I try it again. It is a bit like touching a red-hot wire, but there is no heat, only the sensation of heat. There is no burn mark or blister.
Its makers claim this infernal machine is the modern face of warfare. It has a nice, friendly sounding name, Silent Guardian.
I am told not to call it a ray-gun, though that is precisely what it is (the term “pain gun” is maybe better, but I suppose they would like that even less).
And, to be fair, the machine is not designed to vaporise, shred, atomise, dismember or otherwise cause permanent harm.
But it is a horrible device nonetheless, and you are forced to wonder what the world has come to when human ingenuity is pressed into service to make a thing like this.
[…]
When turned on, it emits an invisible, focused beam of radiation – similar to the microwaves in a domestic cooker – that are tuned to a precise frequency to stimulate human nerve endings.
It can throw a wave of agony nearly half a mile.
Because the beam penetrates skin only to a depth of 1/64th of an inch, it cannot, says Raytheon, cause visible, permanent injury.
But anyone in the beam’s path will feel, over their entire body, the agonising sensation I’ve just felt on my fingertip. The prospect doesn’t bear thinking about.
“I have been in front of the full-sized system and, believe me, you just run. You don’t have time to think about it – you just run,” says George Svitak, a Raytheon executive.
–Michael Hanlon, “Run away the ray-gun is coming : We test US army’s new secret weapon,” the Daily Mail
What happens when it’s used on someone unable to run? It won’t be long before we find out, will it?
Things have really gotten that bad, haven’t they? *sigh*
“What happens when it’s used on someone unable to run?”
They’ll flop around?
Like a junkie with aphids, they will, Jim.
To play devil’s advocate, would you rather just shoot people and kill them? Non-lethal force is always preferable if it’s available.
That said, I do, on the whole, agree. It won’t be long before this “comes home” from Iraq and is used for crowd dispersal at the next Woodstock. Imagine someone in a wheelchair, who, wracked with pain, can’t roll their wheels and is stuck in the beam? Or imagine the device used in a cage where you can’t flee? It would be like the Pain Amplifier from Dune.
Speaking of “Mission Drift”, did you hear they are now marketing ID microchips for Alzheimer’s patients, the same ones used in dogs and cats but with GPS technology? The pitch, wandering AD patients can be easily located and rescued when they are confused and unable to identify themselves. Next they’ll pitch this for kids, to keep them safe at all times, and to make them instantly locatable if they are kidnapped… which IS true, abducted kids could be rescued within hours or minutes, and with them, the perp arrested… but I’ll wager the chips never turn off. And I wonder how long before they’re mandatory? The pitch will be one of convenience, it’s like a personal EZPass or Speedpass for EVERYTHING. Just wave your chip over the paypass thingy and your purchase is easily deducted straight from your checking account. Who needs barcodes?
Did I miss something, or were Brave New World and 1984 meant to be cautionary tales and not instruction manuals? Sorry to digress.