On 3/18/13, Jay Ashworth <jra@baylink.com> wrote: [snip]
In the next 3 years, it will become possible to build an autonomously navigating aircraft that can a) cross the Atlantic and b) carry a nuclear weapon.
Not only is it already possible to build a human manually navigated aircraft that can do both (a), and (b), they already exist, and computer autonomy isn't necessary or useful, to hit a single big target; now computer autonomous aircraft that can do only (a) could be just as useful as decoys. Nuclear weapons are rare, expensive, and the existing ones are (hopefully) well-secured, due to their extremely high value. I would be more concerned about the possibility of a large swarm -- of half a million solar powered drones of the approximate size of a large eagle capable of crossing the oceans and releasing a spray of bio agents over very large distances.
-- jra -- -JH