Chris Mooney is a visiting associate in the 
Earlier this year, some in Sebastopol, California were very concerned over potential health hazards of wireless internet and halted a local company from providing public wifi access. (For details, visit O'Reilly). While I'm less nervous over electrical sensitivity, I can't help but wonder what residents would think about reports of a new microwave ray gun able to beam sounds directly into people's heads. From this month's New Scientist:
The device - dubbed MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio) - exploits the microwave audio effect, in which short microwave pulses rapidly heat tissue, causing a shockwave inside the skull that can be detected by the ears. A series of pulses can be transmitted to produce recognisable sounds.The device is aimed for military or crowd-control applications, but may have other uses.
Crowd control applications? MEDUSA?
Or what about the Pentagon's ray gun? You can't see it, you can't hear it, but the harmless blast will stop you in your tracks.
An operator uses a joystick to zero in on a target. Visible only with an infrared camera, the gun, when fired emits a flash of white hot energy - an electromagnetic beam made up of very high frequency radio waves.
Okay, reports say harmless... but between shockwaves inside the skull and white hot energy, I'm moving to Sonoma County.
Technology
Comments
BAD WOW!!
This can't be good..really scary.
Posted by: Sciencefan | July 11, 2008 11:20 AM
yeah, I'm not too convinced about the "harmless" bit, especially if the victim is unable to get out of the beam. I do notice the linked article states "as long as it's been used properly, there's no harm to your body." [my emphasis]
It also sounds like the perfect implement of torture.
Posted by: Dunc | July 11, 2008 11:44 AM
The tazer has moved from a weapon to incapacitate without killing a dangerous suspect, to being an instrument of compliance. I'm afraid that the more "Harmless" these devices become, the more likely they'll be used. I shudder to think about how often these might be used to modify the behavior of legal protests or annoying (not dangerous) suspects.
Posted by: Left_Wing_Fox | July 11, 2008 1:12 PM
We need these ray guns in the hands of the average law-abiding citizen. Only when we remove their monopoly on a new defense technology will be free from fear of the government. "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Posted by: actionmax | July 11, 2008 2:03 PM
Or maybe what we need is to start tackling "non-lethal" weapons as a broad legal issue, instead of leaving them (as it seems now) totally unregulated and free for misuse.
Police and government violence is most effectively controlled from the ballot box. For example, I hate the idea of police using these to repress legal demonstrations, but I'm not sure I'd want to be in a demonstration where people started shooting back with these things. That could just give the police a pretext to respond with lethal force.
I can see the sense in having them available for private citizens, but that might require some regulation just to do that, as the companies producing them could easily choose not to sell them to anyone other than police if they have enough incentive not to make them available to the public. (Though I guess you can buy tasers now...)
Posted by: bicycle Hussein paladin | July 12, 2008 11:44 AM
Did I read it correctly? Are they actually designing a weapon that microwaves your brain?
Well, I'm sure there can be counter-measures. Lead-lined hats, perhaps?
Posted by: Christophe Thill | July 15, 2008 8:07 AM