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by MisterOctober 2819 days ago
Phoenix area here - drone nuisance an occasional but non-negligible problem here too. Sometimes they're a minor annoyance [e.g., 4th of July fireworks viewing], and sometimes genuinely creepy [hovering over backyards in my neighborhood, sometimes at night]

I observe that the majority of drone owners use them with a mind to avoid making others ill-at-ease, but y'know, tragedy of the commons and all that

1 comments

Not really tragedy of the commons.
If the resource is peace and privacy then "tragedy of the commons" seems like a reasonable metaphor.

Can you post in a little more detail as just prefixing the bit you disagree with with "not" isn't terribly useful.

If resource was peace and privacy (those aren't resources), and they were zero-sum, then it'd arguably be tragedy of the commons.

People being dicks and drawing unwanted regulatory attention towards themselves and other people ... is just people being dicks.

I appreciate that 'tragedy of the commons' is a very hip phrasing these days, but its usefulness benefits from not being misused.

"Resource" (Merriam-Webster), definition 1c: "a natural feature or phenomenon that enhances the quality of human life".

I would say silence does indeed meet this definition.

> If resource was peace and privacy (those aren't resources), and they were zero-sum

Not to say I agree with your dubious attempt at bringing 'silence' into the fold of 'resource'.

When you start mining silence by the barrel from deep space, then we can start treating it as a commodity resource.

A resource can be locally limited despite being globally (or universally) unlimited. Energy for example (to a certain degree)

Also I'm not sure "zero sum" is the same thing as "limited". The former imposes stricter requirements.

I'm sticking to my guns on this one.