this. And tunnels, not really, no, if you read my comment you'll see that this is a comically impractical option.
    - iwontberude 1y ago
      I loved both of the ideas I just scratched my head about the feasibility.
- pjaffeva 1y ago
  Safety has been demonstrated with a "virtual enclosure", albeit at a smaller scale: https://youtu.be/Xb9THqrXd4I https://youtu.be/Xb9THqrXd4I
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

seberino 1y ago

The eventual goal is to use it at extremely high altitude with drones so that that isn't much of a risk.

DaftDank 1y ago
That will be quite a sight -- seeing the videos of people on the ground, filming future drone laser battles
xattt 1y ago
The laser would ricochet from disintegrating drones (think of the props) and cause collateral damage to people on the ground. Also see this (with remaining eye): https://www.funraniumlabs.com/2024/07/how-i-got-my-laser-eye-injury/ https://www.funraniumlabs.com/2024/07/how-i-got-my-laser-eye...
- echelon 1y ago
  There's danger and risk in everything worth doing. The dams could burst and drown millions. The highrise you live in could topple over or burn. The bridge carrying the train could crash into the valley. The passenger plane could lose lift and crash into a residential building. The power source in your car could catch fire. We engineer around it.
  - probably_wrong 1y ago
    Counterpoint: We've known about global warming for almost 50 years and yet to this day the debate is divided between "eh" and "no, it isn't". Coal plants have been consistently depositing smog in our lungs with no end in sight. Boeing has successfully lobbied itself out of criminal charges for the deadly consequences of their (IMHO) negligence regarding the 737 Max. Companies have stopped pretending that they'll put human lives before profit. As a human, I am therefore beyond giving any company the benefit of the doubt that they'll "engineer around it" when it comes to safety.
    - cap11235 1y ago
      Counterpoint: Military doesn't care or get prosecuted by anyone other than the military. Pew pew, motherfucker. Defense companies are rather refreshing to read for corporate postings, since they see to always be proud of how many Iraqi's they bulldozed to death.
    - echelon 1y ago
      > We've known about global warming for almost 50 years and yet to this day the debate is divided between "eh" and "no, it isn't". So much work is being done on that front. > Coal plants have been consistently depositing smog in our lungs with no end in sight. Not the #1 killer of humans. We're still making lots of progress on healthspan, especially in pulling people out of poverty. We're well ahead of where we were 50 years ago. People are no longer starving to death at unprecedented scale. > Boeing has successfully lobbied itself out of criminal charges for the deadly consequences of their (IMHO) negligence regarding the 737 Max. Sometimes bad things happen. Not to diminish these lives, but this is just a footnote in the list of impressive things technology and society have accomplished, though. Boeing and execs should face punishment, but this is a very small downside to a much greater set of accomplishments that vastly outweighs the bad. > Companies have stopped pretending that they'll put human lives before profit. As a human, I am therefore beyond giving any company the benefit of the doubt that they'll "engineer around it" when it comes to safety. What are you talking about? To just cite one instance, Waymo is already going to be one of the biggest needle movers in terms of human lives saved. Or another - look at what Moderna did during Covid. Life is better than it used to be, not worse. You're wearing miasma-tinted glasses.
  - cryptonector 1y ago
    Yes, but this [beaming large amounts of power wirelessly over long distances] isn't worth doing.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
cap11235 1y ago
Also, an implicit but obvious goal is military applications. Murder laser beams are a potential benefit in those cases.

PaulHoule 1y ago

They tested that thing at the White Sands Missile Range where the public is excluded. A friend of mine was looking for a stargazing spot between WSMR and the Rio Grande River a fair bit south of San Antonio, NM and got her Chevy Blazy stuck and figured her best bet was to walk across the security perimeter and get caught by the security force and they caught her pretty quickly.

Xevion 1y ago
TIL San Antonio is not just a city in Texas where I live, but also a place in New Mexico. That's crazy.
- mulmen 1y ago
  San Antonio is Spanish for “Saint Anthony”. The city in Texas is well known but there are many places in the world that share the name.
- PaulHoule 1y ago
  Famous (or not) for a few things: (1) You always hear it wrongly repeated that the first nuclear bomb was tested at Alamagordo but Alamagordo is 100 miles from the Trinity Site. San Antonio, NM was the closest settlement. (2) Conrad Hilton, founder of the hotel chain, was born there (in his autobiography "Be My Guest" he talks about riding his horse up to Socorro, where I went to undergrad school) (3) The Owl Bar and Cafe still serves a great green chili cheeseburger https://sanantonioowl.com/ https://sanantonioowl.com/ there was that time I ran from Socorro to San Antonio in a race and, despite being underage, got offered a beer from the bartender.
- triceratops 1y ago
  It's crazy that two states have cities of the same name?
dooglius 1y ago
This strategy went very poorly for the Death Valley Germans https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34676129 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34676129

_verandaguy 1y ago

IMO there's two safe ways to implement this: - Ground-satellite-ground relaying, with at least one geostationary satellite between the ground stations. The satellites being geostationary means that the path of the beam through the atmosphere is constant, and air traffic can be routed around them in a reasonable way. (You could do this with lower orbits, but it'd be a hassle with current aviation industry technology). - Beaming by tunnel! Can't get hit by a laser if it's under your feet. Obviously, this negates the benefits of the technology, and just turns into fibre lines without the fibre, over shorter distances, with all the pain in the ass of laying underground cable. In the first approach, there'd have to be an effective exclusion zone around the receiving station (how big, I don't know), and it'd be nice to have satellites fail safe, so that if they end up pitching or rolling off axis, the beam will be shut off before becoming an accidental weapon.

iwontberude 1y ago
Geostationary orbit is way way too far and tunnels? Really?
- cap11235 1y ago
  As opposed to?
- _verandaguy 1y ago
  Geostationary orbit is very far, yes. If you read my comment you can see my reasoning for this. And tunnels, not really, no, if you read my comment you'll see that this is a comically impractical option.
  - iwontberude 1y ago
    I loved both of the ideas I just scratched my head about the feasibility.
pjaffeva 1y ago
Safety has been demonstrated with a "virtual enclosure", albeit at a smaller scale: https://youtu.be/Xb9THqrXd4I https://youtu.be/Xb9THqrXd4I

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]