Also see the followup to this piece, “OSD 218: The off switch — the bear case for smart guns”. Software has a set of cool properties. Flexible. Forkable. Hard to track, and hard to stop. Viral, both in its spread and its rapid mutation. One of its weirder properties is that it has a different kind of virality, more like a zombie movie — anything that software touches will itself start to take on the properties of software. Even objects in the visible world are exposed to this effect. For example, the control systems of modern cars, from the infotainment to the steering and the throttle, have a software intermediary between them and the driver. Cars are physical objects, sure. But each year, their properties become less and less like those of a car in the traditional sense, and more like those of a suite of software whose purpose happens to be moving humans through physical space at 85 mph. (More on that in
To expand on Greg's concern in a different direction, how about when hackers break into the guns (because it WILL happen) and remotely pull the trigger. If the authorization and fire command is all in software, it will get hacked and they WILL be firing unattended, or while in your holster.
Greg hit this before I did, but my first thoughts were, "And then the government turned off all of the guns..." And let's say they aren't on a network and can't be turned off. What if you starved an area for power and the guns couldn't be charged or provided with whatever power source they needed? Or, to swim deeper down the dystopian conspiracy hole - EMP to not only cripple an area of society, but to shut off their weapons! It gets juicier and juicier how this tech could be turned against the user. And the next thing you know, a whole group of society is making homemade firearms like the ones used in Brazilian favelas.
"People pay a lot of money for fancy triggers today. How about a trigger that can be programmed to have any weight, any number of stages, any feel to the break? And the ability to change all of that anytime you want, or even from shot to shot."
I want to say that already exists with Digital Trigger Technologies, which of course, they say they are NOT Smart Gun tech. I'm not entirely convinced because we can see this just over the horizon.
Regarding the "Smart Gun", Could the software be controlled from an outside source preventing it from operation? Might be outlandish, but it makes me think of the truckers in Canada that had their bank accounts frozen. Not a fan, too many reasons to make me say no.
“Get ready for a court case about whether possession of a machine gun download is a felony.”
Given the recent track record of the ATF and states like California, expect some government entity to try to ban any “fire-by-wire” technology. If not, then they’ll certainly attempt to strictly control it. After all, the California Legislature is currently considering a bill that would criminalize the possession of almost all 3D printers--except for state-licensed operators. Expect the same with smart gun tech.
To expand on Greg's concern in a different direction, how about when hackers break into the guns (because it WILL happen) and remotely pull the trigger. If the authorization and fire command is all in software, it will get hacked and they WILL be firing unattended, or while in your holster.
Greg hit this before I did, but my first thoughts were, "And then the government turned off all of the guns..." And let's say they aren't on a network and can't be turned off. What if you starved an area for power and the guns couldn't be charged or provided with whatever power source they needed? Or, to swim deeper down the dystopian conspiracy hole - EMP to not only cripple an area of society, but to shut off their weapons! It gets juicier and juicier how this tech could be turned against the user. And the next thing you know, a whole group of society is making homemade firearms like the ones used in Brazilian favelas.
"People pay a lot of money for fancy triggers today. How about a trigger that can be programmed to have any weight, any number of stages, any feel to the break? And the ability to change all of that anytime you want, or even from shot to shot."
I want to say that already exists with Digital Trigger Technologies, which of course, they say they are NOT Smart Gun tech. I'm not entirely convinced because we can see this just over the horizon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZVUSup5BvM
Regarding the "Smart Gun", Could the software be controlled from an outside source preventing it from operation? Might be outlandish, but it makes me think of the truckers in Canada that had their bank accounts frozen. Not a fan, too many reasons to make me say no.
“Get ready for a court case about whether possession of a machine gun download is a felony.”
Given the recent track record of the ATF and states like California, expect some government entity to try to ban any “fire-by-wire” technology. If not, then they’ll certainly attempt to strictly control it. After all, the California Legislature is currently considering a bill that would criminalize the possession of almost all 3D printers--except for state-licensed operators. Expect the same with smart gun tech.