Part of that lag is the ridiculously long travel time of the left/right triggers.

I wonder if the abuse would be mitigated if the software were released publicly while under the open source license. Evade taxes, taxpayers get access to your product.

Not just Quake. A little over a decade ago I worked on a vehicle-based total conversion for the original Unreal Tournament that centered on air combat.

I have a pair of 22" monitors mounted in a vertical configuration using the DS-100 Vertical. It's a bit pricey (I did get it on sale at NewEgg), but it's ridiculously strong and sturdy. You can just install one of the monitor brackets at the top of the pole and have plenty of room for a laptop below. As an alternative, you can try their cheaper single monitor arms.

The technology for the semi-autonomous fighters I described exists today, though politics and cost currently preclude the deployment of said systems.

You're assuming that the drones will never be autonomous in a situation that requires low latency. While a human pilot may have better ingenuity and unpredictability in a dogfight, he cannot physically react faster than a computer. Connect that computer to the right sensors, and you'll have a system ready to fly an airframe capable of doing turns that will turn any human pilot into red jelly.

The perceived threat of an emergent-hard-bootstrapping-self-aware-full-on-singularity-in-a-lunch-box intelligence stems as much from from its supposed intelligence and influence as it does from the fact that its motives are inscrutable. We just don't know yet what it would "want", beyond the assumed need for reproduction or self-preservation. That assumption itself may be wrong as well...

Agreed - the most damage could be done physically if a hostile entity were to gain control of widely-deployed and/or destructive autonomous systems. But such destruction would be limited without pervasiveness. Barring some sort of AI-instigated WMD attack, it would require physically self-replicating machines (Grey goo? Rampant 3D printers?) or a massive infrastructure in place for that AI to take advantage of.

One such infrastructure is the Internet itself. If such a hypothetical AI were savvy, it could create a large measure of influence over social networks through impersonation and massed artificial identities. Were it clever enough, it could mask its own incursions into physical space - effectively remaining undetected while vulnerable to human interdiction.

This is all assuming we could comprehend the motives of such an entity...

Relevant - if facetious - commentary by Randall Munroe. Seriously though, I think a hostile hard AI would get away with much more damage as a software entity on the Internet than in physical space.

Somewhere in San Joaqin Valley. Started right after the polls opened (0700 PST), there was practically no wait...though I imagine it's going to get much busier after business hours. Decent age cross-section, too.

Indeed it is. Here's a better suggestion.

Here you go.

Case in point - the LOIC software stack.