2026-02-16
Back when I was making youtube videos about ASI risk, here's a youtube script I wrote. I didn't actually make the video. Feel free to use this however you wish. Goal is being memetic and addictive, so I have selectively emphasised some ideas, and not others. I don't think I have actively lied about anything.
Snowden: You are next victim of Israeli drone strikestarget audience: libertarians
stakes: is your life in danger or not (libertarians obsess over
this, they want power to protect themselves, for example using guns)
hook type: quotation hook
will create an open loop: payoff is to find out how exactly your
life is in danger
how to create curiosity and uniqueness
context lean, then scroll stopping interjection, then contrarian snapback
read aloud script to make sure it sounds simple and clear
Edward Snowden recently spoke out against Israel's use of drones. But
his warning is not for people in Israel or Palestine. His warning is
for American citizens back at home. He says your life is in danger. In
this video, we are going to understand the reasons why he is saying
this. Why is your life in danger, from a war thousands of miles away?
As you may have noticed, I am not American. However I think this
message deserves to reach everyone.
https://x.com/Snowden/status/1770936325996155290?s=20
(???)
open loop
payoff - how is snowden's background related to drones
ugh this is a weak payoff because it is way too complicated.
think more here, for simpler payoffs. the content is good but I need a
simpler payoff to hook viewers.
sequences with the three points. it is currently >1000 words, which is
too long for a single open loop.
So first of all, there are a few things we need to understand about
Snowden's background. I am not going to give a generic history lesson
just repeating information you already know. Everything I mention is
directly related to the topic of this video. Which is, "how do drones
affect your safety?". If you stick around, you will find out how these
topics are connected.
Point Number One.
As per law, the NSA could spy on American citizens only if it had a
warrant. Getting a warrant required demonstrating a probable cause for
why you needed to spy on someone. Therefore, the primary job of the
NSA was to spy on enemies in foreign nations. The original job of the
NSA was not to spy on people inside America. And it is true that in
the 80s and the 90s the NSA did primarily focus on foreign countries.
However once they built the capability, once they knew how to do this,
then they soon enough realised they could use this against everyone.
In order to use this capability against the US population, however,
they needed to make a plan.
And this brings us to Point Number Two.
Their plan had to be secret and centralised. Very few people were
involved in the NSA's plan. The Vice President at the time, Dick
Cheney was involved. So was Nansi Pelosi. The heads of the NSA and the
CIA were involved. Most people in Congress and Senate were not even
informed about this. People in the Supreme Court were not informed
about this. In fact, they used a secret court, called the FISA court,
to get approvals for their work. This way they didn't need to ever get
permission from a court in the public eye. The existence of these NSA
surveillance programs was classified. So that even if someone on the
inside wanted to inform other people, it was technically illegal for
them to talk about it. So, let's say, I am a Senator who knows about
this, and all the other Senators around me don't know, it is illegal
for me to talk to them about it.
You essentially now had a secret government within the government,
that spied on everyone but was accountable to no one.
Point Number Three.
A major reason why we got into this situation in the first place was
that surveillance was cheap. The tech companies were already
collecting all the data. The infrastructure for fiber optic cables had
already been built. It was already in use. All the NSA had to do was
insert themselves as the middlemen in infrastructure that already
existed.
Now, coming back to drones. All of what I talked about so far, this is
exactly what could happen with drones.
Point Number One, when surveillance capabilities were built, they were
initially used against foreign actors. The same is happenning with
drones today. Today, drones are being used primarily against other
nations. Drones are being used in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Drones
are being used in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Usage of these drones
in war increases the capability of the US, because they now understand
which drones work, how effective are they, what are the defences, and
so on. Once the capability exists, it will also be very tempting to
use it against the domestic population.
So just because you are not living in Israel or Palestine or Ukraine
or wherever, doesn't mean you are safe from drones. This is the
important thing.
Point Number Two regarding how drones are similar to surveillance is
that they centralise power. A very small number of people can run
surveillance for the entire globe. Similarly, a very small number of
people can control an entire drone army. Here is an example of a
control room from where drones are being piloted. The drones are
thousands of miles away from the control room. The drones are in the
war zone. The control room is in the US. As of today, we hire a number
of human pilots to fly the drones. However AI will soon enable
autopilot capabilities. This will allow one pilot to fly hundreds,
thousands or maybe even millions of drones.
Here is a recent demonstration in China of around ten thousand drones
being flown using AI. This means a handful of people can fly ten
thousand drones.
Point Number Three, just as surveillance eventually became cheap,
similarly drones are cheap. So manufacturing an entire drone army is
not very difficult. Let's assume one drone costs a hundred dollars.
Then you can make a billion drones for hundred billion dollars. Just,
you know, simple math. This is around 10% of the annual military
budget of the United States. This means the US can manufacture a
billion drones every single year. So we could soon have vastly more
drones on Earth than people.
There is one and only one reason this has not happened yet. Which is,
we are still working on the AI capability, to fly these many drones
all at once. Once the AI capability exists, once AI advances, we will
have a drone army.
Okay so, so far we have established a few facts. One. Drone swarms are
being used in international conflicts today, and tomorrow they might
be used against the domestic population. Two. There will likely be a
small number of people in the US govt secretly making all these
decisions. And three. You will have way more drones than people, so
for one person, you can have hundreds of drones targeting them.
This brings us to the next important question. Assuming a drone is
after you, how will you protect yourself?
Just think about it for a moment. The domestic police force has
millions of drones. And for whatever reason, they have selected you as
a target. Is there any way you can protect yourself or not. Take your
time to think about it. And feel free to pause the video if you want
more time.
So here are some common suggestions people have. Maybe they will use a
gun to shoot the drone. Maybe they will use a signal jammer. Maybe
they will use an EMP. Maybe they will use another drone to fight the
attacking drone.
We are going to now explore all of these defences, to see which ones
work. I will answer this question with a few video clips.
So here is one option, hiding in a tank, which makes sense in a
battlefield. Unfortunately, hiding in a tank won't protect you.
https://x.com/ManiacMagic1/status/1739931282157478113?s=20
People driving tanks are now using cages to protect themselves. So
there is now a tank but with all this barbed wire around it.
https://x.com/XNews24_7/status/1977180193338122352?s=20
If the explosive is big enough, even cages won't protect you. Here is
a drone dropping a 10 kilogram high explosive. You can imagine being
inside a tank. Even that won't protect you. People have tried using
nets to protect themselves. This fails if the nets are bombed.
(5-10s cropped clip from
https://x.com/GrandpaRoy2/status/1896978183561589090?s=20
)
For all the people watching, who are in support of gun rights, this
section is for you. Can your guns protect you against an attacking
drone?
Here is an anti-aircraft gun. Not a regular rifle or a machine gun,
but one used to shoot down military aircraft. Even that is failing to
shoot down drones. Some drones were shot down, but many also passed
through. The important thing to remember is that drones can attack in
swarms, and they're very cheap to manufacture, so you cannot shoot all
of them at once.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjeRmWXwzms
If you live in a city, there are plenty of opportunities for stealth.
And drones can fly at over 100 miles an hour. By the time you see it
coming, it may already be too late. Here is an example.
https://x.com/BGatesIsaPyscho/status/1993286753302856019?s=20
Drones can hunt in complete darkness. You may not even be aware that
you are a target. Here is a drone swarm using thermal cameras to bomb
its victims.
https://x.com/GrandpaRoy2/status/1992466340595274161?s=20
Signal jammers can jam signals, but this won't work if the drone runs
autonomously using AI. Here is a drone destroying a signal jammer.
https://x.com/GrandpaRoy2/status/1918356190788239685?s=20
EMPs are not used in modern conflict. The US air force made an EMP
called THOR which cost 18 million dollars and has a speculated range
of 2 kilometres. In theory, an EMP may be able to take down drone
swarms. Atleast around key targets like where the weapons are stored.
In practice we don't see much usage of EMPs. And in any case, these
are not available for civilian use. Even if you had the 20 million
dollars required to purchase an EMP, you probably won't be allowed to
buy one. So an EMP can't protect you either.
A plausible defence is another drone. Perhaps a drone can take down
another drone. The defensive drone needs to move as fast as the
offensive drone and it needs to adapt its path in real time. Just
shooting bullets doesn't work as bullets can't adapt their path in
real time. It seems to be an open question whether drones can defend
against other drones. As the technology develops further, we will soon
get the answer to this
In conclusion, I agree with the tweet we talked about earlier. I think
drones could be a real threat for you to think about. It is not
obvious that there are any defences, that you can purchase as a
civilian. If someone in the govt has decided to use a drone strike
against you, there may be nothing you can do.
The actual reason I made this video is because I am worried about
something even bigger than drone armies. I am worried about
superintelligence. Superintelligence is an AI that is way better than
everyone at everything. Such an AI could control a drone army, but it
could also do lots of other things. For example it could invent
weapons even better than drones. I will however leave that topic for
another video. I know you may have a lot of questions about
superintelligence. Unfortunately I can't answer them in this video in
such a short span of time.
Hope you enjoyed this video, and don't forget to like, share and
subscribe if you did in fact learn something new here.
snowden has actual quotes against drone swarms
https://x.com/Snowden/status/1770936325996155290?s=20
drone killing which snowden retweeted
https://x.com/RamAbdu/status/1770895103785046489?s=20
from slaughterbots (FLI documentary)
autonomous weapons database
https://autonomousweaponswatch.org
another short documentary on autonomous drone swarms
https://youtu.be/2m_3xJKSsbI?si=IUytZ3tHNmq1zk-L
https://youtube.com/shorts/F2UXZtkv7f4?si=FHJ53Hx0vVqAc16M
example video on chinese autonomous drone swarms, also talks about
military applications
https://youtube.com/shorts/nnuuv-Xq6_4?si=3QSFi7Ley1XWawj3
also on drone swarms and EMP
https://youtube.com/shorts/Bmw_1qTbR-I?si=ypgEFJyeChRkPbzN
also on drone swarms
https://youtube.com/shorts/pGVojHO2V18?si=QemkTt1bloIiwTW5
test site - drone swarms navigate forest without crashing
https://youtu.be/P9ZbipO8vxM?si=oXpIFnVOhwnHzrJ2
100 drones deployed in ukraine
https://youtube.com/shorts/DLSvKb4dgf8?si=_OVB1yO03Y_dj_0r
nice ukraine drone footage
https://youtu.be/NjeRmWXwzms?si=hRP2U1kTo8EFjl5A
All ukraine twitter footage
ukraine drone swarm footage
https://x.com/prestonstew_/status/1993286211621077130?s=20
ukraine drone v drone
https://x.com/NAFORaccoon/status/1992982937911070924?s=20
ukraine drone swarm surrounds a person
https://x.com/GrandpaRoy2/status/1992466340595274161?s=20
ukraine drone drops 10 kg high explosive
https://x.com/GrandpaRoy2/status/1896978183561589090?s=20
factory bombed via drone swarm
https://x.com/angelshalagina/status/1967867765425049745?s=20
compilation of russian drone footage
https://x.com/RT_com/status/1992319182831292633?s=20
civilian building bombed by drone
https://x.com/BGatesIsaPyscho/status/1993286753302856019?s=20
drone hits russian evacuation team
https://x.com/AncientAlien01/status/1767229178552697326?s=20
huge chinese drone swarms, 10k drones
https://x.com/JPLindsley/status/1972963803097907708?s=20
another drone dropping bomb on someone
https://x.com/GrandpaRoy2/status/1993010797686276174?s=20
drone firebombed an underground hideout, burning alive everyone inside
https://x.com/banderafella/status/1841873804173443438?s=20
https://x.com/Kagan_M_Dunlap/status/1931145042334453914?s=20
fuel depot bombed via drone
https://x.com/Kagan_M_Dunlap/status/1931145042334453914?s=20
another ukraine fuel depot bombed via drone
https://x.com/olddog100ua/status/1966264826071589168?s=20
ukraine tank bombed via drone
https://x.com/ManiacMagic1/status/1739931282157478113?s=20
more civilian building bombing via drone
https://x.com/themilkman80/status/1993296753580556758?s=20
ukraine soldiers unsuccessfully trying to shoot down a drone swarm
https://x.com/visegrad24/status/1964415986049662999?s=20
tanks using cages to protect against drone attacks
https://x.com/XNews24_7/status/1977180193338122352?s=20
more compilation of drone swarms
https://x.com/ivan_8848/status/1992756393258999830?s=20
russia moscow - anti-drone defence fires in civilian area
https://x.com/visegrad24/status/1830076324729311341?s=20
more drone attacks in civilian area
https://x.com/ianmiles/status/1870449111499202599?s=20
US military test site - drone swarm used to seige a city
https://youtu.be/zq1ud7CBOaU?si=1-fBqHopiskuETSD
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