Simply send a 3d printer to the victim with the designs for a ladder - guaranteed to break when the victim reaches the top. All you have to do is wait for them to change a lightbulb, allowing you several months..to a year, to come up with some kind of alibi.
Admittedly this was going to be remote scrabble by 3d printers, but I though that was a bit boring. Also remote rock-scissors-paper, printing out hands making the appropriate gesture to the other person's 3d printer, but that was a bit tame as well.
It's one of those days....-- not_morrison_rm, Jul 16 2013 Roald Dahl's vaguely similar invention. http://www.theo-phy...itz/family/dahl.htm [spidermother, Jul 17 2013] 3-D printed Strandbeeste http://www.youtube....watch?v=adm72GaaCJ8//We're a long way (at least 5 years, more likely a couple of decades) from being able to create complete machines in a single operation.// It may not be useful, but it's a complete machine, and it's created in a single operation. [spidermother, Jul 21 2013] Another aspect of harm http://hardware.sla...nanosized-particlesAs mentioned in an annotation. [Vernon, Jul 21 2013] Resident Evil laser slicing https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e8gfGhVL3qsCut short ... [8th of 7, May 24 2018] Me first ever story https://drive.googl...eP8_KU9W-RVe3U0Kv7X [not_morrison_rm, May 25 2018] You'd have to adopt some form of naming convention with your model files, for practical purposes it would be important to distinguish ladder_design.3dp from ladder_design_MURDER.3dp.-- zen_tom, Jul 16 2013 Erm, the first bit is ok, but towards the end it does tend to give the game away.
Or, given metal printing an earwax removal device that just happens bear a startling resemblance to a M1911 45ACP...-- not_morrison_rm, Jul 16 2013 Remember: don't click on executables received over email; don't send money to Nigeria as a deposit in hopes of receiving more in return; and never use a 3D printed object in any safety critical application.
Has the concept of physical hacking using 3d printing and other configurable manufacturing methods made it into sci-fi literature yet?
A while back I was thinking about some methods for automatic manufacturing system, and it occured to me that if it was made available to build arbitrary designs from the public it would be wise to include limitations on designs so that they could not have power sources installed at the autmated manufacturing facility. Otherwise someone could program the manufacturing line to build a remote controlled robot that activates after the last construction step and jumps off the production line. It would then be free to move about the factory, spying on other customer designs, damaging equipment, etc. If that ever happened, "cleaning" the factory to be sure that there were no intruders left might be a little bit like trying to clean viruses and malware from a computer.
This idea is a much simpler incarnation of physical hacking, using close to todays technology. (Is there a common personal 3D printer that could print a ladder tall enough to be deadly?) Like many good hacks, this takes advantage of social engineering to have a human perform the final step of turning a benign printed object into device of destruction. Well, actually I think this particular hack (building a ladder) is a bit weak, but the concept is interesting. [+]-- scad mientist, Jul 16 2013 The concept of stealing time on automated manufacturing equipment is found widely in SF, as is the concept of making such machinery attack people.-- MechE, Jul 16 2013 //automated manufacturing equipment is found widely in SF,
from memory, the only one I can think if of is Jim Digriz, diverting a food packing/labelling conveyor.
//don't click on executables
With the emphasis on "execute".-- not_morrison_rm, Jul 16 2013 // The concept of stealing time on automated manufacturing equipment is found widely in SF //
But what about the concept of buying time on the equipment and using it to build a device that will in some way compromise the manufacturing facility. Or convincing the owners to build something for themselves that turns out to be a trojan horse. These might be interesting attacks if the physical and network security was too good. Rather than exploiting a software issue like a buffer overrun error to run malicious code and install a "back door", the hacker exploits the manufacturing capablity to build a robot that might literally install a back door in the building.-- scad mientist, Jul 16 2013 I believe it was a British minister who, commenting on the attempts to print guns, said that once 3D printing became commonplace we'd have people everywhere printing of strips of Ecstasy.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 16 2013 //be a trojan horse.
Sorry, but I'm going for "Greek horse", as it's them that made it.-- not_morrison_rm, Jul 16 2013 This is a sweet idea. Not so much the ladder but the idea of 3d printer as trojan horse.-- bungston, Jul 16 2013 Some 3D printing methods use a dissolvable "scaffold" to support overhanging (etc) parts during manufacture. If your malicious design was designed carefully enough, the dissolving could allow parts to move; gravity providing the initial motive force, to (perhaps) launch a projectile?-- neutrinos_shadow, Jul 16 2013 Can you offer them a 3-D printed hanky for comfort while they're waiting to expire? No use being uncivilized about it...-- Grogster, Jul 17 2013 //but the idea of 3d printer as trojan horse.
Ahem, Greek horse..
Which I'm guessing wouldn't work these days as the disclaimer would mention "May contain Greeks. Packed by weapon count, not volume. Contents may settle..", but probably could be hidden in the small print somewhere...-- not_morrison_rm, Jul 17 2013 Greek by origin, Trojan by ownership.-- calum, Jul 17 2013 I hardly think the Trojans could be said to have //owned// it given that the Greeks retained possession of the thing for the entire time.-- pocmloc, Jul 17 2013 //said that once 3D printing became commonplace we'd have people everywhere printing of strips of Ecstasy//
If we get to the point of Star Trek replicators, with the ability to synthesize molecules, then all sorts of prohibitions become impossible to enforce, unless it's done at the programming level. Of course most of the value of such substances goes away, since everyone can synthesize their own for personal use.
Until such time as that happens, the options of what you can build are extremely limited. We're a long way (at least 5 years, more likely a couple of decades) from being able to create complete machines in a single operation. The technology to print electronics is fairly minimal, the technology to print motors and similar is even worse, and the ability to do multiple different materials on a single system is completely limited by the number of print heads. And we still aren't printing metal components with the same strength as machined, cast, or forged. Most "metal" printing is glued powder, with closest to real parts being laser sintered powder, which still does not approach the strength or wear properties of solid metal components, let alone the sorts of advanced alloys that are needed for special purpose operations.-- MechE, Jul 17 2013 // Greek Horse // Get over it. The statue used to conquer Troy was the Trojan Horse. That is the title for that particular object, not a descrition of the object. "Trojan Horse" is a capitalized because it is a proper noun. I doubt we know who gave it that title, but you can take it up with them in the afterlife if you don't like it. If you want to talk semantics of a description, the Trojan Horse was not a Greek horse. It was not a horse at all. It was a hollow statue of a horse with soldiers inside.
The term Trojan horse can refer to an attack using a similar methodology. Since it's not a proper noun and doesn't actually have anything to do with the Trojans, I didn't initially capitalize "Trojan" in my annotation above, but I see in a Google search that most reference to Trojan horse attacks capitalize "Trojan" but not "horse".-- scad mientist, Jul 18 2013 I wonder if they make condoms for horses.-- FlyingToaster, Jul 18 2013 // Greek Horse // Get over it
Shan't.-- not_morrison_rm, Jul 19 2013 zen, I read that anno - "mental printing"-- pashute, Jul 19 2013 // If we get to the point of Star Trek replicators, with the ability to synthesize molecules //
Replicators synthesise at the quantum atomic level.
It depends whether your'e "replicating" from a master object, "duplicating", or "synthesising"
Replicating from a master object is easy; it's a variation of how the transporter works. The object is scanned into a pattern buffer, then rematerialised in both the original and the new location. "Feedstock" material is fed into the system and reconfigured using the information stored in the pattern buffer.
Duplication involves reproducing an object from a stored pattern; extensive use of compression algorithms and averaging ensure that the stored pattern isn't unmanagebly large. But this leads to single-bit errors, which mean that it's impossible to reproduce a living organism from a stored pattern. The process is, however, perfectly useable for P.E. teachers.
Synthesising an object which has not previously existed is the most diffcult of the lot. We won't bore you with the details.
It's all in the Star Trek Technical Manual if you care to look, although that only covers Federation technology.-- 8th of 7, Jul 19 2013 Amazing what a 1970s stage props department is able to manufacture, isn't it?-- pocmloc, Jul 19 2013 "It was only as Michael stepped off the windowsill that he wondered if he had mis-entered the scale when 3D-printing his hang-glider."-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 19 2013 //Would that be the 1971 bumper christmas edition
That's the one with the foreword by Abdul Alhazred? Always felt there was something fishy about that one.-- not_morrison_rm, Jul 20 2013 High irony potential: in the time between sending the object & the time it does its job, you might reconcile with the victim. Or the object might get sold at a yard sale, and wend its way back to you...-- smendler, Jul 20 2013 I have made many "ladder" art works.... so I naturally approve. +-- xenzag, Jul 20 2013 3D printing, the process, appears to have a potentially dangerous side-effect. So, perhaps that effect could be enhanced by someone wanting to do harm to another. See link.-- Vernon, Jul 21 2013 From [vernon]'s link: "The emission rates were similar to those measured in previous studies of several other devices and indoor activities, including cooking on a gas or electric stove, burning scented candles, operating laser printers, or even burning a cigarette"
In other words, it's all fine really.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 21 2013 A design falsely labelled dog_whistle.3dp, which attracts tigers instead.-- not_morrison_rm, Jul 21 2013 Dog whistles don't work anyway. Mine just chewed his up.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 21 2013 // Or convincing the owners to build something for themselves that turns out to be a trojan horse. //
This is the manifest premise of Shirow Masamune's manga 'Ghost In the Shell', and to a lesser extent that of the anime feature film.-- Alterother, Jul 21 2013 And about two seconds after 3d printers hit consumer level pricing, the things will default to automatically connect to the Internet.
Thus adding another trope to the sci-fi "What happened to that alien race that isn't here anymore ?"-- FlyingToaster, Jul 22 2013 Reminds me of Charles Stross "Rule 34".-- normzone, Jul 22 2013 //Reminds me of Charles Stross "Rule 34".
Simply, having just read Rule 34, I have say that Strossy beat me to it...oh well...holds hands up.
Or, yet another example of whoever it is with the asynchronous wormhole going back in time to steal my ideas before I've had them..dammit.-- not_morrison_rm, Mar 31 2015 // Replicators synthesise at the quantum atomic level.//
Except that if you read the books, it's clearly indicated that TOS replicators require large CHON feedstocks, which puts a lie to that statement.
Possibly by the next gen (at which time the writers would have actually heard the word quantum), the technology improved.-- MechE, Mar 31 2015 I thought this was going to be for some kind of crossbow or something that shot it's arrow once it was done. Clever. [+]
People print firearms, this would be the easy way to do it. Have the 3d printed gun designed shoot backwards. Rather than a bullet going out the front, it locks in place and the recoil propels the bolt rearwards as a projectile.
Devious.-- doctorremulac3, Mar 31 2015 Not quite baked but I dropped a 2D printer out the 4th floor window and maimed an enemy once.-- AusCan531, Apr 01 2015 Were they your enemy beforehand, or only afterwards?-- pertinax, Apr 05 2015 Maybe that's what crashed the Air Malaysia plane?-- pashute, Apr 06 2015 Oh blimey, had a J. R. Hartley moment and found me earliest short story. I'd sent it to Jupiter Press 01/11/2009 (declined). The story includes use of collecting random human DNA to fox the CSI ....
I looked up Stross's Rule 34 publication date, it's 5 July 2011.
So, I could be wrong, but I might have had the idea first....-- not_morrison_rm, May 23 2018 [AusCan531] Hope it was only shrapnel. 15m 'n' all. Unless they were on the balcony of the 3rd floor.-- wjt, May 24 2018 //Not quite baked but I dropped a 2D printer out the 4th floor window// - I'd have been more impressed if you'd dropped a 4D printer out of the 2nd floor window-- hippo, May 24 2018 A suitably powerful laser engraver could do quite a lot of damage if the head could be rotated off the vertical axis. However, even with an industrial unit, the "cheesewire" slicing scene from Resident Evil <link> would probably not be realistic.-- 8th of 7, May 24 2018 An interesting question is whether you bore a hole through someone with a sufficiently powerful laser, without actually killing them. I suspect that a 1mm perforation to the lungs, liver, intestines and many other vital organs would not be fatal, especially since any blood vessels would be cauterized. You could probably do it through the brain, unless you were really unlucky.-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 24 2018 //I'd have been more impressed if you'd dropped a 4D printer out of the 2nd floor window
If I drop two 2D printers at the same time, do I get the same result as dropping one 4D printer?-- not_morrison_rm, May 24 2018 No.
Next question ?
// I suspect that a 1mm perforation to the lungs, liver, intestines and many other vital organs would not be fatal, //
We could try it with a 1mm sterile steel rod, and the Intercalary ... he seems to have an unhealthy fascination with body piercings.
Do you think it needs to be sharpened ? That's a lot of extra trouble ...-- 8th of 7, May 24 2018 I'll not have a finger laid on the Intercalary. He's practically a brother. Well, technically he is a brother of course but then so is Sturton.-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 24 2018 JR Hartley moment...forgot to put up a link to the story. It's mostly wall to wall terrorism, but very eco-friendly terrorism. See Link.-- not_morrison_rm, May 25 2018 // very eco-friendly terrorism. //
<Kermit>
"It's not easy being Green ..."
<Kermit/>
// so is Sturton //
You won't be so keen to admit that the next time he asks you to put up bail ...-- 8th of 7, May 25 2018 On such occasions I like to point out that Sturton's genome is only marginally more similar to mine than it is to, say, a pangolin's.-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 25 2018 <Entire Collective immediately mobilizes to perform a microscopically detailed search of Cube for stowaway pangolins/>-- 8th of 7, May 25 2018 //An interesting question//
[Maxwell] There might be the slow toxic effects of metabolic altered substrates and strange molecular species in the wrong places. Throwing off clots under living stress would also be issue. Nick a major artery and there would be death by pressure release.-- wjt, May 25 2018 random, halfbakery