"DIY Drone Attacks on the Rise" Topic

More than a dozen homemade drones attempted to attack two Russian military bases in Syria in the past week, while a swarm of three remote-control boats in the Red Sea rushed a Saudi-flagged oil taker…

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An oil-taker sounds more interesting, actually.

Is 3 the official minimum for a "swarm"?

Dan

Yes, anything less than 3 is a "collection".
Unfortunately, it was just a matter of time.

Poor mans cruise missile

All machines are amplifiers, and mass production means we empower lots of individuals. Just like the laser printer created desktop publishing YouTube makes anyone a TV producer, technology democratizes everything. Devices let everyone do more of what they would do anyway, whether you want to isolate or connect, learn or stay ignorant, grow food, gossip, spread an idea, get ahead or waste your time.

Some people want to be terrorists or guerrillas, technology will enable them to do more. So these attacks are not just predictable or expected, this is literally how things work.

The question is whether we, as developed societies, will come up with smart was to catch bad guys using technology, or just restrict everyone's access to technology even though that's a bad idea. I'm not particularly optimistic, but here's hoping.

The bad guys aren't only brain-dead individuals. Do remember that they also come in very large groups with uniforms, taxes, currencies, laws, and governments too.