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Hearing Voices? Could Be the Lasers
An anonymous reader sends us to Wired for a piece about some declassified Pentagon research from 1998 that has been revealed in a freedom-of-information filing. Apparently the Pentagon has investigated lasers that put voices in your head, among other non-lethal technologies such as microwave heating. The report suggests the techniques could be useful for controlling crowds or in negotiations. There is no context for the research or any indication whether it has continued, although the microwave heating bit sounds rather like the Active Denial System we have discussed recently.
Yep, that wouldn't be the strangest thing DOD has done.
I love PKD as much as the next guy, but I think you're date where we are in terms of Roman Imperialism is on. To the extent of the status of our political system, look to the Reign of Sulla, a demagogue who confiscated all of the property of thousands of wealthy Romans (and killed them), and used the money to support social programs (gladiatorial games and bread, not to mention outfitting Sulla's house). This rhetoric seems similar to some of today's politics, especially with John Edwards, Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee. They all advocate punishing the rich and using the money on entitlements (Huckabee is more subtle, since he also happens to be in the party with higher-income voters). The weakness here is using the power of the mob to gain power for yourself. Once this happens, democracy will fail as leaders put their own pursuit of power above the good of the country. Forcing equality and happiness on everyone only destroys the ability of a nation to innovate. If there is any societal reason for our decline in intellectual capital, its that theres a huge government safety net that says "We're sorry textile workers who lose their jobs because they must get paid by law 100 times more than someone in Thailand, you shouldn't make an effort to learn new skills, the government will make sure you never have to know anything new after you turn 16." That's all ridiculous remember, having freedom means having the freedom to fail, the freedom to screw up your life, the freedom to be unsuccessful. Remember the lessons from Brave New World