When Looks Can Kill

Ben Sullivan writes "From the Los Angeles Times: "Test pilots here are flying with sophisticated helmets, resembling a bug's eye, that allow them to aim their weapons and sensors simply by looking at potential targets on the ground or in the air. The helmets, when coupled with a highly maneuverable new missile that is close to deployment, would enable fighter pilots to look over their shoulders and fire instantly at targets, a feat that until now has been matched only in science fiction movies." Development was done by San Jose-based Vision Systems International, a joint venture of defense electronics maker Rockwell Collins Inc. and Israeli's Elbit. Raytheon makes the sharp-turning AIM-9X missile."

Comments

Re:something to consider?

[digitalunity]

You know, in the medical field, I believe this is called an obsessive superiority complex, right?

Uh oh

[Ookoshi]

Look, there's Natalie Portman with hot grits getting poured down her pants.

Boom. Oops, damn.

An engineer must face the consequences.

[jlseagull]

LATE 2004, SOMEWHERE IN THE UNITED STATES

You're at home watching TV. You flip to the news. You get up to go to the kitchen, but as you do, you hear that a tape has been released by foreign terrorists that captured a U.S. soldier last week, and that he has been killed. You sit back down.

There is a disclaimer: "Our more sensitive viewers may wish to not watch the following segment." The video starts. It's the captured soldier. He's facing the camera, a large bruise on the side of his head, and he's bleeding. His face displays no emotion - he looks almost resigned. His captors are not visible.

A voice in a foreign language is heard. There's a delay while the translator picks it up: "...in light of his crimes against the (static), we cannot allow this dog to live."

And just like that, a gloved hand holding a pistol rises into the left side of the frame, and shoots the soldier in the temple. There is surprisingly little blood, as the dead man drops out of the frame.

You hit the pause button on your TiVo remote. You squint at the gun onscreen. As it dawns on you, you begin to feel a little sick.

Eight years ago, you designed that gun.

You designed the blowback ejector assembly with loving care. You fired hundreds of rounds with that first prototype at the test range, and put in countless late nights simulating the magazine dynamics to reduce the probability of jamming by 1.2%. You got a promotion. Your prototype became the foundation of an entire product line. They were manufactured in the hundreds of thousands. Some of them were sold to overseas customers, some to domestic ones. Your company made millions. You got another promotion. Evenutally, you moved on to other projects.

And now your old project, your baby, just put a bullet through the head of an American soldier halfway around the world.

You flip off the TV. "I'm not responsible," you tell yourself. "It's not like I pulled the trigger." And you're right. If you hadn't designed it, some other person would have - but then they would have gotten those promotions, those bonuses. You had to do it.

Right?

You lay down in bed.

And try to sleep.