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Comment by danudey | Hacker News Reader

I've seen several news stories here in BC and other places on the west coast about rescue and fire fighting planes which were grounded due to unmanned drones in their airspace. One idiot hobbyist with no regard for anyone else can threaten thousands of acres of forest and countless human lives.

Shut these people down, bring the hammer down on people being idiots, and let the responsible people keep going.

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I mean, this isn't even someone toying around with a quad and not realizing there was serious air traffic in the area. They repeatedly ignored the FAA telling them to knock it off with the drones around jumbo jets.

What exactly did they think would happen?

Frankly, I think the disparity between the cost of drones and the amount of damage that they can do in irresponsible or unskilled hands has put us in an untenable situation. We need to quickly develop technological countermeasures against unlawful drone use, or we can expect to see a draconian law enforcement response, just as we have seen in another similar arena: hacking.

Here's the thing - this problem will only become more common. A side effect of scientific and technological progress is that individuals wield ever increasing amounts of destructive power.

Technological countermeasures will only lead to an arms race, in which the defender is always at a disadvantage.

In the very near future, how are we supposed to defend against a high-school kid who accidentally created a deadly pathogen? How about a deliberate bioattack? We really need to figure this out, and sooner rather than later.

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