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Pentagon Working on "Human Fear" Weapons
An anonymous reader writes "Animals use pheromones to attract each other for sex, and warn each other of danger. Now, Wired reports, military researchers are working to harness the 'human fear' pheromone to create a scent of terror. The pheromone could lead to smell-based terrorist sensors, and new weapons that rely on 'contagious' stress."
I fear it might not work.
Looks like *someone* has seen Naked Gun 2 1/2 way too many times.
I like basketball!!1!
female pheromones would work for most slashdotters
EZReady
Turning your "War on Terror" into the "War of Terror," since 2008.
Just -1, Troll talking to another.
You'd almost think that after declaring a war on terror an organization wouldn't use terror against enemies in the most literal way possible...
Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and pheromones...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.... Our *four*...no... *Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise....
...but now a gas mask?
"I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
Does that not count as biological warfare?
People who have no sig are cool
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
And there is no reason that a suicide bomber actually is afraid - that phase may have passed over months ago and the person may have actually come to terms with his/her destiny.
So someone is barking up the wrong tree again...
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
...new weapons that rely on 'contagious' stress.Hopefully they can separately trigger the "fight" and "flight" responses.
Prov 9:8 Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you.
You mean a squad of guys busting into your house with sub-machine guns doesn't cause this effect?
Now I can be Scarecrow!!! for real....
the phrase "state of fear"
A weapon that exploits fear 'scents' could backfire just as easily. Traditionally, fear will cause someone to flee or at the very least become nervous and therefore have his/her decision-making skills crippled. But for some, fear is a great motivator. If i'm gonna get into a fight and feel extra fearful because of this exploit, i might come back twice as hard to overcome whatever is in my way.
just a thought....
This sig contains repetition and redundancy.
obligatory oooooh im so afraid
Every now and again my apartment will emit an odor that induces absolute horror...
If they want I can search for the source and send it their way.
Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
Bush being re-elected!
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them.
See the top of page 2.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
My node id all stubbed ub duday.
Marge: What happened? You didn't do anything!
Dr. Hibbert: Oh, didn't I? [laughs] Nothing dissolves glue better than human sweat. I knew Bart would panic and start perspiring at the sight of this button applicator!
Bart: Couldn't you have just turned the heat up a little?
Dr. Hibbert: [sinister] Oh, heavens no! It had to be terror sweat!
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Why don't they make a "love" weapon instead.
After all, I thought the US was supposed to have a reputation for turning enemies into friends.
Read my Very Short "Stories"
Begin countdown to when earplugs and noseclips are considered terrorist weapons in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...
So how long until a guy carrying a brief case and scared gets popped by a sniper and it turns out he was headed to a job interview, or a make or break business deal?
If the weapon that makes men drop their pants and fornicate with each other isn't a viable option for the U.S. military, why is this viable?
Which could be a problem considering how much profit the duty-free shops make from selling overpriced perfume and the like
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
What possible anti-terrorist use is there for a sensor that can smell fear? Presumably this would detect people who are frightened, or those using DARPA's new perfume, "Terror #5."
It's nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Ok, maybe not mirrors.
Or maybe they don't want to use it there because the "War on Drugs" has existed longer than the "War On Terror" and is really a government conspiracy to warp the minds of the youth, so the government can eventually control their brains...blah, blah, blah.
so they are building a fart bomb? Or a fart machine-gun?
On the civilian side I guess my fear of flying will be detected every time I travel and I will constantly have to visit the little security office for questioning.
Homo homini lupus
Hit them with a hefty dose of LSD prior to the pheromone.
The 'organic' crowd might prefer ergot extract
but LSD is much safer.
The cute part about the plot of the video game Deus Ex was how
SPOILERS
it involves the government trying to develop a human-like AI capable of analyzing trillions of intercepted communications and identifying subversive activity as well as a human analyst, but a problem arose: once successful, it started identifying the government as a terrorist organization.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
This reminds me of Stanislaw Lem's novel, The Chain of Chance, or "Katar" (literally "Rhinitis", thus "runny nose") as it is titled in polish. In this novel, a former astronaut works with police detectives to determine weird cases of suicide, which seem to perfectly fit in to a certain scheme (the astronaut's experience and age fitted in there as well, thus he was a perfect candidate for a simulation), but do not have any proof of the existence of this scheme. After the climax of the book, it is revealed that the people killed were self-subjected to a fear-inducing chemical mixed from lots of different more-or-less everyday usage stuff, colognes, hair-stylers and the like, which in the end led all victims to their often gory deaths.
:)
Once again to you, mr. Lem - you damn smart bastard, it seems everything you wrote will come true in the end!
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams [...]."
I dont' understand: if they could harness the 'human fear' pheromone, why don't they harness the 'human sexuality' pheromone and release it in the battle field. Think about the possibilities: your enemy soldiers, typically of the same gender, upon smelling the pheromone, would drop their weapon on hand and start mating with their other guns attaching to pelvis; and you can do whatever to them: join them, arrest them, or take video and post to YouTube. And if you still didn't capture them, they would feel so guilty afterward due to their religious belief, quit, and go pray in their temple for rest of their lives.
I'm absolutely sure that would be a lot more productive.
URL:http://citizenship.typepad.com/isebrandcom/2006/01/in_a_shocking_a.html
This web site lists some interesting technology in the same category (whether you believe it exists is up to you):
http://www.bugsweeps.com/info/electronic_harassment.html
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
NOBODY expects the Pentagon! Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to W.... Our *four*...no... *Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again.
OH SHI-
It thought they had alrady established a weapon of fear? Between our media and homeland security, I am surprised anyone still feels safe. Propaganda is the best weapon of fear and you don't even need fancy technology for that ;)
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
"We have nothing to fear except Fear Itself®"
it smells like... Victory. Sorry just had to do it.
Because the Pentagon has too much money, that's why. With the U.S. military budget, the burden of proof rests on people who are against spending on any particular project.
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
TWW
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
war monger.
P.S.: Would the software geniuses at Slashdot please post some info on how to see all comments at once instead of the current
FUCK-UP?
Thanks.
Because maybe they'll get the clue and make a weapon much like the vampire scent in his Ringworld series and people will simply start screwing everywhere they can. ...I'd so have one of those weapons in my basement. :P
Perhaps, as animals do, people respond to fear with aggression and so people are really describing what they experience when the smell the arm pads. Maybe Uncle Sam will drop a fear pheromone bomb on a pack of peaceful protestors and produce a violent mob...well, maybe that might actually be a good technique. Then the military would have a good reason to mow them down. Ok. I'm scared shitless now.
Just callin' it like I see it.
The treatment for fear:
Beta-blockers are drugs to control blood preasure, they are also used in migrane treatment
but it also has a fear controlling secondary effect, it is also given to animals
before slaugther, so the stress hormones don't affect the taste of the flesh.
It is likely that todays terrorists use these on their "humanbombs" to prevent them from
acting suspecious and get identified too early, and the most likely cause,
that they don't fear death.
Too much fear:
So these detectors especially in airport areas would create many false alert
because of people experience stress while travelling or even flight panic,
within highly controlled security areas the sight of an armed officer
can cause much stress, even when the traveller has nothing to fear,
and a situation with unfriendly and harsh security officers,
would make it much harder to differ.
So all in all nice tought but there is too much fear to tell terroristic fear or not.
Someone watching Batman movies too much?
I mean, it's not like they could declare a war on all wars that do not declare war on themselves.
... it certainly seems to fit the facts better, unfortunately.
Personally, I wonder if there was a small typo and the "Global War on Terror" was supposed to be the "Global War of Terror"
How is this consistent with the US supporting the UN chemical weapons convention? http://www.cwc.gov/ http://www.un.org/Depts/dda/WMD/cwc/ "The Convention prohibits all development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, transfer, and use of chemical weapons. It requires each State Party to destroy chemical weapons and chemical weapons production facilities it possesses, as well as any chemical weapons it may have abandoned on the territory of another State Party"
If you look like a terrorist, and smell like a terrorist, you must be a terrorist. It's foolproof, so there's really no need for a trial, really.
Murphey's fighting Occam, and we're in the stands.
Just think about it, rather than people like George Bush having to declare war on a region and kill millions of innocent people, they can just drug the nation in to voting for them. Although I suspect rigging the vote again will remain the prefered option- tried and tested, and most probably considerably cheaper.
If a chemical is developed to cause fear, you can bet that every other nation with the capability will quickly develop an antidote, either a substance to block the receptors keyed to this pheromone, a temporary chemical block to the olfactory epithelium, or something I've not considered. Regardless, a soldiers' ability to smell can be shut down without significantly impacting their ability to fight. Insurgents, while they may be forced to use cruder and more dangerous methods, will likely be able to do the same. This chemical is only likely to be effective at dispersing gatherings (much as tear-gas is currently used) or in the context of torture, as another poster noted.
Isn't this biological warfare? Isn't BW illegal?
How about they fucking work on energy independence and securing our borders?
The hungry Sheep look up, and are not fed...
...I see a lot of slashdotters getting the rubber glove for their relatively poor bathing habits, weird beards, and fear of being on planes with actual girls and not ones that can inflate automatically or by breathing into a tube on either side (although, even if the girl isn't fully inflated, oxygen is flowing).
I'm a satanic clam.
I understand that the phrase "smell-based terrorist sensors" is probably intended to convey the idea of a sensor that exposes people to fear pheromones to "magnify" whatever fear they may already be feeling. People who get super-jittery are assumed to be feeling the fear of suicide-bomb induced death, or perhaps the induction of fear into everyone who passes is supposed to make the terrorists get jittery and slip up.
However, given how ludicrous those ideas are when one considers how many potential sources of fear there are in a person's life as well as the potential for suicide bombers to not actually be feeling any fear OR to not be significantly hampered by feeling extra fear, we are left thinking that the only reasonable explanation for a "smell-based terrorist sensor" is that the sensor goes around smelling people to see if they emit terror pheromones. That is, if we can isolate the human "fear" pheromone, then obviously terrorists, being terrorists, must emit such a pheromone in copious amounts because they are just chock-full of terror. Like a hound sniffing for drugs, we will have machines that sniff for terroristic intents.
I would not put it past some people to construe this sensor to be of just such a type.
So now, in addition to "facecrimes", we will have scentcrimes! 1984 Pt II.
Too awful a pun to resist!
It's the perfume my mother-in-law uses. She....
Run! RUN!!
Is this part of the $340 billion that the US as the largest, single, R&D-performing nation in the world is annually pumping into future-related technologies?
As a state gets corrupt, its laws multiply; the most corrupt states have the most numerous laws. (Tacitus, Annales 3:27)
They already thought of that.
What a shiny brave new world we live in!
-S
Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. I sense much fear in you.
- should spend the effort on how to create more happyness!
Conservatives already fear everything. So is it just considered prior art, or have they simply figured out a way to turn people into Conservatives?
Could you imagine if they accidentall deploy the wrong vial of pheremone, and release the "sex" odour instead of "fear"? It would give new meaning to "make love not war".
That's great.
I propose they call it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob's_Ladder_(film)/ Jacobs Ladder. One of the best movies ever, but it describes this scenario to a T. Way to go Pentagon.
If this were Usenet, I'd killfile the lot of you.
So congress is now officially, literally, irrefutably funding terrorism?
These systems could unobtrusively monitor individuals within military operational environments or crowded civilian settings by relying on passive detection. It's like the Neilsens for Fox News.
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
In other news, Al Qaeda just ordered 100 cases of gas masks...
What will happen if a person, experiencing stress or fear for something not terror related, was to be passing by one of these sensors? Would military personnel still gun that person down? It's easy to make mistakes and later come with excuses like "He kinda looked like a terrorist to me".
I pity the fools who believe this will actually work efficiently.
With airplanes being quite fearful to some, I have a feeling a fear-smell-based terrorist sensor at airports would give off quite a few false-positives.
Additionally, do you think we'll soon start seeing "Fear Pheromones: If you can't make women flock to you, at least make 'em flee from you!" instead of the usual "Horny Bastard Pheromones" ads I see on every second site?
Considering that of the 6 billion plus population and the fact that its some fraction of 1% that are responsible for commanding warfare, be it legitimate or not (terrorism), the only possible use of such a weapon is to create the fear that motivates warfare legitimate or not (terrorism) which in turn creates the excuse for continuing the spending. Rather than spending it on more productive and terrorism excuse removing efforts which would promote peace and be far more effective against terrorism and so legitimate warfare.
On the war on terrorism, the US is going to win it because they are going to produce the most powerful terrorism inducing smell....
I believe its called "burning human flesh" smell.
Whistler: I want peace on earth and goodwill toward men.
Abbott: We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing!
Just unfurl a huge Goatse banner.
Instant Cthulhu-class crowd mindwipe. "The horror..."
Any sufficiently advanced technology is insufficiently documented.
I have Anosmia, you insensitive clod!
Just -1, Troll talking to another.
Given the tiny amount needed for an effective dose and absorption through the skin is more than possible, just ask albert hofmann.
Fear can make people react in unpredictable and irrational ways, i know if it was me on the ground i would not want to be up against that, however this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-rWnQphPdQ/ i could deal with.
Yeah, good idea! Then you will have to deal with scared AND stupid! Scared people ALWAYS do stupid crap.
The real story is that if you dislike the security thugs, you will be labeled a terrorist.
Same old tactics to keep TPTB in power, and to screw us little guys.
Andy Out!
Replace "terror" with "shock and awe" when we do it.
There, all better now.
Lies about crimes
Why is it that every single time an article is posted about the pentagon, the discussion thread turns into a giant troll-fest? Don't you people have anything better to do? So far, 99% of the comments have been a variation of one of the following: 1) Oh noez! They'll arrest people for being afraid! 2) Itz CHEMACLE WEAPONZ! 3) Dey really R terrorists! 4) OMG 1984!!!! None of which are even close to being remotely interesting, let alone valid, points. Seriously, if you don't have anything intelligent to say, shut the fuck up. Or at least post anonymously so I don't have to scroll past your drivel.
Lintilla: See this device? ... Hurry, they're after us!
:)
Arthur Dent: Looks like a watch...
Lintilla: It's a crisis inducer. I set it to Mk. 9 and
Arthur Dent: Who?
Lintilla: No-one! Come on, through the tunnel, they're coming!
Arthur Dent: But...
Lintilla: They're coming!
Arthur Dent: Well, if you say so.
Seems like Douglas Adams was way ahead of you and the Pentagon on this one.
I'm going to transform myself into a mighty hawk. Either that or I'll just go and work at Dixons, haven't decided yet.
Finally this will be a reliable way to keep those damn niggers out of my town.
they are called: DHS, CIA, NSA, DoJ, and the White House
NERF WARLOCKS!
...oh...wait...wrong forum...
Take the scent of all those that voted for bush 2x. That is exactly what fear smells like.
Oh great. Now we'll be able to detain everyone who has anxiety about flying. That should cure overbooked flights.
I'm just glad our tax dollars are being spent so prudently.
Just what I want, the pentagon spamming fear bombs. THIS WILL RUIN THE WORLD of REALWORLD!
To a nail, every person with a hammer looks like a problem.
The problem is that it was released at republican convention, in which Haggard, Craig, etc were attending.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
they should look for, the sent of impending doom!
-Ours is the wisdom of Solomon, the magic of Merlyn, the fall of Icaris.
The military is actively seeking to instill fear in its enemies. The military is terrorist? I thought the military was fighting terr-
*head asplode*
From TFA, about the 2002 Viennese study: "though subjects thought the smell was aggression rather than fear." It seems to me like this could be a tool to provoke riots rather than fear, if the Pentagon can't sort out the misinterpretation issue. Ah empirical science. Doing things you didn't expect :)
This is, of course, pure BS. It's just psyops. The goal is to make press releases about all kinds of non-existent technological advances in an attempt to discourage certain people from even trying to board aircraft.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
I'm wondering if an electromagnetic device could stimulate the fear centers in the brain??
Introducing the FUD Missile.
Professional Dilettante
From TFA:
Our findings indicate that there may be a hidden biological component to human social dynamics, in which emotional stress is, quite literally, "contagious."
This isn't effin' research... I could observe this behavior everytime a woman sat down to watch Oprah!
--
X's and O's for all my foes.
Wouldn't it be more effective to blast them with 24-7 FOX News at high volumes?
-Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase temporary safety deserve neither. -Ben Franklin
FTA: The authors collected sweat, urine, blood, saliva, ECG, respiration, and self-report measures in 20 subjects (n=11 males and n=9 females) before, during, and immediately following their first-time tandem skydive, ...
I can only imagine the joy of trying to pee into a cup while tandem skydiving...
Sorry, but humans do not work that way. As humans evolved they submissed all senses except sight and earing. Touch, smell and taste do nothing for humans when it comes to fight or flight. The fear cycle basiclly has 2 stages rational and irrational. rational is when a human feels fear but can still make decisions and irrational is when a human looses all ability to rationalize and makes decisions strick on fight or flight.
Using chemicals to induce irrational fear is simple. Get a crop-duster full of LSD or Ecstasy(MDMA) and spray the targed area, then use loud speakers with lion, tiger, elephant, police sirens and gun shots. along with very bright intense lights flashing, it will scare the crap out out. Someone did a test like above, but I can not remember it's name and who did it. Google didn't help much, but it took place in the mid 70's.
All in all, this is a big waste of money.
It's not the "scent of terror". It's the "Smell of Fear".
So can I get my Scarecrow mask and a bottle of the stuff in time for Halloween next year?
In chapter 8 of Rainbows End ( http://vrinimi.org/rainbowsend.html#CHAPTER%2008 ) , Vinge posits the development of a drug with enhances The Public's belief in something.
Online Copy: http://vrinimi.org/rainbowsend.html
Technology -- No Place For Wimps! Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Chatroom -- http://www.wemissjerry.org
am i the only one who see's a parallel with Josh Weldon's Miranda from the Movie Serenity?
this is just messed up
It's the smell of coffee and donuts. Whenever you smell those two scents together, you can be certain the cops are nearby.
...for obvious reasons.
The idea that one could detect a terrorist by smelling fear on them is patently absurd. How many people pass through an airport every day, afraid for one reason or another? Fear of flying, fear of not making the damn meeting/interview/whatever on time because my flight is delayed, etc. And more to the point, most terrorists aren't typically afraid. They are confident. Confident that they are in the right, that God loves them, that they will succeed and go to heaven and play with the virgins. They, like any other military operative, are trained to have an attitude of confidence and conviction in what they are doing, and not to be afraid. This is a huge waste of time and money, not just in the R&D phase, but in the sheer volume of false positives that will be generated (assuming the gov't meets with any success) Marc http://www.techne-eikon.com/
Use a GAS as a deterent is NEVER going to fly. Have these people at the Pentagon completely forgotten about mustard gas and World War I? Secondly, the environmental repercussions. Thirdly, a gas mask can be used to avoid inhaling the gas. (Suck it, Riot Police!)
I think the best solution against stupid ideas for military weapons is for civilians to create protective equipment against it. I would really like to see someone invent the tazer-proof vest. If there is fire resistant equipment, bullet-proof vest, and buildings that can survive a bomb blast, then civilians need to develop technologies against tazers and energy weapons that use heat, sight, taste, smell, or sound against a growing threat of authoritarian government.
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
Leela: "I'm afraid I can't tell with the smelloscope whether we hit them."
Farnsworth: "Excellent, a direct hit!"
- RG>
Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
Do we really want to start selecting for highly confident enemies?
On the other hand, given that confident != competent - Can we get Bush to go work for the bad guys?
Pug
An Invisible Entity of Vast Power whose existence must be taken on faith alone: Liberal Media
So who gets to play Batman?
they totally stole this from batman begins. jerks.
i've had just about enough of your vassar bashing.
Doesn't this sound vaguely like the Cylon "detector" from Battlestar Galactica? Same crap from the sounds of it. Right up there with those E-meter things the scientologists use to evaluate your thetan levels.
I wonder if that measurement of the flow rate of ketchup we paid for ever yielded any results...
8==8 Bones 8==8
Why do they need a fear weapon when they have Fox News and the other newstainment channels?
Nerf Warlocks with Fear-chain !
Oh wait... What the...
Isn't fear the main reason why people buy the products they do at the supermarket?
And now we have Fear Itself, manufactured and bottled by the U.S. government.
Or get everyone to start smoking. (Bill Hicks ref)
If Big Media is the Harvester of Eyes, does that make Apple an arms dealer?
If they are working on "The Fear", then "The Pain", "The Sorrow" "The Fury" and "The End" can't be too far behind?
I thought they'd be bringing back LSD25! Pheromones.. Meh.
All that may be true, but it's secondary to the fact that as beings with a higher level of intelligence, we are not subject whatsoever to pheremones. We can and do make our own decisions regardless of any of that. We have self consciousness, and are not slaves to our instincts as lifeforms with lower intelligence are. We often choose to do the opposite of what our emotions or instincts tell us. When people run out of burning buildings, firefighters take their lives into their hands and rush in to put it out, despite fear and anxiety. When we get bored at work, we don't just wander off to eat fruit or pick bugs out of each others hair. We keep at it, despite our personal feelings and desires. And on the battlefield, what soldier isn't scared spitless with grenades going off next to them and bullets flying everywhere? Yet they go in anyway, in spite of the fear. What are fear pheremones next to bombs when it comes to scariness? And even if fear pheremones really worked, why would they be any more likely to cause a soldier to give in to instinct and forsake duty than a bomb? I think, in the case of humans, fear pheremone research is a complete waste of taxpayer money. Committed humans are not deterred by fear.
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.
I think they've already succeeded.
Just living in Canada, next to these guys, is enough to cast fear in our lives. I got no problem with the russians, the saudis, the czech, and all the other folks sharing the air in this country, but don't ever tell anyone you're American unless you like spit in your food.
That Canada-US border is a 5000km-long liability, one we can't be bothered to guard because frankly, we're far more civilized than that. The day one of your fundamentalist political leaders decides to come after our resources, shit's going to get buckwild!
-Billco, Fnarg.com
"We have self consciousness, and are not slaves to our instincts as lifeforms with lower intelligence are."
This is bullshit, many territorial pack animals act exactly like soldiers. Fighting when dumped in a war zone is human instinct.
But I agree it's a waste of time, if fear had a smell we would all know what it smelt like.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Don't fear me, bro!
You just got troll'd!
You must consider that there has to be many reasons for people to send out stress pheromones, late for work, fear of flying, claustrophobia etc.
How about being pissed that the TSA is slowing down your travel for no benefit and trampling upon the Constitution? In high school I had a sticker on my locker that read - "Stress: The condition created by the mind preventing you from choking the living shit out of someone who desperately needs it".
And there is no reason that a suicide bomber actually is afraid - that phase may have passed over months ago and the person may have actually come to terms with his/her destiny.
Right, the documentaries I've seen have shown people acting elated.
So someone is barking up the wrong tree again...
You're not in the Military-Industrial Complex, I see?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
If the Pentagon wants something that works to alter mood at a distance, they should look up Ross Adey's work with the Lida microwave mood-alteration device. The Koreans were reputed to have used a variant as an effective brainwashing tool. However the Lida as tested by Adey was used principally for imposing quiescence in agitated individuals and crowds-- kind of a radio-frequency phenothiazine. It's not too much of a stretch to imagine creating different moods, or fear, would be feasible with a little re-engineering. This line of research is doubtless highly classified, but I can't imagine that would hinder the Pentagon. (They may have pushed to have Adey's work classified in the first place.)
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
Yes, release a stinky fear-bomb, heighten your enemy's senses and awareness, get their adrenalin pumping. Great idea, there. Nothing motivates people more than when they're frightened.
It is not relative.
It is infinite, and is relentless - because it never stops.
RR
Hannibal: "...Can you smell his sweat? That peculiar goatish odor is trans-3-methyl-2 hexenoic acid. Remember it, it's the smell of schizophrenia."
As someone who is now in the process of recovering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder this, literally, scares the shit out of me.
It is simply stunning that someone can think this is a good idea. Fear is one of the strongest and most primal of all human emotions. Use of such a weapon (if it can even be developed) would be considered flat-out torture in my book. Anyone that has lived through the hell that is PTSD where your in a constant and uncontrollable state of fear would probably agree.
I think it's safe to say that such a weapon would inflict some sort of trauma on the victims. Research suggests that 25% of the population will suffer from PTSD when exposed to a traumatic event (sorry I can't recall where I read this so it could be BS). A weapon that has the potential to leave 25% of victims exposed to this sort of delayed hell is incredibly irresponsible. PTSD can lie latent for many, many years (in my case it's been nearly my whole life).
Just to reiterate, this is a really fucking terrible idea. Don't fuck with fear...
Furthermore, scared people do some crazy shit. This is a very good and very powerful survival mechanism.
I post this is in great fear of the Star Wars nuts responding with great rage about possible inaccuracies or inpossibilities of my suggestion.
I have confidence that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson had all ready patented this since his catch phrase was "Do you smell what the rock is cookin'?" Yeah, he was brewing a big batch of fear. The kind that made wrestlers cry out for mommy with the full drama of a pre-school aged child. It's been done Pentagon. Move along. There's nothing to see here.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will smell my fear. I will permit it to pass through my nostrils over my nose-hairs. And when the smell of fear is gone I will turn and face the source of fear-scent, and only I will remain.
Walk up behind an American and shout 'boo' in their ear. They will sh*t themselves stupid.
In "The Art of War" (thousands of years old and still an authoritative source on warfare), Sun Tzu writes that you *want* your guys to think they're about to be wiped out, because then they fight like maniacs. He also advises against surrounding / cornering the enemy, because they can suddenly become explosively strong if they panic.
If this is to be believed, then hitting the enemy with "fear gas" could leave you facing an army of complete psychos who are suddenly 10 times tougher than normal soldiers...
"Courage is not the absence of Fear ... It is the presence of Fear, but the will to keep going"
So, since when is the Pentagon in terror business while fighting against terror?
Which precedence of ideas are they trying to set to develop in other nations?
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
The new scent from W.
Also available in foot wash.
Yes, but actually the US collaborated in the plausible fiction of the Cold War so as to maintain power. Gorbachev broke silence when the military cost of maintaining that fiction was too great for his country to bear.
The current "cold war", the War against Terrorism, also uses real elements (like militant Islam and 9/11), but in the scope of its abuse of the rights of US citizens and foreign soldiers, it's also a plausible fiction.
As for the original post, it's relatively easy to stop a pheromone fear weapon - just wear nose plugs. As usual, psychological means (such as propaganda) to create fear or to project power are far more plausible and effective.
When considering fear, it's not soldiers on a battlefield you should be concerned about - it's voters on election day.
The vomeronasal or Jacobsen's organ is present in the human but vestigial. We don't have tails, but utilize our hair of the head similarly. Pheromones make us feel "at home" and their lack, "homesick". Instead of using vomeronasal organs like animals with tails, the human being utilizes the largest field of pheromone sensory cells of any animal, almost the entire upper respiratory tract of the human is covered with pheromone-sensory brush border or microvillar cells. Now some believe that our microvillar cells are fundamentally different from the function of all those microvillar cells in all those other animal species, just as the same intellects believed that only human beings feel pain or see with their eyes. Of course, identical cells do not always do what their identical corresponding identical cells do in identical tissues in other species, but 99.9999999% of the time, they do. There are long traditions of less than stellar physiological research in America, and those are still defended loyally.
..., well, you get the picture. The only reason you're hearing about the research at all is because they were too unskilled to realize that human pheromone components work synergistally as well as species specifically. That's what happens when you send techs to do a scientist's work.
And pheromones kill, too. Look up the Bruce Effect and Hilda Bruce's famous late fifties paper on embryo resorption. In humans, we call the similarly seen resorption "blighted ovum". Also in humans, sudden infant death syndrome is probably pheromonally induced by emitter parents. Then there's the autoimmune diseases, all of them, and cancers, many of them.
Human beings don't have more pheromone producing glands than any other species for nothing. Human beings don't have more pheromone sensing cells and tissues than any other species for nothing. Human beings don't secrete the most extracellular pheromone receptor lymph (in the form of human tears) than any other species for nothing, either.
I proposed the human alarm pheromone be researched and utilized by our armed forces. I even put fear cystals in a Batman movie. Come on! I got Lisa Simpson to do the alarm pheromone protocol on a Simpsons cartoon, even! Violent criminals are drawn to victims just as Lisa Simpson's bullies become addicted to victimizing others.
Naturally, DARPA neglected to ask me about it, they're just a nest of scheming
Wow. Man, what a shame that wasn't posted in time for more people to see it.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
"It's a joke, son."
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest