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Comment by simonsarris | Hacker News Reader

Open question: How do you stop an assassin when the assassin is a poisonous robotic bumblebee?

What about one hundred poisonous robotic bumblebees?

You might think these unfeasible near term, but a drone that simply flies high and drops 300 dumb, poison-tipped flechettes (think capillary-powered syringe tips) is feasible today, isn't it?

(Sorry for the derail, I think the product looks great, I'm just commenting on the rapid development pace of drones so far, wondering what implications might be in another ten years)

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s/drone|robotic/zeppelin/g

This sort of Technophobia has been around since the beginning of civilization.

Instead of focusing on the FUD, we should try to focus on the good.

Do people here not predict and counter downsides of their actions? Is this how they work all day, with an attitude of, "Hey, it'll be fine"?

It seems to be rare, especially when it comes to new science and technology. Sadly, with the military being such a large customer in these fields, we do end up with a lot of undesirable tech. The most effective way to reduce it is cut it off at the source (i.e. reduce military spending).

Close. I say "There's no problem. Everything is fine.".

I mean, let's talk about the fear around zeppelins. Zeppelins were used to bomb Paris in WW1[0], which wasn't that effective overall. By the time WW2 rolled around, we have the bombing Zeppelin 2.0 - the long range strategic bomber.

So I suppose what I'm saying is that, when people said "what will we do when they start using these huge flying things to attack us?" The answer was, "Nothing, your city is going to be destroyed." So maybe use another example of, "old FUD," because it seems like the people worried about Zeppelins were absolutely right. :)

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_strategic_bombing_during...

How do you stop a terrorist group from dropping loads of anthrax from a low-flying plane?

Hopefully the tech is too hard to come by for any nutjob to build it, but I wouldn't be surprised if miltitaries start weaponizing them.

Flying drones without permissions(registred aircraft, pilot license etc.) is illegal in some countries already.

People carrying out assassinations don't exactly care about flight regulations.

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