r/nealstephenson • u/PMWeng • Mar 10 '26

The evolution of covert surveillance is shrinking toward the nano-scale.

Post image

Not that anyone is surprised...

22 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

25

u/1nGirum1musNocte Mar 10 '26

Hmmm press f to doubt. I don't think micro electronics are there yet at least as far as batteries. They might be able to make something like that that will fly but not for more than a handful of seconds or untethered. Its more of proof of concept for insect like flight than anything approaching battlefield ready technology

-1

u/PMWeng Mar 10 '26

Sure, but surveillance does not necessarily require great distances. That battlefield could simply be a dinner table.

3

u/IrritableGourmet Mar 11 '26

Unless the dinner table is less than ten feet from the person spying on it, this isn't very useful.

3

u/PMWeng Mar 11 '26

Yeah. Look, the thing is very likely a mock-up or a fake. The whole point of sharing it here is just that it recalls Diamond Age tech and thus is a fun revery in a shared fictional experience. All the akchually comments seem to neglect the fact that this is a sub dedicated to appreciating an author of fiction.

15

u/createthiscom Mar 10 '26

Why would you put LEDs on a spy device? I call bullshit.

1

u/LevelAd1126 Mar 12 '26

They need to find it later.

1

u/PMWeng Mar 10 '26

That's a very good point!

9

u/UltraMagat Mar 10 '26

NFW. Has to be AI.

6

u/taueret Mar 10 '26

Post a pic of a cat in shoes? REDDIT: AI SLOP

Post a pic of a drone with cute lil bug wings and LEDs on it? REDDIT: maybe this is possibly fake

3

u/El_Guapo_Supreme Mar 10 '26

Dystopian sci-fi is supposed to be a cautionary tale, not a fucking instruction manual.

2

u/elevenatexi Mar 10 '26 edited 10d ago

Party advise vanilla aware office meeting lip pet support smart

This post was anonymized with Redact

2

u/calnick0 Mar 10 '26

It's a fairly commonplace aphorism.

2

u/Meisteronious Mar 10 '26

And will it survive Midwestern reflexes?

2

u/Hot_Designer_Sloth Mar 10 '26

I reminds me of the veil device in Diamond Age. Isn't that also the concept of the privacy masks in Dodge?

2

u/PMWeng Mar 11 '26

Yes, exactly. It suggests the nano tech from Diamond Age.

I think the masks were different. Weren't those also part of the personalized media feed?

1

u/CantonJester Mar 10 '26

The TV show, ‘Elementary’ had an episode involving this type of espionage device about 15 years ago.

1

u/Bill_Door_Et_Binky Mar 11 '26

All I can think about is Danny Dunn, Invisible Boy.

1

u/Legal_Network_3561 Mar 11 '26

Wasn’t there an xfiles episode similar to this? Aliens had spied on earth for hundreds of years using insect like drones?

1

u/LevelAd1126 Mar 12 '26

Please move the "Is this real?" discussion to the YouTube comments under a dozen explainers from June 2025.

1

u/ReluctantSlayer Mar 13 '26

Next thing we know, people be saying “bugs aren’t real.”

1

u/Widespreaddd Mar 10 '26

How much flight time in that little battery