Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Phasers, Tasers and Stun Guns, oh my!

Posted by Hemos on from the bang-bang-freeze-'em-up dept.

Thoth_Ptolemy writes "Here's an article on a ranged non-lethal weapon that freezes the targets body without killing them. Wonder how long it'll be until we can whack people with Light Sabers and such. I see a lot of potential for the SCA. " Geez-if I could have a copy for when Rob gets...frisky things would be much better in my day. To be fair, they haven't build a prototype yet, but the concept is just too neat.

2 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Anti-storm technology... by Anonymous+Shepherd · · Score: 5

    In a similar vein, would not firing a UV laser at an approaching thundercloud force it to discharge? You'd need a large Faraday cage/lightning rod around the laser to protect it, but otherwise lightning storms could be controlled and directed.

    Wouldn't that be neat? Seeing arcs of lightning, as performance art?


    -AS

    --

    -AS
    *Pikachu*
  2. Very dangerous weapon by Guinnessy · · Score: 5
    I actually broke this story on New Scientist (1 November 1997 'Set phasers to shock') so I'm very interested to see the Sunday Times take on it. For example, they don't mention that Herr's patent says you can kill someone in under 2 seconds with this device, nor that you can torture an individual over 100 m's away using it. The potential for abuse is very high and its also very easy to build, a lot easier than he describes in the article.

    Considering the UK's record at shipping this sort of stuff out to dodgy regimes I would be quite worried.