6th December 2006, 9:31 PM
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,7...=rss.index
I saw this on a "future tech" style show some time ago. Looks like it's finally been approved for actual use.
Read the article, but here's a basic run down. This device concentrates strong light that is "longer than x-rays but shorter than microwaves" (which is great, that only leaves a MASSIVE area of the spectrum, including visible light, infrared, and ultraviolet, that it could be within, below visible is not cancer causing, at a short point above visible, it starts becoming a risk).
Basically, it's for breaking up crowds. You shine this beam at them and it causes pain to the skin, but due to the fact it doesn't penetrate, that's ALL it does. It also is not in the visible wavelength so it won't blind people. So, severe sunburns at worst, but the pain gets people scattering pretty quickly. Apparently it turns people into basic instinct machines. No matter how bad arse you imagine yourself to be, no matter how noble. Even if you are trying to save children and you know they will die if you don't run in there and do it, this WILL make you abandon any scruples you ever had to make the pain stop as soon as possible, meaning even the most religious of zealots will RUN when the thing is turned on. Nothing like pain to expose our animal selves eh? :D
Anyway, yeah I'm all in favor of using force when it is immediately needed to end a riot, self defense and defense of others. This is basically far more effective tear gas and pellet guns. This is as close to a phaser set to stun (or... run! HILARITY! IT RHYMED WITH THE WORD STUN AND THAT IS FUNNY TO ME!) as they are going to get. At the same time, there's no such thing as a "perfect" nonlethal weapon. Let's say some elderly or otherwise very weak people get caught up in this. Maybe for them a heavy sunburn may be too much for their body to handle. "Wrong place at the wrong time" sure, but still it's a possible scenario... At any rate, that said this may be the best we've got for the moment.
I just hope it doesn't fall into the wrong hands... I'd hate to see it used to "extract information", or to just plain hurt people for enjoyment. Imagine some very mean spirited kids running around after making their own from a kit 20 years from now and riding around town hurting people with it.
I saw this on a "future tech" style show some time ago. Looks like it's finally been approved for actual use.
Read the article, but here's a basic run down. This device concentrates strong light that is "longer than x-rays but shorter than microwaves" (which is great, that only leaves a MASSIVE area of the spectrum, including visible light, infrared, and ultraviolet, that it could be within, below visible is not cancer causing, at a short point above visible, it starts becoming a risk).
Basically, it's for breaking up crowds. You shine this beam at them and it causes pain to the skin, but due to the fact it doesn't penetrate, that's ALL it does. It also is not in the visible wavelength so it won't blind people. So, severe sunburns at worst, but the pain gets people scattering pretty quickly. Apparently it turns people into basic instinct machines. No matter how bad arse you imagine yourself to be, no matter how noble. Even if you are trying to save children and you know they will die if you don't run in there and do it, this WILL make you abandon any scruples you ever had to make the pain stop as soon as possible, meaning even the most religious of zealots will RUN when the thing is turned on. Nothing like pain to expose our animal selves eh? :D
Anyway, yeah I'm all in favor of using force when it is immediately needed to end a riot, self defense and defense of others. This is basically far more effective tear gas and pellet guns. This is as close to a phaser set to stun (or... run! HILARITY! IT RHYMED WITH THE WORD STUN AND THAT IS FUNNY TO ME!) as they are going to get. At the same time, there's no such thing as a "perfect" nonlethal weapon. Let's say some elderly or otherwise very weak people get caught up in this. Maybe for them a heavy sunburn may be too much for their body to handle. "Wrong place at the wrong time" sure, but still it's a possible scenario... At any rate, that said this may be the best we've got for the moment.
I just hope it doesn't fall into the wrong hands... I'd hate to see it used to "extract information", or to just plain hurt people for enjoyment. Imagine some very mean spirited kids running around after making their own from a kit 20 years from now and riding around town hurting people with it.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)