The U.S. military is designing tiny flying robots disguised as insects that literally will “;bug”; enemies in their hideouts.

I have a feeling the spy flies, known as MAVs (Micro Aerial Vehicles), will mainly bug countries like Russia and China, which will view the new technology as weapons that could be used against them. In the same way that Ronald Reagan's space-born missile interception system - “;Star Wars”; - caused an escalation in tensions between America and the Soviet Union, these flying robot insects could cause a race for superiority in the development of micro-spying and weapons technology. In other words, Gnat Wars.

According to news reports, the MAVs will be as small as a bumble bee, able to fly undetected into buildings, where they will be able to eavesdrop on villains in their lairs without risking human life. They will be able to take video, photos, make audio recordings and possibly even attack the bad guys. Reports on what kind of weapons the bugs will carry are a little hazy. You think mosquitos are annoying? What if one flew into your bedroom armed with a tiny stinger missile or pint-size bazooka?

The trouble with technology like this is that it will lead to countertechnology to neutralize the new threat. Russia will likely come up with a bug bot defense like the Retaliation Against Intrusive Devices! system (RAID!) or the Gizmo Eating Computerized Knockout Object (GECKO). The GECKO would be a micro-vehicle disguised as a lizard, able to climb walls and across ceilings and that would zap MAVs out of the air with a lightening-fast laser tongue.

Or our adversaries like Russia might capture a MAV and reverse-engineer it so they can have their own offensively armed flying spy bugs, like the Binary Onboard Remote Interception System (BORIS). A hot war of the future might be fought entirely in someone's den or kitchen with flying robot bugs engaged in aerial dogfights like miniature Sopwith Camels. (”;Curse you, Red Baron! You shot down my termite!”;)

We probably could have caught Osama bin Laden if we had had these computerized flying insects a few years ago. You could have sent out a spy beetle that nestled in bin Laden's beard and went wherever he went. The bug could then have called in an airstrike from a flying drone disguised as a confused parrot. (Bird Class Bots can carry heavier armament than Insect Class.)

You also have to assume that nonweaponized versions of the spy flies will be available to the general public. If you want to see what your neighbor is up to, you just dispatch one of your personal pests and direct it through your neighbor's house from your laptop. Of course, you'll want to be careful doing this. Each MAV likely will cost thousands of dollars when they reach the commercial market. You wouldn't want to have, say, your spying cockroach alight on your neighbor's coffee table only to have the expensive piece of technology smashed with a rolled-up newspaper or a rubber slipper.