Remind me, why doesn't the US government simply explode these mysterious drones?

Amy (she/her/hers)

@[email protected] in many cities (mine included) drones in public areas without permits are prohibited, but there's a legal concept of proportional response - shooting a drone down if there's a lesser way to handle the situation is the legally responsible option

once the owner of the drone is found, then action can be taken against them - that's the protection of people's lives and privacy long term

Laxystem

@amyipdev sure, but once you set precedent once, no one puts scary drones in the air anymore, cause they go boom.

"Mysterious drones above people's homes" sounds like a caboom worthy situation even considering proportional response. Like, what if it's some shady company training AI on you? Ew. Go to hell, caboom, if it's not, get a permit.

Amy (she/her/hers)

@[email protected]

but once you set precedent once, no one puts scary drones in the air anymore, cause they go boom

unfortunately it doesn't quite work like that here, harm to property isn't an effective method of dissuading behavior

Like, what if it's some shady company training AI on you? Ew. Go to hell, kaboom, if it's not, get a permit

Unless the AI company is planning on blowing up/crashing their own drone anyway, it will have to return home at some point, at which point you can follow it and prosecute those who launched it

Laxystem

@amyipdev

unfortunately it doesn't quite work like that here, harm to property isn't an effective method of dissuading behavior

It kinda should be? Like, if you use a drone, and it gets exploded, you won't use another drone. These things are expensive.

What if it's a domestic terror cell making you used to drones before releasing a wave of actually explody ones? Do you really want your government to take that risk on your life?

Sure, that might seem far fetched, but like, it's simply not. People do these things. I don't understand the philosophy of "we'll wait until something happens and sue them", especially when people's lives are potentially at stake?

Amy (she/her/hers)

@[email protected]

It kinda should be? Like, if you use a drone, and it gets exploded, you won't use another drone. These things are expensive.

It would be great if this is how people thought, but it isn't. Especially not corporations.

What if it's a domestic terror cell making you used to drones before releasing a wave of actually explody ones? Do you really want your government to take that risk on your life?

I never said flying drones in public areas should be legal - quite the opposite; there's a difference between exploding the drone, which makes direct accountability harder (no on-drone evidence and you can't follow it back to the launch location), and tracking it down using forensic evidence

This isn't a "wait until something happens and sue them" - it's simply a different approach. You can actively sue/prosecute as people launch drones instead of shooting the drones down

Laxystem

@amyipdev It's far fetched, and impossible, and will never happen, until it's not, and it has happened, and a thousand people died.

Like, it's the same attitude the USA had about airport security before 2001. Israel had incredibly strict airport security compared to the rest of the world back then, nobody in the USA even considered planes can crash into buildings. And then it happened, and lots of people died, and no one understood why for whatever reason.

Letting people put potentially dangerous weapons in the air without a permit is ridiculous, doesn't matter how low that risk is, it's simply asking for caboom to happen.

Take my terrorist cell example - even if these drones aren't, a potential terroristic cell could still use this effect of getting used to the drones to cause massive, massive damage.

Why risk it? To avoid a million dollar lawsuit? This seriously ain't that much for stuff of this scale.

Amy (she/her/hers)

@[email protected] also,

Like, it's the same attitude the USA had about airport security before 2001

we still don't do anything about airport security, or really any form of security. people get through TSA with weapons all the time (think there was one study putting it at 90 percent). while i haven't brought a weapon into a courthouse before I did accidentally forget to take out a laptop charger at a federal courthouse where the policy was "you must take out everything, chargers included, the scanner will alert us if you didn't"

also the tel aviv airport security regimen is so strict and insane as to arguably be an active security threat to travelers (especially specific classes of travelers)

Laxystem

@amyipdev look, I don't know how to pass my point further.

You can't know if a drone simply collects data, if it's a weapon, or what. Shooting it down is the safest option, cause weapons don't neatly return to home base for you to sue them, they explode. Chemical weapons—that's a different issue entirely, and you're probably better off exploding it and hoping they burn instead of letting them hit their target. This is also a matter of being able to detect drones before nearing population centres, which you probably should be able to do anyway.

And, you're underestimating people. No one is stubborn/stupid enough to continue purchasing more and more hundred-dollar drones and sacrifice them to be shot down. Even the war here involved drones made out of merely cardboard.

It's definitely a wait for something to happen situation. Even if the current drones are out of good will, the next ones aren't guaranteed to be, and even worse—now, people are used to them.

Laxystem

@amyipdev

We still don't do anything about airport security

Funny you say that, but you kinda do. Going on a plane to America is much, much more difficult and bureaucratic than to any other place. Is it effective? No, but it, exists, ig.

as to arguably be an active security threat to travelers

Yes. But you don't have to go fully overboard like Tel Aviv, you're not at war. Though after all, no plane hit Azrieli. It works.

especially specific classes of travelers

Inspecting people differently like that sucks, but besides Casual Racism from airport employees, it's unfortunately justified. Just how ethnic wars work. I hate it, but the only solution is to just end the conflict, nothing you can do about it now besides that.

Laxystem

@amyipdev justified i.e. can't blame people.