Comments on: The Drone Wars are here. https://www.habitablezone.com/2012/11/28/the-drone-wars-are-here/ Tue, 12 May 2026 20:11:45 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: bowser https://www.habitablezone.com/2012/11/28/the-drone-wars-are-here/#comment-21195 bowser Thu, 29 Nov 2012 09:03:31 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=27080#comment-21195 The micro-chip has made it possible to almost anyone to make a drone which can fly almost anywhere and do significant damage. The bigger countries may have more, smaller, and more lethal, but that won't stop someone else from having something which would be mission-effective at a relatively small cost. And the US is spending $400 million EACH for fighter planes. Which aren't effective in today's wars. Sigh. The micro-chip has made it possible to almost anyone to make a drone which can fly almost anywhere and do significant damage. The bigger countries may have more, smaller, and more lethal, but that won’t stop someone else from having something which would be mission-effective at a relatively small cost.

And the US is spending $400 million EACH for fighter planes. Which aren’t effective in today’s wars.

Sigh.

]]> By: Robert https://www.habitablezone.com/2012/11/28/the-drone-wars-are-here/#comment-21162 Robert Wed, 28 Nov 2012 18:31:22 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=27080#comment-21162 It never was proliferation of nuclear weapons we had to worry about, because the things are just too damn difficult to build. The weapons that transform the world are the ones simple enough to copy in a low-tech undeveloped environment. Like the AK-47. It's been estimated that the design is responsible for more deaths in the 20th century than any other weapon ever known. Hitler and Stalin and Pol Pot et al murdered fewer people than AK-47s. That cheap simple little rifle is the worst weapon of mass destruction ever invented. Until perhaps it's surpassed by killer drones you can build from an RC kit and a cell phone. Or--best remember when we are--printed out by an open-source "3D printer" using public domain plans found on the Internet. Same as it ever was, but worse. Always worse. It never was proliferation of nuclear weapons we had to worry about, because the things are just too damn difficult to build. The weapons that transform the world are the ones simple enough to copy in a low-tech undeveloped environment.

Like the AK-47. It’s been estimated that the design is responsible for more deaths in the 20th century than any other weapon ever known. Hitler and Stalin and Pol Pot et al murdered fewer people than AK-47s. That cheap simple little rifle is the worst weapon of mass destruction ever invented.

Until perhaps it’s surpassed by killer drones you can build from an RC kit and a cell phone. Or–best remember when we are–printed out by an open-source “3D printer” using public domain plans found on the Internet.

Same as it ever was, but worse. Always worse.

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