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Military Tech for Daily Life
PreacherTom writes "It is nothing new to see technology from military and governmental endeavors change daily life profoundly. One only has to look at the fruits of the space program (from computers to microwave ovens to Tang). New military gear is on the horizon that promises to do the same, including biosensors, bandages that clot blood using soundwaves, and the ubiquitous Swiss Army Pen."
Books don't burn themselves ya know
The obvious examples are the internet, GPS devices, super-glue, etc... (Incidentally, speaking of super-glue, it works very well for what the military originally had in mind for it, which is closing wounds: next time you have a bad cut, try it, it works wonders.)
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
That would be a laser to cut through doors, a satellite dish and viewscreen for watching the news, and a blade for slicing and dicing out of the most difficult situations. But does it still write?
When being mugged, I envision something that sprays a liquid into the air that binds with the breath of your assailant and captures some of his DNA. The chemical is flourescent and can be swabbed off the floor.
Just remember not to breathe yourself until the forensics arrive to avoir contaminating the sample...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
You can get some of that military technology today, and it's not vaporware... Quikclot powder, comes in a packet designed to be large enough to quickly stop the bleeding from a severed femoral artery.
Useful stuff, stops bleeding very quickly. Expensive as hell though.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
They make this device that projects a lump of solid metal (usually lead). It's quite effective at stopping a mugging. You should try it sometime.
(Police don't give a shit about catching some mugger. Do you really think they want a DNA sample?)
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
New military gear is on the horizon that promises to do the same, including biosensors, bandages that clot blood using soundwaves
Ok, since they have a bandage that clots blood using soundwaves, you can pretty much guess that they have a weapon that clots blood using soundwaves. Which is pretty fucking scary.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
I need all of these.
I'll tie my smartshirt (worn under the bodysuit made of liquid body armor) into the HUD on the powered exoskeleton, which I can use to assist a long and high launch of my micro spy planes as I wait for resupply by my GT Max Mini Helicopter. When I have picked out my target, I'll glide in (again wearing liquid body armor) using my Gryphon flying wing, pick off the guards using my Cornershot rifle, rescue the hostage using my Swiss Army Pen, slap an ultrasonic bandage over his wounds, and then...
Erm...
OK, I'm out of gadgets. Someone wanna find me a personal rocket pack capable of carrying two?
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
The "Powered Exoskeleton: The real bionic man" entry brought to you by none other than Robert A. Heinlein, the inventor of the Waldo, the waterbed and I don't know what else...
The main thing that was missing from Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers was the powered exoskeletons, courtesy R.A.H., circa 1959. Not that I didn't adore the "Doogie Howser, S.S.", "Klendathu 90210" aspects of the film, but the only really good example of the notion we've had in film is Ripley's "Get away from her, you bitch!" from Aliens.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
"One only has to look at the fruits of the space program (from computers to microwave ovens to Tang)."
Presumably the author refers the the tube in a microwave oven called a magnetron. If so, then this was developed in World War II for use in radars. Incidentally, the invention of the transistor was a direct follow-on to WWII efforts to build crystal detectors. See the book, "The Invention that Changed the World" by Robert Buderi, a history of the development and aftermath of the invention of radar. It is said that the atomic bomb ended the war but radar won the war.
Man, I hope this trickles down (Affordably) to the masses. Anything that hardens on impact would be great for those of us that attend protests. Its not so much the bullets and stabbing that worries me, but the savage beatings that we recieve. Though having protection is good when some rookie decides to fire rubber bullets into the crowd. Hasn't happened to me yet, but with how peacful protesters are being treated, its only a matter of time.
3 degrees of separation from Vladimir Putin
I searched "powered exoskeleton" on YouTube and found this project from Berkley. I guess, if this is what the article was talking about, then the device would serve as more of a weight supporter than a strengthening tool. It also seems a bit too sluggish to execute a rapid maneuver like jumping, despite the BBC article in TFA claiming higher leaps is a goal. Would it end up hindering a troop in combat, considering the rapidity needed to move in today's guerrilla and urban warfare?
On the other hand, the video shows the man wearing a huge backpack. As a backpacker myself, I know that the best way to carry the weight is on your hips, so that your leg muscles bear the load. This exoskeleton seems well fit for bearing that load; the man in the video looks like he is hardly straining.
The technology looks like it may be ready for work on bases, but is hardly ready for the front line. The BBC article points out more limitations.
I decided to stop stealing cynical quotes to use as a signature line.
More effective use of power for the purpose intended is something you see virtually everywhere - gears, levers, springs, virtually all mechanical devices that have ever existed are all simply ways of putting in the same amount but utilizing it better. I imagine the exoskeletal armor is no different - it might conserve energy that you'd otherwise lose, reducing the impact of varying speed or incline. If it's really good, it might be able to convert some of the energy it absorbs from impacts into energy available for you to use. It might eliminate variations in ground level, reducing the effort involved in moving over rough terrain. But really there's not much more it can do than that.
(Well, if the US military has got Tesla's theories to work, I guess they could power the suit remotely, so eliminating the need for portable power. On the other hand, if they were at that point, they really wouldn't need exoskeletal armor - or indeed soldiers. You'd just hook a Tesla coil to a microwave fillament and boil your opponents from long range.)
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
What about something to keep those damn kids off my lawn?
Several of these technologies are part of the FCS (future combat system) including the soldier of the future - Landwarrior program. However the government has just cut this program. You can read more about it -- and all of the future medical devices lost in the shuffle-- here: http://docinthemachine.com/2006/12/08/army-axing-h igh-tech-soldier-of-tomorrow-medtech-losses-predic ted/
This is mostly true. Wartime needs for cryptography, ballistics table calculations, and early hydrogen bomb design drove the earliest computers. The space program did have a lot to do with early miniaturization attempts though; the Apollo program sucked much of the world's supply of integrated circuits in its early years.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
Shear Thickening Fluid (STF) is a liquid armor that turns extremely hard and spreads itself out when punctured or struck with a high-velocity object, such as a bullet.
Making it only a matter of time before the phrase "Gear up" is replaced by "STF up!"
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Waiting for the ideologue posts about how big government spending can never do any good, and never any better than private industry...
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Magnetrons were invented before the 2nd world war and perfected during the war by the Brits for use in Radar. No space program back then - not on this planet anyway.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
The good side of military spending is that, other than during times of war, the fraction of the money that goes to the military for having troops around and building few hundred tanks every once in a while is tiny compared to the amount of money that goes toward science, research, technology. For every troop that is getting paid to be on base, the military is probably putting food on the tables of 30 researchers or engineers to develop new technologies. For example, lets say the military gets a new model of tank. Well, the cost of actual steel, plastic, computer chips, etc that constitute the tanks that are produced themselves are really nothing compared to the amount of money that went into advancing technologies and employing engineers. A B2 bomber costs a couple billion because incredible science and technology had to be realized in order to make the plane possible. Like 20 of them or something were ever to be actually made. That price doesn't reflect the sum of the physical components and labor of assembling them, but rather, the price tag reflects the amount of engineering and science work that had to be done to realize the level of technology necessary for the existence of such a plane.
The bright side of military spending is that most of that money basically goes to putting food on the tables of tens of thousands of engineers in our country. With labor costs so high and manufacturing going to everywhere in the world other than our own country, technology is our stock-in-trade. As it turns out, the structure of the govt sponsoring military technology programs with a long-term and unified approach in contrast to the much more duplicative and reactive, smaller investments for shorter-term results, approach seen in the development of technology only in the hands of individual companies reacting to market pressures method, has been very fruitful indeed.
There is so much argument about whether the civilian pay-off from military research makes sense. Here is a bit of research on the medical end and some reasons why private industry does not take the risks DARPA does. http://docinthemachine.com/2006/12/21/darpamedtech /
...if they could do the same thing without the whole "killing" part?I read something about how wonderful the advancements in prosthetics the past few years have been. I even saw a kid of 20 or 22 at the airport carrying a big green duffle bag unassisted, though he had artificial legs and a prosthetic arm and the unmistakable look of a soldier.
Just spend the money. Declare it to be a National Technological Development Something-or-other and so and spend the money on research that doesn't come at such a high cost.
Honestly, that shit is heartbreaking.
The money gets spent on research whether there's a war on or not. The difference is that war provides real-life test cases to advance and refine things beyond the theoretical. War is the dark cloud, advancements in prosthetics and lifesaving technology are the silver lining. Progress in handling unpleasant things like dismemberment comes from experience handling unpleasant things like dismemberment. Like it or not, humans are vicious. We always have been. You don't get to the top of the food chain by being a a bunch of happy fluffy bunnies.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
when I can have a Sonic Screwdriver!
I don't want a pickle; I just want a Motor-Cycle! A four foot cop arrived with a five foot gun!
SWM seeks new sig for a brief fling
...which is a bit early to be a space program spin-off.
Yes. I did not make it terribly clear when I was talking about the space age stuff and just plain old military stuff.
Much of what we think of as space age stuff is really air age stuff, circa WWII, most of which was at least already on the drawing boards before WWII.
You can tell the true space age stuff by its use of, well, space, and its use semiconductors (a civilian invention) to make it possible/practical. A "portable" radio used to be the size of a microwave oven and had no memory.
KFG
Whats the difference between the Chinese space program and the US space program?
On a Chinese space shuttle, Tang is an astronaut.