"Bull fighting" from the future: Drone Slaying

For a few months I've been thinking about the history of warfare and sports. My grandfather grew up bullfighting - Most of my memories of him are watching the "corridas" every Saturday.

Sports such as these originated as abstract concepts or rituals tied to contemporary warfare. This is the case also of jousting in Europe after the end of the Crusades, and kendo in Japan after the samurai.

But war has changed, and it became computerized. With this came the rise of esports. We had the introduction of long-range drones in war, which was followed by cinematography with drones.

Recently, we had the explosion of drone-racing with fast FPV drones - which then got converted as tools for war in Ukraine.

Some people think that we'll automate humans out of the warzone - but I think you'll always need guys on the ground.

How can someone defend themselves against fast suicide drones?

A shot-gun, a net, electromagnetic interference, another drone? All interesting answers, but if all else fails, the last resort, almost in a symbolic way would be a lance.

This is drone slaying.

A spectacle and a statement making humans and their courage the center of the theater.

To call this a sport would diminish it - let's call it an art performance, just like bullfighting.

I've been hosting underground drone slaying events in different warehouses in San Francisco.

The rules for now are simple. A fighter is in the middle of an arena, and he has to survive different waves of 4 drones coming at him in 3 rounds.

As the rounds progress, the arena get's smaller. At first, the fighter has no weapons and he has to dodge the drones. In the last round, when the arena is too small and he can't move - he get's a long spear. The fighter that get's hit the less wins.

There is something the resonates with people, as this dangerous technology is hurtling towards them, and while holding the weapon of their forefathers, they stand their ground, they don't blink, and then they pierce forward.

There are several more modes that we're exploring, with autonomous swarms, allied drones that help you, adversarial face-recognition camo and stealth ware.

I'm focusing on the symbolism of each part of Drone Slaying. Not making it a pro-luddite festivity, but an event that can bring people together.

So far, the online-right, the progressives and the techbros are liking it, and people from all these camps have been coming to the events and enjoying themselves.

But beyond being fun, I consider our lack of drones in the US an issue of national security. Right now there's no real demand pull for americans to buy drone swarms.

I think this could be the vehicle to have "one drone swarm per household" -- kids buy drone-swarms to practice this new sport, but parents can crank up the settings to function as home-invasion protection.

And once you have this demand pull, you can ramp up production of more drones in the US and in allied countries(?)

I've also been thinking that the demise of blackwater was media attacks. I think Erik Prince understands this and that's why he wrote a book, started a podcast and now does a lot of intervies. But I'm guessing that won't be enough.

On the other hand, if you have a combat sport in which your guys (not you as in, Erik Prince) become famous and kids around the country idolize them (i.e. UFC fighters) and then, when needed, those guys are deployed abroad to protect someone diplomat -- it's harder for the media to attack you like they attacked BlackWater, because thousands of people around the country are fans of your fighters!

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I'll be hosting more events in SF. It would be great to have people from here join. I'm also open to ideas on how drone slaying could be developed. You can give me your email at droneslaying.com and I'll email you for new events.

Here's a link to one of our events this Saturday in SF - https://lu.ma/ny6dcn5m

Sounds like a lot of fun. Is there any video material available?

>>2121
Yeah here's a video from the event:
https://x.com/alder_riley/status/1814843676960694580

> But beyond being fun, I consider our lack of drones in the US an issue of national security. Right now there's no real demand pull for americans to buy drone swarms.

I agree, but isn't the problem that Americans will simply buy drones from China? I think being able to build drones (in addition to other manufacturing) will be crucial going forward – don't think that's a demand problem.

>>2105
>lack of drones in the US an issue of national security
>>2125
>Americans will simply buy drones from China?

I vaguely recall the book Unrestricted Warfare having appeared in a discussion previously, though it seems to have disappeared. It seems like an interesting read: https://www.c4i.org/unrestricted.pdf

>>2125
I think our best chance is to double down on making drones with capabilities that the Chinese can't make yet (no one has figured out autonomous drone swarms), then use that production leverage to start making cheaper drones later. We can't compete with making cheaper drones straight-on because we don't have slave labour like they do, or we need to have Tesla Optimus robots (I'm skeptical of this) make them? or we would have to offshore to Vietnam/Mexico?

Let's say we already have massive production of drones in the US. I think the market of people that want to buy drone swarms might be the same size as the preppers - way smaller than the market for AR15 - why? shooting ARs is fun, there are sports around shooting. Drone Racing doesn't need/use drone swarms and requires 4 or 5 drones at most. We need Americans to have swarms 20+ drones.

>or we would have to offshore to Vietnam/Mexico?

To the extent that we can engage in positive-sum games with allies and have them produce goods or parts, it is an offensive approach to USA-PRC strategic competition. Vietnam is noteworthy in the extent to which it will go to protect its national sovereignty, especially against the Chinese state. By this I don't mean a rejection of Njuic philosophy (Nho giáo in Vietnam, "Confucianism"), but refusing to accept Peking as caput mundi and a preference for US involvement in the region to ameliorate the current South Sea tensions. The Philippines and Malaysia also have interests in the South Sea, but they have been less influenced by Njuic civilization, unlike highly industrialized Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

Many Chinese electronics companies already produce good quality goods in Mexico, but I don't know what would motivate the Mexicans to prefer the USA over the PRC. It's quite possible that one would run up against antagonistic entrenched interests in Mexico.

>>2127
>chinese slave labor
Chinese industrial workers make more than Americans adjusted for PPP. It’s not labor cost, it’s skill and technology. You’re 10 or 20 years out of date if you think china is behind in any way. America is utterly behind on all aspects of industry and technology, especially in drones. Again, consumer demand is a stupid theory of drone dominance. This is entirely a matter of industrial policy and governance.

>>2131
>It’s not labor cost, it’s skill and technology.

This reminds me of watching American Factory directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert a few years ago, where the chairman of Fuyao group (a glass manufacturing company) tours a Fuyao factory at a former General Motors plant in Ohio, with cultural clashes ensuing. East Asia generally runs on a honor/shame culture, so not pulling one's weight at a factory is seen as shameful. Confucian culture is a form of social technology, albeit one that, absent innovation, modern industrial society will eventually exhaust.

>>2132
>Confucian culture is a form of social technology, albeit one that, absent innovation, modern industrial society will eventually exhaust.
This is an important point. Westerners in their feudal pre-industrial condition had virtues that are no longer common. Industrialization or modernization turned them into degenerate vagrants over a few generations. I was just in the presence of an American woman recently and it was quite jarring. Boorish, with vulgar speech in a husky voice, with airs of bold confidence but utter lack of nobility or grace. All the charms of Mordor. Good blood, but utter lack of care for the body and soul. They were Anglos once, taken and twisted by the dark powers, tortured and mutilated. A ruined and terrible form of life. This will happen to the Asians as well unless they do something weird and different.

>>2131

America retains distinct advantages in premier industrial domains, such as computer chip design (note, separate from manufacture), rockets, turbine jet engines, and various advanced materials science. As a strictly military example, no one makes night vision as performant as ours.

We indisputably lack robustness in many sectors of our supply chain, and knowledge of certain styles/approaches to the _business_ of manufacturing, but the rumor of America's demise is matched only by the trumpeting of carefully presented Chinese successes.