Do Nontraditional Weapons Make Us More Like Evil Aliens?
James Poulos, Ed. ·
Jul 20, 2010 at 5:53pm
Like, say, the microwave heat ray we've just recalled from Afghanistan? I for one am sort of creeped out by this stuff. But invisibly blasting baddies with an intolerable burning sensation still seems less of an evil-alien thing to do than fielding killer robots.
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Jun '10
Re: Do Nontraditional Weapons Make Us More Like Evil Aliens?
If bullets are #1 on the menu, I'll still take #2--barbecued ribs.
Jul '10
Re: Do Nontraditional Weapons Make Us More Like Evil Aliens?
I'm old school:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfEMnx-Nz-w&feature=related
May '10
Re: Do Nontraditional Weapons Make Us More Like Evil Aliens?
I've got to agree that pain is a hell of a lot more humane than death.
I can see how a people might mistake painful deterrence with senseless torture. But we won't know until we try, and the potential to spare lives is more than enough reason to test it. Perhaps Afghanistan isn't the right testing ground, though.
It seems inherently better suited for crowd control than for warfare. Simply running an enemy soldier off means he'll get another chance to shoot at you later.
As for robots, I doubt we'll ever see anything humanoid. Instead, we'll see more drones in many forms. We'll see insect-like robots which are difficult to detect, difficult to target, and can overwhelm by swarming or penetrate small vulnerabilities (they could make great spycams). And we'll see bionics, like nightvision for our soldiers without need of goggles. Some fascinating research over the past few decades has shown that the brain can quickly adapt to artificial sensory organs (analogous to the skin, eyes, nose, etc).
May '10
Re: Do Nontraditional Weapons Make Us More Like Evil Aliens?
Lasers! (h/t Drudge)
May '10
Re: Do Nontraditional Weapons Make Us More Like Evil Aliens?
Hyper-sonic gliders!
Jun '10
Re: Do Nontraditional Weapons Make Us More Like Evil Aliens?
I had the... urm... "great privilege" of testing the ADS while attending INIWIC at Ft. Leonard Wood. "Like opening an oven door", my foot. That sucker hurts! But it works, and works well, for crowd control. Not so much for people trying to shoot you. I'm in agreement with Aaron on this one, I'm not exactly sure why we deployed that system to Afghanistan. Much better for non-lethal munitions for that fight are the new 12 ga. TASER rounds, rubber grenades, and 40mm foam batons.