<story><title>Coming Soon: the Drone Arms Race</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/sunday-review/coming-soon-the-drone-arms-race.html</url><text></text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>astrofinch</author><text>&amp;#62;“The problem is that we’re creating an international norm” — asserting the right to strike preemptively against those we suspect of planning attacks, argues Dennis M. Gormley, a senior research fellow at the University of Pittsburgh and author of “Missile Contagion,” who has called for tougher export controls on American drone technology. “The copycatting is what I worry about most.”&lt;p&gt;How about the fact that we&apos;re doing it, period?&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ted.com/talks/sam_richards_a_radical_experiment_in_empathy.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.ted.com/talks/sam_richards_a_radical_experiment_i...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Coming Soon: the Drone Arms Race</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/sunday-review/coming-soon-the-drone-arms-race.html</url><text></text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>grandalf</author><text>Imagine when drones the size of dragonflies carry needles containing poison to assassination targets.  Today&apos;s drones are very crude in comparison.&lt;p&gt;Once it becomes plausible that any squirrel, mouse, dragon fly, etc. could be an assassination weapon, it will become necessary for heads of state to travel surrounded by swarms of friendly robots, in all sorts of form factors.</text></comment>