
Ask HN: Cool stuff that's still completely unregulated? - newman8r
Things like drones, e-bikes, vapes and 3d printing have already received varying amounts of regulatory attention - I&#x27;m curious if anyone can think of very early trends that aren&#x27;t regulated now but may be in the future.<p>I&#x27;m asking partially out of curiosity, but also to get ideas for interesting project areas to brainstorm.
======
unscrupulous_sw
Data laundering

This means crawling or using illegally obtained datasets then processing it
with "machine learning" until you have enough plausible deniability to use it.

This could be used for bypassing copyrights. For example you can remix stock
photos you don't want to pay for. You can crawl a competitor's dating network
to build similar looking fake profiles. You can steal writings and
automatically paraphrase it. You can steal algorithms by cloning their
inputs/outputs. You can generate new porn by swapping faces and background.

An illegal dataset can also be used as a hidden input to improve your core
product. For example you can buy up all stolen databases and logs and
correlate the users. This can then be used for better ad targeting using data
that isn't even available to google and facebook.

~~~
bredren
Are there any public examples of this?

------
blhack
I just wanted to say that I love this post.

There is a huge space around """fitness""" devices that are running around the
FDA regulatory process. I think there is going to be a huge health revolution
by making everybody take their weight, glucose, blood pressure, sleep
statistics, and heart rate statistics every day and feed them into an AI.

The major techincal step forward that is happening is microneedles that can
draw out interstitial fluid. The patient doesn't feel it, and you can do
things like constant glucose monitoring, and constant cortisol monitoring
(which is huge) completely uninvasively. It's going to be amazing.

The breakthrough device is going to be a watch that can sense glucose and
cortisol all the time. A while ago there was some PG post about wanting a
tricorder, well it's coming, and it's going to look like a watch.

Sidenote: if anybody reading this is working in any of the labs working with
these microneedles, please contact me, I would love to collaborate with you.

~~~
chronial
> I think there is going to be a huge health revolution ...

How would any of what you listed help against cancer, aging and the obesity
crisis?

~~~
Madmallard
It won't. Simple as that. Our environment, food, and meds are the primary
instigators in biological deregulation.

~~~
James_Henry
And you can potentially track that biological deregulation and measure the
effectiveness of interventions and the harm of certain environments/habits
through the use of monitoring. It's not as simple as you state.

~~~
Madmallard
changes in vital signs will only happen generally during an acute process

------
jakobdabo
Programming and general computing, it's still possible to write and run any
code in your PC, but big companies will be trying to control it.

For example the DRM shenanigans in the GPU, or, when you can't write code for
your smartphone unless you have permission from its parent company, and even
with permission, you still can't write "any" arbitrary code - only some parts
of the system are available to you. I'm aware of the exploits and jailbreaks,
but those will not be always available.

~~~
i0nutzb
Just a small note: You _can_ write any code on your smartphone and write any
kind of code. You can't distribute in _their_ stores.

------
xbhdhdhd
International waters. Some regulations but not really enforceable. Less
regulated than the air inc orbit and even the moon.

A famous movie director once said the film director is the last truely
dictatorial post left. He was wrong. The captain of a vessel in international
waters is.

~~~
coretx
Although you are de-facto right, limitations on the dictatorial power do
apply. Both by the international law that guarantees the "freedom" and
regulations set by the flag it waves. These exceptions and limitations do not
exist in outerspace, thus only the spaceship captain is totally
free/unregulated.

~~~
xbhdhdhd
Interesting, but a non flag bearing ship is certainly facing less oversight
than any spaceship commander.

Id also contend the spaceship is likely controllable remotely, and monitored
in both location and status.

Maybe the private submarine captain trumps all

~~~
Mountain_Skies
I might be remembering wrong, but I thought un-flagged ships in international
waters are considered pirates and can be acted upon in a hostile manner by
flagged ships.

~~~
big_chungus
Theoretically possible because an un-flagged ship has not the protection of a
recognized state. You could do it, but it would be mighty risky and you would
have almost zero legal recourse against a bad actor.

------
xpe
We've seen many businesses attempt to exploit the lack of regulation at their
peril. Ride-sharing companies come to mind as one example.

I think it is more useful to think of regulations in the context of history
and societal values. For example, an oilspill off the shore of California
helped galvanize support for the clean air movement.

Perhaps it is possible to hypergrow a business before regulation catches up. I
think expecting such an outcome risks the long-term viability of a business,
since ultimately its foundation rests upon trust in its brand. Companies (in a
competitive environment at least) must earn goodwill from their customers to
do well.

I hope all entrepreneurs think about building businesses that can thrive even
as regulations shift as society changes. In other words, build in some
resilience into your business model.

For example, you don't have to have a crystal ball to recognize when a
business model over-relies on certain power imbalances. If you want to extract
value from such power imbalances, don't be surprised when there is a backlash.
For example, ride-sharing companies skirted with employee/contractor
definitions. Flirting with this boundary is risky -- and naively hoping that
one narrow interpretation is shared by society and lawmakers is, frankly,
over-optimism.

Realism combined with long-term thinking, I think, tends to lead to similar
decisions as "strive to do the right thing".

~~~
xpe
Correction: I shouldn't have said "clean air movement" in particular -- it
included the creation of the EPA (during President Nixon) [1]

> The public outrage engendered by the spill, which received prominent media
> coverage in the United States, resulted in numerous pieces of environmental
> legislation within the next several years, legislation that forms the legal
> and regulatory framework for the modern environmental movement in the U.S.
> [2]

[1]
[https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/richar...](https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/richard-
nixon-and-the-rise-of-american-environmentalism)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Santa_Barbara_oil_spill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Santa_Barbara_oil_spill)

------
seibelj
Cryptocurrency and blockchain are regulated when a true corporation appears,
but there exist many entities that are wholly anonymous and unregulated
because they simply don’t exist outside of software and the blockchain.

A prime example would be Bisq[0], which is a decentralized exchange that also
has a profit-sharing token. If it were a company it would be violating
trillions of regulatory laws, such as security and money laundering as its
exchange token is obviously a security and it has no KYC, but there is simply
nothing to shut down.

The government likes to believe that they have a handle on cryptocurrency but
the truth is there is a thriving and growing suite of tools that exist to
explicitly be uncensorable.

[0] [https://bisq.network](https://bisq.network)

~~~
theamk
I think things like bisq would be pretty easy to shut down of the government
wants to, because fiat transfer is always government controlled.

Step 1: make a law declaring it illegal. Step 2: have undercover cop attempt
an exchange, then arrest/fine the other party. Step 3: repeat until no one
wants to exchange anymore.

Sure, it wouldn’t be fully effective - the illegal drugs are still around,
after all - but it will be annoying enough that all legitimate uses will
disappear.

~~~
adim86
Wouldn't this approach fail if there becomes a mainstream cryptocurrency,
let's say Libra for lack of a better example. Where you can keep converting
and switching wallets (laundering) or just buy something that has no ties to
you and it would be hard to track?

Like you rightly pointed out, the govt control over fiat, but that control is
continually being threatened every day

~~~
theamk
A hypothetical Libra-like thing will be even easier to control. There is a
single developer org - and it can be trivially compelled to add trackers,
blacklists, backdoors or whatever government wants.

------
kemonocode
Nice try, government. We're not giving you any more ideas.

To actually answer the question: I'm glad that ad-blocking remains unregulated
for the most part. I'm scared that copyright owners could start making a case
that the ads are an integral part of any given content (licensed to them at
the very least if they aren't first-party ads) and removing them counts as
copyright infringement.

~~~
Breza
Instead, publishers seem increasingly interested in native ads and referral
links since you can't block them.

------
janee
Digging holes. It'll depend where you do it but I think most regulative
entities don't have explicit regulations on size or direction of excavations.

Same would probably go for heaping all that earth on a mound, I doubt a lot of
places will have explicit building regulations on an earth mound

~~~
adrianN
As far as I know, moving more than three cubic meters of soil requires a
permit in Germany. Once you go too deep you also require a permit from the
local mining authority. Not to mention the Balrogs you might wake.

~~~
caseysoftware
Do the Balrogs issue permits to wake them? How do you prove you submitted the
permit - and got approval - before you wake them? Sounds like you're playing
with fire.

~~~
z3phyr
You do not directly get a permit from the Balrogs. Contact your local evil
Maia authority.

------
maxander
There’s still no regulation on what you can do with machine learning (At least
until your deepfakes constitute unlawful use of someone’s likeness, or you use
your classifier to make hiring decisions or something, or something like
that.)

~~~
mlthoughts2018
That’s like saying there is no regulation on what you can do with a database
until it begins to violate some other law. Or like saying there is no
regulation on what you can do with human imagination until you imagine
something unlawful.

Machine learning is a technique of mathematics. What do you even mean there’s
no regulation of this subset of mathematics? If the law were to say a triangle
can’t have three sides would it make it so?

~~~
ssivark
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Pi_Bill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Pi_Bill)
At a loss for words :-)

~~~
umvi
There are some constants you can change with laws though. Like Planck's
constant

~~~
big_chungus
Unless my knowledge is completely wrong, Planck's constant is a universal and
un-changing number. That's why the kilogram is based off it. How could you
change that by law?

~~~
umvi
It is not a unitless constant like pi though. Like the speed of light,
Planck's constant has units which is problematic (how can you define the meter
in terms of the speed of light if the speed of light depends on the definition
of the meter?) Thus, you simply assign a value to the constant to break the
unit dependency.

~~~
thaumasiotes
> Like the speed of light, Planck's constant has units which is problematic
> (how can you define the meter in terms of the speed of light if the speed of
> light depends on the definition of the meter?)

I don't follow your thought process here. The speed of light has units, that's
true. Being a speed, it has units of distance over time. But the question "how
can you define the meter in terms of the speed of light if the speed of light
depends on the definition of the meter?" is totally incoherent; the premise is
wrong. The speed of light does not depend on the definition of the meter,
making it very easy to define the meter in terms of the speed of light.

To take a trivial example, the speed of light is 300,000,000 meters per second
and 300,000 kilometers per second. If we relabeled kilometers "flags", then
the speed of light would _also_ be 300,000 flags per second. But while
300,000,000 and 300,000 are different _numbers_ , 300,000,000 meters and
300,000 flags are the same _distance_. You can't change the speed of light by
defining a new unit of length. You can only change the _coefficient_ of that
unit that gives the speed of light. But coefficients are dimensionless and
therefore aren't speeds. When you multiply the coefficient by the unit, you
get the same constant speed as always.

I can't tell why you think it's "problematic" for a physical constant to have
units, but I feel safe in saying that whatever you have in mind, it's wrong.

~~~
umvi
> But the question "how can you define the meter in terms of the speed of
> light if the speed of light depends on the definition of the meter?" is
> totally incoherent;

I agree, I messed that up. What I meant to say was: "how can the speed of
light have an unchanging numerical value if the definition of the meter is not
an unchanging definition?" Prior to 2019 the meter was not defined in terms of
speed of light over time.

My point is that, unlike dimensionless constants like pi, constants with units
can have arbitrary numerical values depending on the definitions of the units.
And if you make a law that changes the definition of a unit, you therefore
change the numerical representation of the corresponding constants.

In other words, if you defined a meter to be "the distance light travels in 1
second", then the constant _c_ would now be 1 m/s.

> I can't tell why you think it's "problematic" for a physical constant to
> have units

Because the definitions of units can change[1]. The definition of the meter
changed earlier this year, and thus the speed of light constant, _c_ also
changed. Before May 9, 2019, _c_ had an infinite number of digits using SI
units. Now it only has 9 digits. Planck's constant, along with a bunch of
others changed as well during the units redefinition[1].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_redefinition_of_the_SI_ba...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_redefinition_of_the_SI_base_units)

Again, I'm not arguing that the speed of light can change, but that those
constants are only unchangeable in their symbolic forms. Laws can and do
change their numeric representations by proxy of defining units.

~~~
thaumasiotes
> What I meant to say was: "how can the speed of light have an unchanging
> numerical value if the definition of the meter is not an unchanging
> definition?"

As I and you have already stated, the speed of light cannot have any purely
numerical value, because it is a dimensional quantity.

...and? What's the problem supposed to be? I've never seen _anyone_ be
confused over the idea that the speed of light is 300,000,000 when measured in
meters per second, but 186,000 when measured in miles per second.

~~~
umvi
> ...and? What's the problem supposed to be?

Read the whole thread, start to finish and the context should make it clear.

> I've never seen anyone be confused over the idea that the speed of light is
> 300,000,000 when measured in meters per second, but 186,000 when measured in
> miles per second.

Right, because unit conversion is not confusing. But what can be confusing is
unit _re-definition_ , which doesn't happen very often and can seem counter-
intuitive at first ("how can a government seemingly change the value of a
natural constant?!").

------
aaron695
Private license plate tracking.

At some stage license plates will have to disappear, but then you move to
facial recognition for cars and other meta data, they probably have unique
sounds for instance.

I'd try and do a app like
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_barcode_games](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_barcode_games)

You should know how to monetize it.

(Obviously facial recognition works equally well here, but there is some
regulatory attention, although none that would stop you)

I'd also look at things like using neural nets to detect race and/or
underlying genetic structure from visual, audio and other metadata.

~~~
awalGarg
I am not sure why this comment was marked dead without any responses, and
hence I am "vouch"-ing for it. Can someone point to laws related to license
plate tracking?

It seems to me that having a huge database of known locations of vehicles
could be used to do some cool (but likely immoral) things, specially coupled
with the fact that several state agencies all over the world make it free and
easy to retrieve licensing and ownership information for vehicles. It'd also
be relatively much easier to do compared to facial recognition.

~~~
noway421
Big question is, how would you do it at scale? You can crowdsorce data, but
then it's hardly precise or frequently updated data. Sort of a thing that
vinwiki does now. Govt has a head start on it with speed cameras/traffic light
cameras etc, but there only so many of them.

The wildest idea I can think of is using reverse camera on every car and
recognizing the plate of the car which is tail gating you. Now, that's more
interesting, but how much of a fleet you would need to track down a random
car.

Not something car manufacturers would do either, even with their love of
telemetry.

~~~
Theophraustous
I don't recall the exact article, but I believe they "crowd source" the data
via repo-men & tow trucks with automatic scanners.
[https://drndata.com/](https://drndata.com/)

------
louisharwood
Paramotors are deregulated in the U.K. (and US I believe). It’s one of the
very few forms of flight where a license isn’t required. You have to adhere to
air law (like flying close to certain objects) but there are no licenses
required to fly.

You’d be stupid to do it but you could buy a machine on eBay and start flying
(or try to at least)

~~~
cweagans
I wouldn't say they're "deregulated" in the US. There are still a number of
rules that pilots have to comply with (for instance, no commercial use,
limited fuel capacity, limited areas where flight is allowed, etc). Sure, a
license is not required, but the US will find a way to complicate things with
red tape even if a license isn't required.

~~~
Stevvo
"Limited areas where flight is allowed" is actually very permissive; in class
G airspace you could go anywhere. If you take a VHF radio and ADS-B out
transponder with you and have done the radio exam from the PPL, in theory you
could call up the Tower at a class B/C/D Airport and ask to land. At deltas
they might actually let you.

------
inerte
I am personally seeing more and more electric skateboards here in the Bay
Area. Not sure if they got cheaper or enough people bought and stuck with it
so now I see more. Or Baeder-Meinhof.

I think they are stupid, but people queue for an escalator while a perfectly
fine stair is empty right next to it. And while e-scooter as an industry like
Lime and Bird is getting regulation all around the world, not sure about these
skateboards, maybe with the exception of top speed.

~~~
bredren
This is a big one. Electric vehicles in general have a huge degree of
latitude.

------
spodek
Not exactly early, but hopefully growing: gardening, minimalism, exercise,
reading, writing, playing instruments, sports, cooking, dating, arts, crafts,
and other similar activities. I'd say sex, but I don't know if I can
distinguish the kinds that aren't regulated.

~~~
caymanjim
There are tons of regulations around gardening (illegal plant/seed imports in
many states, regulations on how your yard looks, sale of produce); playing
instruments (when/where/how loud); sports (depending on context); cooking (for
public consumption or distribution, even if free); sex (although most of those
are going away).

~~~
lsiebert
Sex regulation isn't going away. Look at SESTA/FOSTA

------
Thriptic
Naively I would say cybernetics. To my knowledge I don't think there are many
regulations governing the types of things that people can implant in
themselves. If you try to market a device as a cybernetic or make health
claims about it then the FDA will come after you, but self implantation of
hardware is likely not regulated much.

~~~
theamk
Are you using the right word?

cybernetics is "the scientific study of control and communication in the
animal and the machine."

I have seen it use to mean classical control theory, machine learning, UX
design, and general computers -- but this is the first time I see it being
used for implants.

I guess you can say "cyborgization"?

~~~
Thriptic
Well what I mean is human augmentation with machines. I'm actually not sure
what the proper word is.

~~~
roymurdock
Wetware/biohacking

------
analog31
Something to consider in addition to unregulated industries, are industries
where the regulatory burden can be isolated to a few buy-in technologies. An
example is that the regulatory burden for an electronic product is greatly
reduced (not eliminated) if the product runs on an approved power supply
rather than directly from the AC mains.

Also, any business becomes regulated if it gets big enough to have investors
or employees.

------
bredren
Is this a question of whether some law is on the books or is it a combination
of regulation and enforcement?

For example, there are regulations in most states about ebikes, their motor
capability and whether they have throttle.

But these are also very regularly entirely unenforced (nyc not withstanding)

It seems often interesting phenomena may have _some_ regulation but it is not
remotely enforced. In my mind this meets the threshold of cool unregulated
stuff.

~~~
xtiansimon
Interesting—‘selective enforcement’ [1] or what I’ve heard described as ‘will
to enforce the law’.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_enforcement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_enforcement)

~~~
bredren
Yes, the status of marijuana in many states leads to selective enforcement
which is often biased against minorities. [1]

[https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2019/06/26/report-
despite...](https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2019/06/26/report-despite-de-
emphasis-fayetteville-cops-have-increased-marijuana-enforcement-with-heavier-
impact-on-minorities)

------
jaxn
Persuasion and behavior modification. Particularly in regards to labor
regulations.

~~~
skydiver16
In Italy we have the "circumvention of incapable" norm against that. But your
argument is about political damages in general.

------
GWSchulz
Offensive cyber weapons and their relationship with international arms control
agreements, or the lack thereof. Old school, stateless arms brokers like the
infamous Viktor Bout are being disrupted by digital as much as hotels and
taxis. Code doesn’t need fake air transport documents or any mothballed Soviet
aircraft at all. Oh, and pretty much all of IoT as we’ll come to know it. Regs
are coming fast and hard for crypto.

~~~
ozim
I don't have source data now but in Germany it is forbidden share/sell working
exploits codes. In Poland it was introduced not long ago that it is criminal
offence to have any offensive cyber tools. I guess there is also quite some
regulations on export of tools from US, just like encryption tools.

So there are regulations, but they are unenforceable.

~~~
GWSchulz
Good point. Thx for this comment.

------
gotts
Lucid dreaming is still unregulated.

~~~
buboard
“Thou Shall Not Dream the following:”

------
Terretta
All manner of world record attempts. Speed record attempts seem particularly
lethal.

Apologies for the listicle: [https://www.toptenz.net/top-10-deadliest-
attempts-break-worl...](https://www.toptenz.net/top-10-deadliest-attempts-
break-world-record.php)

~~~
dehrmann
There was a Last Week Tonight bit that Guinness helps some sketchy actors
break records for PR, but won't certify records that might point that out.

------
contingencies
For some definition of completely unregulated: the open ocean / international
waters, use of the radio spectrum from those locations, space, virtual
reality, software in general (though that's changing), and in much of the
world education and religion.

~~~
lgats
Are there any legal restrictions on broadcasting from international Waters?

~~~
epse
Nope, which is why a lot of pirate radios operated from just outside
territorial waters.

------
d-d
Honesty. Acts of kindness. Ad blocking.

~~~
SamReidHughes
In many countries, honesty is regulated. Possibly also in the U.S.A., under
the guise of employment law.

------
TurtlesAllWay
Not cool, its still widely permitted to burn stuff in your fireplace or garden
in most parts of the world. Gathering wood in the forest or ordering a
truckload of coal or taking your trash to burn for the annoyance of everyone
else.

~~~
mindcrime
Can't speak to the rest of the world, but in the US, there are plenty of
places where burning stuff in your fireplace (or wood burning stove[1]) or in
your yard/garden is regulated. Regulations range from _what_ you can burn, to
_when_ you can do it, to _where_ you can do it (example: outside fires not
permitted within 50 feet of a building, or something along those lines).
Sometimes there are outright bans on all outside burning during certain
periods of time, when - due to weather conditions - there is a heightened risk
of wildfires.

[1]: [https://www.epa.gov/burnwise/ordinances-and-regulations-
wood...](https://www.epa.gov/burnwise/ordinances-and-regulations-wood-burning-
appliances)

------
jonas_kgomo
1\. General compute: this will become a big deal as quantum supremacy
approaches, with more ability to compute there will be a general consensus in
how to deal with individuals with incredible computing power. Since, it is
very clear how that can be weaponized.

2\. Consequently, companies like Amazon as challenged by Andrew Yang should be
regulated upon inspecting their earnings. This might be more common in the
future.

~~~
The_rationalist
It's trivial to have quantum proof cryptography and is already possible today.
I don't really know what you're talking about.

------
miek
I don't particularly find these cool but you may.

A) Nootropics & performance enhancing/herbal supplements B) (regulation is
attemped but limited on) Research Chemicals aka designer drugs

These are still fairly "wild west" but will not always be. I had a friend who
manufactured herbal supplements and made a killing before selling his business
and retiring. His factory was... interesting.

~~~
Intermernet
"made a killing" is an unfortunate choice of phrase in this instance.

------
dehrmann
Medium to high-power lasers. Every part of a firearm that's not the receiver.
More military hardware than you'd think. Indian reservations. Bir Tawil.

~~~
Rarok
Even consumer grade laser are regulated, they have legal limit in the power
they can have. What you are going to use... It's completely regulated.

------
gniv
Robots.

I just realized: Why aren't remote controlled robots more of a thing? Like
surgeons who can do remote surgery, but for everyday tasks in a remote
location. Vacuuming, doing laundry (because the tenant is elderly etc). I
guess it's just too expensive still.

~~~
gniv
Replying to myself, since I find the idea of a cleaning person working from
home amusing. I can imagine renting the robot from Home Depot, then hiring a
third party to operate it.

------
Waterluvian
Teledildonics.

~~~
spondyl
While I was going to just laugh and move on, this is a weirdly unique
opportunity to point out that Deldo is a thing: an emacs mode for
teledildonics

[https://github.com/qdot/deldo](https://github.com/qdot/deldo)

~~~
Aperocky
Another capability of emac that vim has no hope of catching up...

~~~
harry8
for which we are _all_ truly grateful. You don't choose, the editor chooses
you.

------
keiferski
Pretty much any sort of non-institutional educational topic is unregulated.
Language-learning in particular is an interesting area, as you have a wide
variety of individuals and companies providing different products.

------
quickthrower2
Javascript!!!

Simple AC transformers. (ba boom cha!)

IT process frameworks. Make a new one up! We have Scrum, ITIL, TOGAF etc. for
some inspiration.

~~~
29athrowaway
You can become a Certified ScrumMaster (tm) in 16 hours, after getting a score
of 36/50 in a 1 hour exam which you can take unlimited times.

No education level required. No high-school? No problem. Become a CSM today...
for 2 years.

Scrum = pyramid scheme

~~~
vmurthy
One of the very few certifications that count has to be from Offensive
Security [1]. Back in the day when I was considering a career in InfoSec, this
was a huge motivation to learn new things.

[1] [https://www.offensive-security.com](https://www.offensive-security.com)

------
TheChetan
What about things like credit card rewards? Lots of companies just keep
competing by giving better offers and cashbacks etc.

Also another thing is funding for startups. Smaller companies don't stand a
chance against giants like Amazon because of the way they crush startups or
just acquire them.

------
d-sc
I used to work in the physics industry (cryogenics specifically). There was/is
practically zero regulation at the scale we were at & lots of room for
innovation. The market is pretty small though so you have to be at a company
that is good at selling to academia.

------
solipsism
I don't think CRISPR gene editing is regulated, except by convention in the
scientific community, and by the ethics boards of individual
labs/universities. But there may come a day when we realize this tool is too
dangerous to leave unregulated.

~~~
Thriptic
Well, you can't run a human trial without IRB approval, you can't run an
animal study without IACUC approval, and you can't introduce a therapeutic
without FDA approval so I'd say that's pretty tightly regulated.

~~~
voldacar
You could do it on yourself, if you were able to afford the necessary research
and equipment

~~~
Thriptic
You could if you wanted to die an unpleasant death.

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mister_hn
E-Scooter, car sharing and bike sharing are still not regulated everywhere

~~~
craig
In London they are both illegal to ride on the pavement and the road, so
essentially illegal. But it's completely unenforced. I assume it will be
deregulated in the next couple years.

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ronyfadel
I believe meditation is not regulated? Can one advertise the healing powers of
their flavor of meditation willy nilly?

Same goes for some forms of alternative medicine, such as crystal and Reiki
healing (I think)

~~~
colordrops
Is exercise regulated? Seems like a similar category of activity.

~~~
ronyfadel
I guess you could add that to the list of unregulated “stuff”

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VadimBauer
Smart things, like smart plugs, bulbs, locks or everything that is remotely
controllable and manageable via App or Cloud.

It is not regulated what happens in the case that the vendor isn't able or
willing to support those devices anymore. Keeping Apps up to date and new apps
if new Mobile OSes arise or keep the light on in general. Right now it all
depends on the goodwill of the vendor.

If the provider decides to not support anymore for whatever reason you have a
smart brick!

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gwbas1c
(Gosh, I saw this post a few days ago and I can't stop thinking about it.)

Why?

Regulations exist for a reason. Complaining about regulations is like
complaining that eating bacon 3 times a day isn't healthy. (Or, to put it
another way, the people who complain about regulations are basically
complaining that they can't screw people over. No sympathy here!)

Furthermore, this kind of thread implies that you're trying to do something
unethical.

So what is it that you're really trying to do?

~~~
movecorp
Regulations exist for many reasons, and it's more often due to either
illogical, emotional demands of a voter base or a powerful incumbent using
regulation to prevent competition, than it is any idealized notion of justice
or safety.

I'll venture you're in a stable, post-industrial democracy such that you can
treat regulations as having inherent justness or rightness. Imagine if the
question had been asked by someone explicitly not in such a place, and was
instead asked as "I live in northern Afganistan, what stuff won't get me in
trouble with the sharia law interpretation of the regional warlords?" or "I
live in North Korea, what stuff won't get negative attention from the party
officials?". Would you say that every regulation in North Korea or in ISIS-
controlled territories are about stopping people from "screwing people over"?

Regulations aren't inherently good or bad, it's just any rule enforced with
the threat of government violence for non-compliance.

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Russelfuture
Really interesting post. My suggestion: Hacking the stock market with AI's,
algos, and current results from neural-science research, and large, accurate
historical datasets and analytic models. There are lots of regs that mandate
"prudent man" behaviour for agents and brokers, and myriad regs around capital
required to execute or margin trades - but the domain of research-gathering
prior to trade execution - is essentially wide open for "outsiders". Company
officers face restrictions on when they can buy or sell company stock - but
non-insiders have wide latitude, and in most cases are free to make buy/sell
decisions whenever, and at any rate they wish to pay for. You are free to
invest and speculate - and lose - your own money. And the neural-science on
this is interesting. Most wealthy speculators in commodity markets, mostly
lose. Most gamblers at casinos mostly lose. If you have wealth, you are able
to give it away (or piss it away), without restriction, unless your family
members can get you declared "mentally not competent". Also, environments
where very complex regulations exist, allow and encourage "regulatory
arbitrage" \- structures can be created which take advantage of various regime
differences. But the fact remains, few regulations exist which can effectively
prevent someone giving away, or destroying their own wealth. (I recall a
fellow in Sweden, who was ordered by a divorce court to turn over half his
wealth to a former wife. He withdrew over $100,000 in life savings in cash,
and carefully burned it all.) People face few restrictions in disposing of
wealth. Charities exploit this fact relentlessly. Also, there are few
restrictions on attending school, or gaining education - except in truly
horrible societies, such as religiously deluded cultures, which for example,
prevent women from gaining education to maintain breeding stock. But civilized
societies encourage education, and often subsidize it. The existence of
unlocked libraries (in ancient times, they were almost always locked), and our
western-cultural concept of freely available science information, remains the
greatest unregulated open space. It is also where the greatest opportunity
resides. Western culture is unique, in that it "deregulated" knowledge
acquisition, and scientific inquiry in the early 1600's. And there remains a
risk of "re-regulation" of science inquiry. Imagine a world run by book-
burning god-believers. You don't have to imagine. You can study the historical
examples. Quite possible that science knowledge may be restricted and access
regulated in the future. But for now, gaining knowledge, using that knowledge
to get rich, and then giving away the wealth accumulated, remains an
essentially unregulated activity.

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bjourne
tDCS:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZyT_TiPSHw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZyT_TiPSHw)
Make the device look cool and you could sell it to millions of gullible chess
players and exam-taking students around the world.

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behnamoh
Not sure if they fall in the e-bike category, but "electric scooters and hover
boards."

------
dehrmann
Software engineering.

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iliketosleep
As far as I'm aware, natural medicines are still largely unregulated.

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ch3ckmat3
"Lawyers" everywhere.

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skydiver16
Political damages.

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otabdeveloper2
C++ programming.

~~~
nurettin
It is so effective, it should be illegal.

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rolltiide
Almost all spot markets of anything.

Metals, minerals, lithium you name it. Feds only regulate their financial
products derived from the current value of them (“derivatives”).

~~~
edoceo
For craziness in spot markets check out cannabis and hemp.

Some is tightly regulated, some is still black-market and one is like "newly
allowed" and driven by fad-market (CBD).

Fast and loose. Good times!

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save_ferris
Why do you just seek out areas that lack regulation, as if there’s no such
thing as an opportunity within a regulated field?

~~~
newman8r
It's more of an exercise in trying to identify emerging areas that might be
interesting to investigate. I definitely wouldn't limit myself to those types
of ideas though.

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TurtlesAllWay
Putting up ads on your house or property is widely permitted, for the
annoyance of everyone passing by.

