[madaxe_again]

It's not only a privacy risk, it's a fire risk, if li-ion batteries are put in the hold.

Sadly, if they do roll out a hand-luggage ban on electronics, I can see it becoming a complete ban due to existing regulations (e.g. EU) that prohibit the checking of li-ion batteries due to the fire risk.

I now feel like something of a tit for pointing out that security theatre is ridiculous while one is allowed to carry li-ion/lipo batteries on one's person, as you could just fold your iPhone in half using a tray table as a lever, and then use the ensuing white hot long lasting flame for whatever nefarious purpose, as they now appear to be closing this window.

If one is outright banned from transporting electronics it will be chaos - will I need to buy a new phone in every location I fly to? What about business travellers - are we going to see a resurgence in portable manual typewriters, and flights sounding like a hailstorm?

I am so sick of this idiocy.

[coldcode]

I'm sure some people will still fly, but all the airlines would go out of business, so it won't matter. Perhaps we can go back to sailing caravelles across the ocean.

[Razengan]

Until matter teleporters become a reality, along with the associated existential questions of whether you die at the moment of teleportation and all that.

[goda90]

Even if we get over the existential issue, the security risks there would be pretty big too. What if a hacker just makes the thousands of people mid-teleport disappear? Is it predefined point to point, or can you teleport anywhere? If so, can we prevent people from teleporting anything into anywhere?

[Razengan]

> can we prevent people from teleporting anything into anywhere?

Well, there's a game called FTL (very good Roguelike with real-time ship-to-ship combat) [0] that has teleporting bombs as a distinct class of weapons... So of course, it's not hard to imagine that matter teleporters could and eventually will be used to great offensive and invasive effects, depending what the laws of physics allow.

[0] http://subsetgames.com/ftl.html

[huxley]

Arthur C Clarke wrote a funny little short story called "Travel by Wire!" 80 years ago that speculated about a form of commercial teleportation

[amelius]

Solution: batteries should be removable from the laptop. And there should be battery-exchange points at airports where people can leave their batteries in exchange for a token which they can use to get another battery at the destination airport.

[mmagin]

Thus everyone will travel with their most worn-out battery in the hope of getting a better one.

[dTal]

If you follow through the implications of this, it's horribly dystopian. Every country in the world needs to be on board. No innovation in form factor is possible (you'd need to persuade every country to carry your battery). No diversity either (the system becomes unworkable with more than a few types of battery).

But why stop there? We should all just use identical, world-government-approved standard laptops and copy the data around, Chromebook-style. Neatly solves the pesky "people carrying their own data" problem too, by forcing it onto the network where it can be safely monitored and policed.

shiver

[syrrim]

Hardly a solution. People are expecting to be able to use their electronic devices while in-flight. Removing the battery would remove that capability.

[amelius]

Solution: on-flight power outlets.

[panzagl]

Or bring a book.

[panzagl]

The terrorists might be doing us a favor if we get a standard removable battery for all laptops out of this.

[coldpie]

> I am so sick of this idiocy.

The first step to fixing it is to stop electing racist cowards. I'm not holding my breath.

[StevePerkins]

In fairness, I waited in vain for 8 years to see any significant portion of the Patriot Act rolled back.

The pendulum will inevitably swing again, as it does every 8 years or so. The Democrats will retake the White House after a term or two, and we will inevitably see another period of time in which they control both the executive and legislative branches simultaneously.

Even so, I would be stunned to see this future Democratic government roll back things like this that are happening now. Barring the occasional revolution or national collapse every century or two, consolidation of power and control only flows in one direction. The idea of this being partisan is illusory.

[mi100hael]

> What about business travellers - are we going to see a resurgence in portable manual typewriters, and flights sounding like a hailstorm?

Actually not a bad idea. You could type up a bunch of memos or reports and then scan them and use text-recognition software when you get to your destination to convert to digital.

[ant6n]

If the battery is the issue, disallow bringing the batteries.

Make them replaceable, and you only need to buy new batteries at the destination.

Create a standard around batteries (like palettes) and you may only need to borrow them.

[Jtsummers]

This standard doesn't yet exist. This makes the ban (as a sudden thing) a non-starter. It also creates a massive burden on the economy to start acquiring such laptops. OTOH, it'd be a major boon to device manufacturers. Perhaps this is economic stimulus masquerading as security theater.