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Comment by Mizza | Hacker News Reader

This is bonkers. Video on GitHub: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDO2EvXyncE

I'm impressed by the kid's engineering and gumption, but I think he's a bit.. misguided, if you'll pardon the pun. The video ends with shots of Russian drone war, and, bizarrely, photos of David Koresh.

I don't think this ends well.

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> The video ends with shots of Russian drone war, and, bizarrely, photos of David Koresh.

You're omitting that the end of the video also features pictures of Martin Luther King, Vietnamese civilians during America's invasion of their country and Afghani Mujahideen freedom fighters during the Soviet Union's invasion of theirs; I think he's trying to make a point about technology enhancing the capabilities of people who are in any conflict with conventionally powerful forces, not an endorsement of David Koresh.

> I think he's trying to make a point about technology enhancing the capabilities of people who are in any conflict with conventionally powerful forces

Which is absurd, since all the technology he used was manufactured by the conventionally powerful forces and they can decide to not sell you their stuff.

The fact that Koresh and his group held off Federal officers who stormed their building with simple guns that anyone can buy, is likely the point.

Out of five and a half minutes of video, David Koresh appears for perhaps three seconds.

It does put a new twist on the recent controversy about 3d printers needing to be licensed, however.

Yeah the solution is simple.

Just licence everything private people can buy except (healthy food). /S

Microcontrollers and electric motors are too dangerous for the general public.

I think this is within the intent of the 2nd amendment. Having groups of citizens check the power of their government by being armed comes with the the downside of abusive types forming cults. I think this tradeoff is worth it. Mass shooting evens and cults harming people are obviously terrible. But, I prefer living with some of that knowing that it provides recourse for becoming like the majority of Iranians that are so helpless that at least 10s of thousands were slaughtered in daylight by their government merely for protesting. It’s easy to discount the possibility of becoming an oppressed citizenry if you grew up in the US where the worst you’ve heard about is maybe Kent state or early 2026 ice murdering unarmed citizens. Armed citizens are not a guarantee from oppression, but I think it’s important insurance.

The problem is too many of these small government libertarian 2nd amendment people are fascism lovers.

soo... i have no kept up with what's gone on in russia/ukraine. Are those drone videos what i think they are – drones sneaking up on humans and, presumably, ceasing them of life?

edit: Ok, I googled the guy

  > I have read the works of authors such as Jean Baudrillard, Desmod Morris, 
  and Ted Kaczynski who believe that technology is harming us and the world.

  https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/User:Alisherkhojayev

Yes. Both sides are using explosive FPV drones, flown directly into soldiers (as well as other forms of drone warfare.)

thank you. that was unnerving to watch.

Yeah, this genie is well and truly out of the bottle.

Both Russia and Ukraine build millions of drones per year, most of them fpv drones that are basically remote controlled flying grenades. There's plenty of electronic warfare with radio jamming, so in some places they use drone mounted spools of fiber optic cable to control them. It's probably been the most impactful weapon type in the war for the past years.

> have no kept up with what's gone on in russia/ukraine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Russo-Ukrain...

"between 400,000 and 1.5 million estimated casualties (killed and wounded) during the Russian invasion of Ukraine from 24 February 2022 to November 2025"

Mostly due to artillery. Both sides are firing in the region of 10,000 155mm shells per day. For years.

I think this is likely quite outdated by now - a lot of artillery is definitely still is use now, but there is also a very large gray zone dozens of kilometers around the front line where remote controlled UAVs (usually single use FPVs and reusable bomber drones) will quickly identify and strike anything that moves.

Due to that I have seen many people monitoring the war to estimate that drones are now causing more casualties than artillery - both due to being much more precise & by forcing artillery to move further back & fire less from the gray zone to avoid itself being destroyed by drones.

In any case things are moving pretty quickly & the current state is very different than just a year or two ago.

A reasonable estimate for the Russo Ukrainian war is that there have been half a million casualties due to drones. I would not recommend looking for the videos, many tens of thousands of those have live footage of them occurring.

What started in Ukraine, this is modern warfare. Like most "consumer" goods that are mass produced, you can now get a capable strike force for peanuts.

The russians have taken close to 1.5 million casulties because ukraine engineering for cheap drones. Putin really, really f-ed up his "3 day military operation".

Who knew there were war bros.

We might need them. Would be better than my theory that this country will recover at some point after they destroy the EPA and reintroduce leaded gas because that's what made this country great which leads to a generation of kids who are willing to throw bricks at cops again.

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