Do we have any laser experts here? I am wondering if there is any way to 'defeat' a laser.

Lasers are making the jump from potentially dangerous, but mostly annoying (laser pens aimed at cockpits of aircraft in flight) to a full-blown threat to aviation. It is possible to protect something against every other weapon. Every other weapon has some kind of guidance (such as a missile seeker that can be scrambled with a system like DIRCM), or is something physical that can either be stopped (traditional armor, like a tank) or intercepted (the bullet shooting a bullet theory).

Is there any way to stop a laser, besides mirrors I guess? I suppose something can be done in the realm of heat dissipative paint, but if a laser can burn through steel, that doesn't sound too promising. To me, at first glance anyway, it appears to be an 'I win button'.