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Comment by jazzyjackson | Hacker News Reader

Turns out humans are actually really great at controlling ridiculously fast aircraft, the drone races are controlled by a person looking through a camera pointed forward on the drone. You can think of it like speedrunning an N64 game, finding the timing that lets you act instead of react.

But +1 humanity’s fucked, don’t Google Slaughterbots but maybe Google how to build an EMP, it’s easier than you think.

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Conversely, shielding electronics against EMPs is surprisingly easy. Just wrapping things in aluminium foil goes a long way.

Doesn't this also mean that they would not be able to receive comms?

If you folded the entire thing then it could mean that.

But you want to shield the parts which do not directly need to receive rf signals, like the mainboard.

Comms can also be laser, and the drones can be pre-programmed and self guiding. Though in either case, you can still always dazzle either the sensors or the comms (MEMS sensors used for inertial guidance are vulnerable to ultrasound IIRC). And I’m sure the military either have or are developing an anti-drone-drone.

Well the military has AESA radars that can be programmed to act as a microwave laser so there’s that. A Faraday cage won’t be of much help if it’s literally cooked.

Um. What do you think the grid of wires in the window of your microwave is for? Its a faraday cage to keep you from being cooked.

If you pump enough power at the shielding, a) some of it will get through and b) the shielding itself will get very hot from induced eddy currents.

> pump enough power

Problem is you’re fighting path loss which is exponential with distance, whereas the power of your emitter is scaling linearly.

> Problem is you’re fighting path loss which is exponential with distance, whereas the power of your emitter is scaling linearly.

No, EM radiation power decays quadratic with the distance, not exponentially.

You’re right of course.

Not necessarily. You can transmit signals between completely isolated circuits with an optocoupler for example.

>maybe Google how to build an EMP

Sounds like a good way to get on a list.

Folks, this is why we need to preserve privacy!

Why is Google allowing lists to be built?

So they can sell you aluminum foil

Well, once you get past the loaded allow part, if you read their mission statement, you will note it is their actual mission:

"Our company mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/mission/

Never thought of it that way, part of the world’s information is, “who’s asking?”

No worries, a lot of people search about EMP every day. Smaller EMP devices were (are?) commonly used to rob poker/slot/vending machines. I have no idea of the truth behind this, but there are homemade devices being sold online, sometimes disguised as "research" devices with photos showing how they can turn on a CCFL lamp from distance, while others blatantly declare their purpose.

Example: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002077843786.html

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