Slashdot Mirror
Set Free Your Inner Jedi (Or Pyro)
sirgoran writes "We've all thought about being the hero fighting off evil-doers and saving the day ever since we first saw Star Wars. The folks at Wicked Lasers have now brought that a little closer to reality with their latest release: a 1-Watt blue diode laser that can set skin and other things on fire. From an article at Daily Tech, where they talk about the dangers of such a powerful laser: 'And here's the best (or worst) part — it can set people (or things) on fire. Apparently the laser is so high-powered that shining it on fleshy parts will cause them to burst into flames. Of course it's equally capable of blinding people.' The thing that caught my eye was the price: $200. I wonder if they'll be able to meet the demand, since (if it works as advertised) this will be on every geek's Christmas list."
Damn straight! ban all them ant vaporizing magnifying glasses and cool Fresnel lenses from Edmund Scientific. next up: sharp edges can cut you if you aim them at your fleshy bits.
Stuff it, prick.
I meant "over the internet" as a measure of convenience, anonymity, and openness, as well as to include the concept of "delivered to your door". Sorry if that was too vague for you.
And yes, I do consider a high powered laser such as these to be more dangerous than a handgun or rifle. The main factor, I think, comes down to societal attitude.
Show a handgun to damn near any adult or responsible child and they will tell you it is a dangerous weapon. Many (I would hope the majority) will want nothing to do with the thing. I've seen people shy away in discomfort just from seeing one not possessed by a police officer.
Show them a laser pointer and they invariably think it's a neat gadget, a toy. They will completely and deliberately ignore the warning label, if they notice it at all. Almost every single person I've seen with one has directed it at another person. I had a manager who liked to shine it in your eyes if he thought you weren't paying attention. He got upset and defensive when I tried to patiently explain that doing so was dangerous and illegal.
The simple fact is, most people buying these lasers will not give them the respect they deserve. They will treat it like a toy. The marketing as a fucking light saber for lighting cigarettes doesn't exactly help.
To harm another person with a handgun or rifle or explosive or acid requires a specific intent to harm. You are purposefully releasing the safety mechanisms (including a mental block), aiming a universally recognized weapon at someone, and pulling the trigger, usually at close to medium range.
These lasers can harm the wielder and innocent bystanders instantly, "accidentally", from hundreds of meters away, around corners, in unexpected directions, etc, etc. You might not even realize it happened until later, if ever. Neither would bystanders. A laser does not make a loud sound when it is fired, it does not draw a line between you and the target (except under specific mostly demonstrative conditions), it does not provide recoil feedback.
I have seen a child, maybe 14-15 years old, with one of the green lasers. He was playing with it. I found his mother and she got angry with ME, asked me who I was to tell her how to raise her child. Would she have acted the same if I had told her he was playing with a handgun? I doubt it.
It's only a matter of time before we get cheap laser "pointers" capable of actually killing someone. What then? As it stands, there isn't much in the way of sale restrictions.
I've no problem with the nonblinding lasers. You can use those for building your fences and finding broken glass on the floor.
Your suggested uses of "find broken glass", "building fences" seem to show that you really are clueless on what this laser can do and it would be very unsafe in your hands, or that you are using very ill-thought examples[1].
If you tried to use this laser to find broken glass on the floor you are likely to blind yourself or others within a significant range. The reflected/refracted light of this laser can still cause permanent eye damage and/or blindness in significant ranges - e.g. in "find broken glass on the floor" scenarios.
Even their lower powered products would be unsuitable for many of your suggested uses.
The usefulness vs danger ratio of this particular product in its particular form is rather low.
It's ridiculously unsafe that a random ignorant idiot with USD200 can just click "I agree to all that scary warnings" and legally buy one, instead of having to jump through the sort of hoops required in order to legally buy a fully automatic machine gun. The latter will at least take a very persistent and resourceful ignorant idiot who are far rarer.
In contrast it'll more likely be someone with more awareness who'd jump through those hoops to own a fully automatic machine gun, someone who is far less likely to fire it randomly into a crowd.
The entry-barrier is too low for such laser products.
[1] Your examples in the context of this product are like saying: "there are legitimate uses for personal machine guns, making doughnuts with them in the kitchen for instance".
You don't need a license for this laser right? That's my point.
This is a fully automatic weapon, heck it even seems to have a constant on-off switch. At least an M16 requires you to do fancy stuff in order to keep it firing for a full minute.
It needs to be regulated to reduce the "fools to legitimate users ratio". Very few lives will be negatively impacted by such regulation, and I think it would reduce the amount of harm in the long run.
Take the example of one person who replied to my OP, who gave the "find broken glass on the floor" example of a legitimate use for personal lasers. It may be a legitimate for a 1mW laser pointer, but it is a totally STUPID suggestion in the context of this product.
"Oh yeah there's broken glass on that part of the floor, how can I tell? Because me and my friends now have permanent eye damage (or are now blind) from the reflected/scattered laser light."
That sort of thing is less likely to happen with a workshop 30W cutting tool laser, even though it is far more powerful. That product has a far smaller danger radius in its sold form, and hence poses a far lower risk to others.
What is the target purpose for this? Research experiments that could be done? What kind of safety goggles are used with this (material/wavelength tint/etc) and what kind of clothing/protective gear will NOT set on fire if accidental exposure should occur? Also, what kind of battery life are we looking at? (or is this a plug in stationary laser?)
As far as I can tell (and as I've pointed out a few times, notably here) the target purpose is making money for wickedlasers while harming consumers. I can't see what research would require a comparatively expensive laser that's been styled as a lightsaber. I can, however, see the possibility for causing extreme harm by selling a laser that is designed to look like a toy, but which can (and, if you use it as they suggest, almost certainly will) cause blindness, permanent vision problems, cancer and serious burns and which is supplied with what seem to be totally inadequate safety goggles.
This product is awful.