When discussing what weapons could be extremely lethal yet very cheap and accessible for creation by almost any group of people or even a single individual, viruses likely come to mind. Given the rapid development and decreasing cost of biotechnologies, there is a threat of “basement laboratories” that can be easily opened and moved from place to place. However, the list of lethal and accessible weaponry does not end there. As noted in Alexander Rozov’s “LiveJournal,” AI-powered drones could become such weapons.
To provide context, it is first worth quoting a comment from user alekseymeeres, to which Rozov was responding:
Light drones have changed the battlefield. Today, this is a flying sniper that terrorizes everyone—people and even armored vehicles. The cost of a kamikaze drone is 1,000 dollars (approximately), which is practically one enemy soldier. A million dollars is a thousand enemy soldiers. A billion dollars is a million enemy soldiers. Even by WWII prices, this is dirt cheap.
Further, based on technological patterns, Rozov makes predictions that:
– light drones costing 100 dollars and produced at 100,000 units per day will appear, which is entirely realistic;
– drones for destroying drones will appear as the only possible defensive measure against drone attacks; however, manual control of them will be impossible due to such a complex target, making them autonomous, which will also make them resistant to signal jamming;
– the decision-making barrier will disappear; humans will no longer make decisions about whether to launch an attack or in which direction to conduct it if the drones are already in the air.
But what is more important to us is not how drones will be used by states in wars. We are concerned with the consequences for society as a whole:
– due to the simplicity and low cost of the technology, it cannot remain a secret; any extremist or mafia group with any political or economic goals will be able to use it;
– no civilian object in the world will ever be safe again;
– the boundary between peace and war will disappear.
Most likely, many will be able to create drones at home simply by following instructions from the internet; it will not be much harder than making a children’s electric toy. Ensuring autonomous control resistant to EW suppression is also not a problem at the current level of AI development. And any person with a dysfunction of the violence-inhibiting mechanism and psychopathic predispositions will easily use such drones to commit violence. Moreover, tracking and punishing the perpetrator will be extremely difficult, unless they decide to openly release a swarm of drones in broad daylight, which would encourage an even greater number of psychopathic individuals to commit violence. What the drones are equipped with is also unimportant, even without access to explosives or their components. For example, they could carry flammable substances, and if the target of the attack is just one person, a swarm of drones might be able to beat them down by brute force. In such a world, there would be no possibility to engage in full productive activity, to develop, or even just to live peacefully. Perpetrators will establish total terror for both each other and ordinary peaceful people.
As some researchers believe, avoiding irreparable harm in the future will only be possible either through a complete renunciation of freedom and the introduction of a totalitarian system of round-the-clock surveillance of every person, or through “moral bio-enhancement.” To implement the second scenario, it would be sufficient to develop and distribute a therapy that restores the full functioning of the violence-inhibiting mechanism in psychopathic individuals. Only this way can the threat they create in the violent pursuit of their goals be reliably eliminated. Furthermore, even politicians, who will not soon have the technical capability to monitor what every single citizen does behind closed doors, should consider the idea of moral bio-enhancement, as they too will not be safe.
