News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:German chancellor’s drone “attack” shows the threat of we... by gojomo on Thursday September 19, 2013 @03:18AM (#6410301)
The blog Marginal Revolution considered the question a few months ago: "What is the political equilibrium when insect-sized drone assassins are available?"

http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/06/wha...

Adapting my comment from there:

One possibility is that in the future, high-status (and thus also high-office) can only be safely held by pseudonymous cryptographic identities that can’t be linked to soft, locatable, assassination-prone meatspace bodies.

Note that this also makes it possible for a high-status identity/officeholder to be a branded collective (or AI) that continues beyond the death of any its members.

So, potential news from that future:

The Supreme Court, on a 5-4 ruling authored by Chief Justice @CyberJeffersonian_7, rejected the suspiciously-late election returns from Puerto Marte, throwing the 2096 election to Senator @Verax1983 over Governor @Locke2001, in the closest Electoral College contest since Bush-Gore in 2000.

From his/her undisclosed location, President-Elect @Verax1983 praised the ruling and again denied allegations that he/she has been a software-only entity for the last 17 years.

I, for one, welcome our new pseudonymous overlords.

Re:German chancellor’s drone “attack” shows the threat of we... by jacquesm on Thursday September 19, 2013 @05:32AM (#6410672)
I see some Enders Game references in there.

You may very well be right about your future vision, I'd love to be a fly on a wall somewhere in 2100.

Re:German chancellor’s drone “attack” shows the threat of we... by hexscrews on Thursday September 19, 2013 @09:20AM (#6411399)
You might be able to do that, If Brain-Machine interfaces become advanced enough.
Re:German chancellor’s drone “attack” shows the threat of we... by computeloops on Thursday September 19, 2013 @04:41AM (#6410548)
This makes the current setup look so innocent. Probably we should enjoy till it lasts.
Re:German chancellor’s drone “attack” shows the threat of we... by andybak on Thursday September 19, 2013 @05:16AM (#6410637)
And in conclusion - future politicians will be banned from using Google+
Re:German chancellor’s drone “attack” shows the threat of we... by anonymous on Thursday September 19, 2013 @04:30AM (#6410518)
This will bring new meaning to the "we are legion" motto.